They say "Nature abhors a vacuum." Well, I think it's also true that plants will continue to expand into the space allotted to them, which is what seems to be happening out in the greenhouse. I recently made more room for seed starting, but before I could actually get out there and start filling pots with soil and sowing seeds, one of the shelves that I had cleared off for seed trays started to...um...magically fill up with plants.
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| How did they get there? |
But, surely they won't take up much space. They're just teeny-weeny, itty-bitty 4 oz. pots. Every year about this time, succulents in 4-oz. pots start appearing at the big box stores, and at only $2.98, they're hard to resist. They're really well-labeled too, and not just with the tags that say "treated with neonicotinoids." Not to mention I'm in the Home Depot Garden Club, which emails me every week with a $5 off coupon per $50 purchase.
I thought this year I'd try putting some tender succulents right in the ground in the gravel garden (which is getting a makeover -- more on that in a future post). Over the past summer, I saw Senecio mandraliscae planted in the ground, like an annual, at PowellsWood, so I thought I'd try that. I had to go to two Home Depots to buy up all the S. mandraliscae they had in those $2.98 pots. Ultimately I ended up with 12, and I'm looking forward to the cool blue statement they're going to make.
Of course, there were a few more cuties there that I had to get as well.
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| Echeveria 'Lola' |
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| Aeonium 'Catlin Hybrid' |
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| Echeveria agavoides |
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| Sansevieria cylindrica |
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| Three pots of Euphorbia tirucalli 'Firesticks' which also may end up in the ground |
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| How could I resist a Mammillaria spinosissima cactus called 'Red-Headed Irishman'? |
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| It's the same color as my ginger son's hair |
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| And Mammillaria hahniana 'Old Lady Cactus'? I mean, come on. |
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| She's getting ready to flower soon |
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| This little guy is Mammillaria nejapensis 'Silver Arrows' |
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| Euphorbia flanaganii cristata |
I've been so pleased with the success of my first Aloe, Aloe glauca, which has been blooming all winter, that I decided to check out a few more.
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| Aloe bakeri, with one slim flower stalk poking up |
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| Aloe zanzibarica |
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| I think this one, which was labeled simply "Succulent," is Aloe fragilis |
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| Here are the adorable, and very ethereal-looking, flowers, so very different from my A. glauca's thick, muscular, asparagus-like flower stalk |
I better get out there and get some seeds going soon, or else I'm going to be in big trouble.
