Happy birthday cycad rockery.

The first part of the garden to be worked on was this section of rockery. It is strange to think it was a year ago. The starting point:

It took about two days to get the rocks and plants in.

Then May this year, it was showing hardly any damage, although we did have a very mild winter. You can see the shade area starting to go in as well.

The real growth has come since then, especially in the echeveria elegans.  They were planted having seen all the photos of rivers of succulents.  I didn't have enough for a full river, perhaps a minor stream and even then they needed to fill out a lot.

The coloured up amazingly in Feb, and the first signs of more serious offsets were starting to be visible.

I have been watering and feeding them as it has been so dry here, and it is paying off:

They have done so well, it was possible to remove a few that were wondering and use them to complete the run:

The only change in the rockery, was that the little aloe polyphylla didn't make it, (it was far too small to be planted out unprotected). In its place is the crassula sarcocaulis.

Again it seems to love having it's feet in the ground and is starting to flower.

Sadly the flowers aren't red, and come out white or pale cream.  Luckily it wasn't bought for the flowers. It needs a trim, to get back the good defined shape again.  It will also give me an opportunity to take some cuttings as backup.

So one year down for this part of the garden,  as with many succulent gardens slow but steady progress. Other parts of the garden are changing more quickly, I'll have to do a post on how the shade garden is going.