Agave Titonata

This is one of my favourite agaves mainly for the range of spines which can be large.  There are several forms and it is one that causes heated discussions in the agave world as to what constitutes the form, or if they are all the same agave. The one below was my first form and I have posted it before, under a Halloween scary post.

This one has by far the best spikes but my current favourite is one of the variegated forms.  This one belongs to friend. I have had my eye on it for a while now and always photograph it when I visit. This was it last year:

It has been fairly obvious it was on my wish list and last year he surprised me with a little offset. At the time the variegation was limited; you never really know with very young plants how they will develop.  This is it today and the leaves are starting to get a really good variegated edge. 

If you look at the older leaves you may be able to see they are split.  This is one trait of this agave, if you don't water it for a while and it starts to shrivel up when you do water it the leaves are prone to split like this.  This is unusal for an agave and takes a bit of time to get the watering right, especially in winter when you would usually keep them dry for months on end.

If it carries on like this it may look even better than its mother and that is not going to go down well.   It is part of the fun of sharing variegated plants, wondering if you have given away a real star. Of course now I have this one,  there is another one on my wish list; agave titonata black and blue!

2011 a very strange year

At this time of year it is no surprise that there are lots of posts looking back over the previous year and I was trying to avoid the same here. Today however was a glorious day, one of those lovely crisp winters days, with blue skies and some winter sun.  It was a balmy 14 degrees in the garden and 20 degrees in the cold frame and shed.  It was this that got me thinking about 2011 as it could not be more different than this time last year. 

Many people will think of last winter as a terrible one, we had the earliest snow on record, and almost a month of cold weather before christmas.  But with the new year came a change it warmed up and London had almost no cold for the rest of the winter. We then had a very early spring with a hot (by UK standards) March - May. Then of course the summer arrived and it was a true English summer, cold and wet.  I mentioned before how cold the summer was, the nights especially with only about 4 over the entire summer when you cold sit outside without needing to wrap up. With the end of summer came the sun, who would have thought it.  We had an amazing Autumn; hot, lovely warm evenings and it went on and on. So long in fact that even in November when we should have been into winter, it was still lovely and warm. So into winter and the end of the year, the warm weather continued with only one or two nights below freezing. So all in all it was extremely mild and had a LONG growing season.

2011 more than any year showed why growing succulents in the UK is so problematic.  Compare us to the rest of Europe (and world) we do not get any real cold (or at least I don't) yet plants tend to struggle more in the UK than else where.  The reason comes down to two things; the fact that summer can be a total non event and the wet.  Most countries may have the odd colder or wet patch in summer, but in general manage at least one extended period of hot dry weather.  This year we had no period in the summer with more than one or 2 days of hotter weather. As for the wet, it is not the rain in the summer, but our snow being so wet that does the damage. (Strangely this time the problem is because we are not cold enough to keep snow frozen).

The strange year did continue teaching me about growing succulents in the UK and confirmed some of my theories. The main ones being:

1) Most agaves and aloes do not grow without summer heat. I have kept a close eye on my plants over the year and noted which have grown and which have just sat there.  Most just sat there, many only started growing in the Autumn when they should have been slowing down.

2) Using fleece to keep the snow out of the crowns of plants was enough to avoid the damage I have seen in warmer winters. This only works given that my minimum temps are only around -9, but the difference between plants that I cover with fleece before snow and those I don't is huge.

3) As I have said before, watch your plants, both for problems and how they grow. For me part of the fun is experimenting, learning and letting the plants show me how far I can push them.

The very mild winter continues here and looking in the cold frame many plants continue to flower and are looking good.  Fingers crossed 2012 wont see a return to this, but if it does it will no doubt continue to teach me more about how far I can push my long suffering plants.

A little christmas surprise

It can be bit boring at this time of year for the UK spiky obsessed, the plants have slowed down, most are tucked up for winter.  About the only bit of excitement is the odd aloe or echeveria flower and these can be painfully slow. So you can imagine my excitement looking around the pots to find this:

Yes a pup on my prized aloe viper. It is a lovely plant I wanted from the time I first saw a photo on-line. Having finally tracked one down this summer, I have watched it grow wondering how it would do in the UK (some varieties of aloes and agaves just don't do well with our lower light levels). The pup is a promising sign, although it has lost some of the red colour.

I am guessing I will be very popular with my other obsessed friends when they see this one.

As winter arrives

This week we have finally had our first frosts, along with some very blustery storms. Bringing to an end our wonderfully warm start to the winter and starting the period of wondering how the unprotected plants are going to cope.  Already the fluffy plants in the garden like gingers and brugmansias have wilted and need to be cut back.  So far all the succulents are undamaged and it is not until our first -3 that I would expect to see any damage.

I have mentioned before that I have limited space for winter storage, and no space for a proper green house.  Instead I have my little cold frame (posted about here) and a few lucky plants get space in the garden shed.  Sadly the shed can not be totally turned over to plants, it has to store the tools and bikes which limit the space to a few shelves on either side.

The left hand side has two large windows which with the polycarb roof keep it good and light.  These shelves are mainly full of the echeverias and aloes. Even at this time of year there are still a few echeverias flowering which bring some colour inside. 

There are of course one or two agaves mixed in for good measure:

The other side is a bit more closely packed with plants to make the most of the space, again a mix of echeverias, aloes and agaves.

Finally to make the most of the limited the space I have a few hooks in the roof from which I can hang watering trays for more plants.  This was something I saw at a nursery and it works well for limited space.

So that is the tour of my little winter storage shed. Who knows one day I may have the space for a greenhouse until then, it does a very good job of looking after some of more tender plants.

Funny how things work

It's funny how often coincidences happen; my OH was looking at my last post on the green wall and got out her camera and produced these two photos. The first one shows much more clearly the planting pockets.

It seems she was up at Edgeware road station and saw the green wall and took some photos for me.

Strange that we should both come across this wall independently at almost identical times.

Back again

The last few months have been filled with work trips, which normally I like but do get in the way of looking after my garden. At least at this time of year there is almost nothing I need to be doing apart from watching out for snow. My Latest trip was to Nigeria which was let's just say interesting.  Sadly yet again I was confined to seeing the hotel and airport with a long car drive between the two, so no looking around for plants.

Hopefully I have a break in travel for a bit now amd I'll be back to more regular posts. To start that off a friend sent me a link to some vertical planting on the side of a station in London.  This wall was designed to look only look nice but to see if it can help reduce pollution. 

Image from the Londonist

It seems the planst were selected specifically to capture polutants and it will be monitored for the next 18 months to see what happens. More can be found on the Londonist website. There have been a few initiatives like this in London; to look at the use of vegitation to help reduce pollution. I know this is why the university were very pleased with our courtyard garden.

I look forward to the day when there are green walls and roofs on every street.

One last treat before winter

I tend to stop buying plants when the weather shows signs of winter.  There is nothing worse than ordering a plant only for it to turn up as mush having been frozen during delivery. Although we have had a beautifully warm start to winter it can't last, so I have decided it is time to stop purchasing for this year.  I couldn't resist one last purchase though and I have had my eye on this one for most of the summer.

Aloe cv. 'Sunset' is a cute little aloe from KG.  Unlike a lot of the new hybrids, it has a more upright habit which is one of the reasons I have been watching it.  It still has good teeth though which form a red/orange trim around each leaf. I have no idea how it will grow, so it is a case of watch this space.

It came from a trusted seller on Ebay and this is why I have been watching it and not buying it.  I have mentioned before that many plants go for over a sensible price, as people get carried away.  Often simply searching the internet will show that the same seller has a shop where they sell the plant at a fixed price.  This is not the case with this seller, but as they were putting a plant on every week, it was simply a matter of deciding how much I wanted to pay and then waiting.  Prices tend to go down at this time of year as others feel like me and stop buying, so there is less competition.

In the end I got a bit of a bargain so am very happy.  Just don't tell my OH as I may have sneaked it into the house onto one of the windowsills while she was out, and they were already fairly full.