Succulents Provide Good Color

by | Sep 15, 2014 | Blooming Now

   If you are not familiar with using succulents for a touch of color, may I recommend ice plant, dew plant, and Autumn Joy sedum. The advantages are that they don’t wilt when you take trip for a few days and have no one to water them, they grow relatively...

Agaves Macrocantha and Sharkskin

by | Sep 7, 2014 | Blog

  Two more agaves I would recommend for your collection are these two that are smaller and slower growers, which makes it nice for collectors like me who have to drag plants in for the winter.   Agave sharkskin, sometimes called sharkskin shoes, is a...

Agaves Kissho Kan and Blue Glow

by | Sep 1, 2014 | Blog

Two good choices to add to your agave collection, Kissho Kan and Blue Glow, are relatively new in the mass market, at least in Texas, but those of you in California may tell me they have been around a long time. As you can see, they make fairly large potted specimens,...

The Stinky Flower

by | Aug 4, 2014 | Blooming Now

I told the story in my other blog, The Bright Lights of Muleshoe-(“Cactus and Kerrville,” October 5, 2011) of driving home from the Austin area with the distinct smell of rotting flesh lurking around me. Turned out the smell was coming from the orbea lutea, a...

But You Can Also Break the Rule of Three

by | Jul 27, 2014 | Blog

Last week was all about using the rule of three to plant your dish gardens. But that rule can be broken-you were thinking about doing that all along, right?-so here are some examples to to help you flaunt the rule. Two plants can work well together, but choosing...

The Dish Garden Rule of Three

by | Jul 19, 2014 | Blog

Artists know all about the magic number three when composing their work, the idea of grouping things in odd numbers rather than even, and three seems to be the most popular uneven number to work with. That works when arranging a dish garden as well. Not only do three...