Agave Utahensis is a Little Different Agave
When agaves bloom, we expect the bloom mast to look pretty much like the one on my Agave harvardiana that bloomed in 2019, like this:Agave utahensis is a smaller agave and its inflorescence looks like this.I’ve had this little agave for maybe fifteen-twenty years, and...
The Astrophytum Ends the Season in a Blaze of Yellow
I wrote about this Astrophytum ovatum and some of my other astrophytums back on July 19, 2013, when they were younger. This one has been putting on a show all summer. I suspect this will be the last bloom for this year. There are many varieties of astrophytum; this...
Another Surprise Flower
I bought a Pleiospilos nelii this year simply because it had a bud ready to open. I thought. Brought it home, repotted it with two others that I bought with it, Pleiospilos nelii royal flush, just because they were a pretty purple color. I waited a couple of days in...
The Conophytum Bloomed!
Three years ago I ordered this little plant from Plants for the Southwest, a specialty nursery in Tucson I learned about at one of the Cactus and Succulent Society of America’s conventions a few years ago. Conophytum pearsonii is not a variety you will see in the big...
One Agave Bed Calls for Another!
I had so much fun creating the new agave bed I told you about a few days ago (“The New Agave Bed,” August 9, 2020), I decided to do another one. The patch of zebra grass at the back of the garden had not looked good for the last few years. I couldn’t keep it wet...
My New Agave Bed
The Russian sage was not performing well. I realized that part of the garden had nothing going on; it was basically wasted space. Then I watched a Cactus and Succulent Society of America webinar with Kelly Griffin talking about agaves. He shared a picture of one of...
A Nice Surprise from Turbinicarpus Horripilus
I brought home a nice Turbinicarpus horripilus gold spines from the CCSA (Cactus and Succulent Society of America) convention last year in San Luis Obispo, planted it in a dish garden, and then got busy doing other things and didn’t look at it very closely as I...
Blue Barrel Cactus Make a Beautiful Bloom
Echinocactus horizonthalonius, sometimes called eagle claw or blue barrel and sometimes mistaken for Echinocactus texensis, the horse crippler, is native to the Chihuahuan and Sonoran deserts, northern Mexico and the Trans-Pecos area of Texas. I have six...
The Catmint Caper
Last September when I was visiting Woody and Kathy Minnich in Edgewood, New Mexico, their neighbor across the way shared a start of catmint with me. Blue mounds of the flowering plant were dotted here and there in the neighbor’s cactus garden and really added a nice...
The Cholla Says It’s Spring
Today is Good Friday, my daddy’s marker that it was time to plant his garden. Well, of course, in Rosenberg on the Gulf Coast of Texas, by Good Friday that part of the world had already had about a month of spring weather. Good Friday just pretty much cinched the deal...
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