It's echeveria season

The garden and pots are are full of flower spikes at the moment. The best are in the echeveria elegans river, which looks amazing at this time of year.

In the evening they are backlit which adds to the drama.  The bumble bees love them

The concrete egg is full of echeveria cuspidata var zaragoza, which is one of my favourites. Sadly it isn't hardy for my garden so has to be moved inside over winter.

The flowers are are a nicer colour than the very pale elegans.

While out enjoying the evening sun, I thought I might as well plant up the aloe aristatas. I have been trying to get some to survive for the last few years and they seem fine in the main rockery. They have got to a decent size now and have properly started to spred

I have been growing on a pot to plant at the fron of the cycad rockery. The hope is they will contrast well with the echeverias.

The soft and fluffy cycads

There are two cycads in the rockeries and while they both flush every year, the smaller one flushes at the end of the summer and so the fronds get damaged over winter. The results in them having to be removed come spring. Finally they are both flushing now so there is more chance of the fronds surviving.

They grow at an amazing rate, and have now reached my favourite period for the flush.

The larger one looks amazing in the early evening sun, and the new fronds gleam. A really good flush this year.

They are great at this stage, unclurling and still soft. I want to stroke it every time I walk past.

Taming the echeveria stream

The stream of echeveria elegans has grown slightly since it was first planted.

When is was planted back in 2014 it was almost just individual plants.  Then the great things about echeveria are the rate the spred.

It now takes up the whole space, and come spring it flowers more each year.  The plants also change colour over winter to add a bit more colour.

While the stream is now overflowing, it does mean all the rocks have been obscured.  So it was time to do a bit of clean up.  Here is is before:

The nice things about echeveria, is to sculpt the shape require, simply pull the unwanted plants away form the clump.

I would love to have another echeveria on the lower level, but the E. agavoides keeps rotting as this area is not covered at all.  I am toying filling it with aloe aristata. there would be some variation in colour and the flower season would be extended as just as the echeverias finish the aloes start.

Then there is the bonus of one or two spare plants.

I mayhave to extend the clump in the front to create a new stream where there is more space.

The succulent rockeries are getting starting to put on a show

It is going to be a year of firsts flower wise around the garden, the aloe polyphylla flower is getting bigger

As is the plant itself.

The variegated aloe saponaria is also showing what a mild winter it was.

I may dig these up this year and replant just the main variegated one, the others are a bit more green.

The aloes in pots don't want to miss out. This one, apparently called aloe Tiki Tahi, got in early. 

There are lots of others in flower as well, but as they don't stay outside all year, I will limit this post to the really tough plants. Strangely the more common plants are being really slow; no sign of flowers on aloe aristrata, or striatula. 

The big question is going to be what to do with the polyphylla flower; do I try and polinate it?  Apart from the aloes in the garden, a friend has just found theirs is flowering as well. So there is a chance to swap some pollen.  Sadly she's not in the closest of locations, but it would be an excuse to drive over to see her garden and she lives around the corner from two great nurseries.

The echeverias after also flowering away, the echeveria elegans stream gets better every year.

There are a few gaps where plants didn't make it, but they are fillig out quickly and by the end of this year it is going to be overflowing.  The echeveria agavoides in the front should also have filled out. They are not as wet tolerant, so next winter I may have to bite the bullet and cover them. 

I know I said it was plants that live outside only this post, but my agavoides bowls are just looking too good.

Lots of offsets in the mixed pot, but pretty hard to get past the ebonys!

They are still getting darker having been in the unheated greenhouse all winter. I'm torn if I want to keep them together or give one it's own pot just to see how big it will get.  As you know, I tend to over fuss my plants, so maybe this time I'll just let them get on with it and see what happens.

I'll save the agaves and greenhouse for another post, but it feels like we have got past the dangerous time of year and everything is into growth and can just be enjoyed.

Back after winter break, with updates on the succulent rockeries

As usual I lost interest in plants over winter and had even less interest in computers. Come spring my interest re-emerges as the plants start to wake up. So for the last few weeks I have been busy out in the garden and thought it was time to start posting again. 

It has been the busiest start to a year since the building work, most of it working on the front garden to change it from this:

In to something that resembles a garden. More on that next time.

I figured for my first post of the year I should focus on how the succulent rockeries are doing. We had the mildest and wettest winter on record.  Given last years problem with the fungus attacking the agaves and yuccas, I was concerned this would not be good. In fact with two very minor exceptions the plants show no sign of fungus damage. You can imagine how relieved I am.

The cycad rockery looked as good as well.

Everything has really grown over the last year and this has caused a few problem areas. The first can be seen in the photo above. That yucca was tiny when planted and while I know it would grow, I didn't expect it to grow so quickly.  Here it was this time last year.

So they have now outgrown the space and it wont be long until they cause even more problems.  It seemed sensible remove them now, especially as I wanted a yucca or two for the front garden. So out they came.

Look at how much the echeveria elegans have grown.  To think they were single plants when planted, should be a great sight when they all flower.

So what to plant to fill that space.  Something with structure but nothing that is going to grow and obscure the rest of the plants or grow out into the path again. Step up problem area number 2.

The aloe polyphylla is looking amazing, not only has started to properly spiral, but it has grown big.  I guess last years feeding program really did work.  Despite not being protected there is not a single bit of damage. The problem is that it's now starting to impinge on the echeveria agavoides red edge. These have also grown and really no longer fit the space.

They look great between the stones and I was torn about moving them, but the new pups are forming under the rocks and it is only going to get more cramped.  Plus taking them out at this time of year will mean they have the whole summer to get settled and it will be better longer term.  So out they came, and a short move over to the cycad rockery.

For a while I thought they looked too small and would get lost, but they can now be seen and have space to grow even more.

It has really grown on me in the days since planting it up.

So two problems down, a few more to go.  Next up the clash between the new smaller yucca rostrata and the kniphofia.

This was easy, the kniphofia caulescens was pulled out and again conveniently fitted perfectly into the front garden. There just happened to be the perfect plant sitting waiting to be planted, ironically it was going in the front but really deserved to go somewhere it could be enjoyed. It is a large (by UK standards) agave ovatifolia.

No doubt it will grow, and given we sit on that wall may have to be corked when we have friends around. But it looks perfect there.

Given it is only the start of May I am pleased how good everything is looking.

I still can't get over the aloe polyphylla, how did it get that big without me noticing.

There are still a few areas to sort. I need to remove the camassia leichtlinii, it is too messy and doesn't work in front of the agave filifera. Finally we are considering painting the wall a different colour.  Having see a friends garden where they have purple wall, I am tempted by that. The plants will show up better and it will bring a splash of colour into the garden. 

That last one still needs to be signed off but hopefully I will get permission. Either way the garden should take big leaps forward this year.

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.

Back to the succulents

Today was more like summer than spring, and getting back to the garden there was only one place to spend time.  For all the work in the other parts of the garden, the succulents are still the stars. 

The cycad rockery is getting warmed up for summer. This one should flush this year if it follows the bi-annual pattern it has in the past.  It is being fed and watered in the hope of replicating the amount of water it would expect at this time of year.  We are having a very dry spring this year, which is great for the other succulents, not so good for the cycads and alpines.

It is strange to think it was this time last year that the work on the garden was about to start.  Lots of dirt, rubble and plants in pots. 

Most of the plants have loved having their feet in the ground, plants that I struggled with before like the lampranthus roseus. It was tiny when planted, the photo below shows it last summer.

And now:

That is after a prune as well, it was getting a bit out of control, so it was hacked back. Other plants are looking less pristine as well, androsace sempervivoides always starts off as such a neat little plant,

Then it flowers and starts to spread out and I can never keep it looking this plush.

Hopefully this time the offsets will bulk up properly and it will get back to being lovely lush plants again.  Given how many new plants there are, it would be an amazing group if it does. 

The plants are starting to come out of their winter homes as well, the echeveria agavoides bowl was first. It has been outside for a few weeks now.

It is such a shame the flowers on agavoides are not stronger, but there is no complaining about the colour on these different forms. 

There is so much to do when the sun comes out.  Lets hope this is a sign of things to come this summer.

Rocks, gravel and finally some plants

It's been a hectic few days, after two false starts the rocks and gravel turned up for the rockery and paths, 3 tonnes of rock and 1 of gravel meant it was always going to be a hard work weekend.  It didn't get off to the best start, the first pallet of rock off the truck the pallet snapped the stone was not balanced and the whole lot fell off.  So much for the nice gentle start. The rest wasn't much smoother but we got there in the end. (This is the two pallets that made it to the curb, the other tonne is sprawled over the front garden.)

The afternoon was spent entertaining the neighbours, to apologise for monopolising the parking during the build. The weather was perfect for gardening, so I had to stop myself from thinking this was interfering with the things I should be doing.  Once people had left it was time to get on with the paths which was the focus of Saturdays post.

On Sunday, I had a little help from my oldest nephew, who luckily happens to be a rapidly growing rugby playing fitness fanatic. It was time to move all the rocks and to at least get the cycad rockery started.  Moving them went well, although with only 2 tonnes in the back, and the main rockery not built yet, it takes up a lot of space.

For my last garden I used river boulders, this time it is a grey sandstone.  The colour is good, but a lot of the rocks are thin and flat meaning it is harder to get the look I want. I guess it is just getting used to the different shapes and is one reason for starting with a smaller section.  Hopefully by the time I get to the main succulent bed, I'll have worked out the best way to use the rock to show it off.

Anyway, by about 4pm there was enough complete for the real fun could start.  For the first time since moving we actually had plants coming out of pots and into the ground.

Originally I used the same gravel for the path and rockery, but the bricks looked out of place. While they will weather, in the end I felt the more traditional gravel worked better overall. I am sure it will evolve as I live with it.

For a first run I am quite pleased, it will definitely do for this summer as it settles in and I see what likes the location and what struggles. The plant list is quite limited with agave parasana, agave bracteosa, aloe striatula, aloe aristrata, aloe poyphylla, echeveria elegans, a twin headed yucca gloriosa and the cycad revoluta.

So far I've only planted up to the posts. The next stage will be to plant up the other half most likely with alpines. The flat rock would actually lend itself to the garden style of the moment: a crevice garden.  It's tempting try one out, but undecided at the moment.

In the mean time I'll enjoy getting used to the different views and give my body a chance to stop aching.

It is very exciting to finally have plants in the ground!