Look what I found

I got to spend some time in the garden today and look what I found dropped the other side of the garden gate.

It appears that the fox carried it around for a bit before deciding it wasn't edible.  Amy commented on the last post asking why foxes would take plants, and I have no idea. I would guess that the digging up is to get at worms, but why they would take plants, or even just carry them in their mouths for a bit is a total mystery. Maybe it got spoked and ran off before it could drop the plant.

So while the plant is not quite what it was, at least the two largest are still around and stand some chance of surviving to form new clumps.

RIP orostachys fimbriata

You may remember a little while ago my post on orostachys fimbriata (found here). It has gone from strength to strength since the photo was taken. Until last night that is.  I went outside this morning to find a hole where the plant used to be and soil scatted all over the ground.

A fox had dug it up.

We have a real problem with urban foxes in London, and there is one around here that likes to dig. It doesn't seem to mind where it digs, empty flower beds, or into gravel or through plants themselves. 

So where my lovely little orostachys fimbriata once was, just a hole. Careful sorting through the gravel did turn up to tiny offsets so fingers crossed I can grow these on, but it is not exactly the best time to be removing offsets.

So in memory of this lovely little cluster of plants here is the original photo as a reminder.

RIP orostachys fimbriata, and foxes beware this means war!

How do you know your plants have taken to their new homes.

It has been a couple of months since the succulent rockery was planted up. It's been interesting watching which plants settled straight in and which have taken they time. There are two obvious signs that the plants are happy. Firstly they offset.

The largest agave bracteosa has pupped prolifically, so much so I have to remove most of them or they will take over.

The other sign is they flower.

The campanula carpatica alba have continued to flower all year.

They offset

Aloe Aristrata

and they flower

Drosanthemum hispidum

If they are not offsetting, they are sending out new stems / branches

Aloe striatula sending out lots of new stems

And yes they flower.

The cacti not wanting to be left out

And offset

And flower

Lampranthus roseus, is going to need taming if it survives the winter

Even the last few plants in pots have been getting in on the act, you have to love the determination some agaves show,

This agave parryi is sending out pups through the holes in the bottom of the pot.

So far so good then with the main rockery, although the real test is going to be the first winter.

Echeveria afterglow is my favourite plant in the garden this week.

There always seems to be at least one echeveria in the garden looking good.  This one has to be up there with the most luminous of the lot. 

The leaves are covered in a fine bloom, which gives the leaves a blue colour. Unlike some of the blue / white plants this one has a pink edge to the leaves and when sun catches the leaves the plant glows.

It is a really fast grower and forms rosettes of 30 - 50cm across.  I had been looking for this plant for a couple of years when I visited a friends house to find he was using them as bedding plants all around his garden.   It turns out he dug up two plants each autumn, potted them up and then cut the tops off. By spring each of the bases had formed 4 - 6 offsets, which he split and managed to grow to around 40cm by the end of the summer and starting again. After that I started doing the same and worrying a lot less about them and the plants dig much better.

It warrants favourite plant this week as it is flowering nicely.  For echeverias, e. afterglow has larger flowers which are covered in the same bloom as the leaves. 

Sadly it is right on the verge of being hardy for me, surviving down to -6C (20F), this really challenges it, so if we have a cold winter it dies. Kept dry though it has coped with -9C without too many problems.  Being such a quick grower, if if does get damaged new growth soon replaces the old leaves. 

So there you have echeveria afterglow my favourite plant in the garden this week. Head over Danger Garden to see what others have selected.

Wordless Wednesday

Echeveria setosa deminuta

Agave parryi HK 1684 is my belated favourite plant in the garden right now.

Having been away, no doubt a few photos to follow, I missed last weeks favourite plant post. Looking around the garden, one plant is currently standing out so much, it deserved a belated post.  It also seems quite topical as in a recent post on the great Piece of Eden blog, Hoover showed some of her amazing agave collection one of which was agave parryi truncata, which was glowing. (You can find her post here).

So the plant screaming for attention right now is my agave parryi HK 1684.

I've had this plant for about 5 years now, it is definitely not one of the quick forms. Collected by Horst Kunzleras it has to be one if not the best form of parryi.  Like truncata it is very pale in colour and a compact grower, at least as far as I know.  Slightly narrower leaves than the truncata, but those spines make up for it.

It's usually best known for having almost black spine, which set off the blue leaves perfectly. However every now and then the spines put on a show of their own and you get an array of colours from black through to yellow.

Being a parryi it has good hardiness, although with the slow growth rate any marks really do take years to grow out.  It comes true from seeds, which seem to be fairly readily available if you can not find the plant itself.  Seeds would also give you a chance to have multiple plants as in line with the unspoken rule, mentioned in my last post found here, it is not only slow to grow but also to offset. In all the years I have had it, there has only been one pup.

So if you already have truncata, go out and find HK 1684 and decide for yourself which you like best.

In the mean time, head over to Danger Garden to see Loree's and others favourite plants for last week.

This aloe grows like a weed.

It seems to be an unspoken rule that plants you want to branch or offset don't, while those that you are less interested in spread quickly.  Aloes seem no different, and a. spinosissima variegata is definitely in the weed category.

This was it when purchased a couple of years ago, interesting but doesn't really stand out.  I hoped the variegation would get stronger in time, instead the plant offset.

And offset.

By now it was such a mess, even if any of the plants did have good variegation you couldn't tell.  So time to cut it up.

I couldn't decide how many to leave, in the end I went for the two largest plants and we'll see what happens.  Looking at it now, it probably would have been better as a single plant.

Cutting it up also provided a few spares.

The best variegated plant was pulled out as well, hopefully this one will continue to develop variegation where the others have failed.

If you need more proof of its weed-like status looking at the large plants today:

They could be roots, but looking closely the largest are already facing up and split to show what I think are the first leaves.

Now if only I could get my aloe purple flush to offset like this.