The gardens being overrun

Anyone who grows succulents knows that many are easy to propogate and you can quickly go from a single plant to a clump. With many plants we expect that and make the most of it. The stream of echeveria elegans in one of the rockeries started as a series of individual plant, look at it now.

This clumping habit is something desired.

Then there are the plants that we wish were a little more controlled but we know divide, or send out multiple shoots.  Aloe striatula would be the main example of that in my garden.  I am constantly having to cut off side shoots to try and keep it under control, look at all that new gorwth.

I live in London, I shouldn't have to worry about an aloe out-growing its location!  But then we know this is what it does so it is to be expected.

Then you have the surprises.  Some plants may be known to offset, but you don't think about it, or at least you expect them to be well behaved.  Agaves would fit into that category; I expect offsets on some of them, want them in fact, but never expected them to become a problem.  Enter agave bracteosa.  Firstly it is prolific. The odd offset is fine,  I do not need 10 or 20, especially as it seems to like London and be growing at a good rate. Then to add to the issue, it seems to view gravel and rocks as no barriers to trying to take over the entire rockery and is sending out runners that come up in all sorts of locations.

How? Why?  I have given away many of these and pulled up many more.  It seems every time I look closely under rocks or plants I find new offsets. I don't get actual weeds in the rockery, instead  I spend my time pulling up agave bracteosas. Perhaps to be expected, it is probably behaving as it would in the wild, after all it is known to be one of the best for Uk climate.

Aloes on the other hand are not known to be well suited to UK winters.  There are limited numbers that can be planted out and so it was a surprise that a variegated aloe saponaria survived at all.  Each year it gets better and I posted a little while back that I had to move the clump it had formed. The best variegated plant I re-planted in a better location has grown nicely.

But we are not here to celibrate the plant or it's clump forming habit,  this is another one that likes to explore.  For the last couple of years I have found this coming up further and further from the original clump and it was starting to become a problem.

The cactus had to be dug up to remove the runner and this was only one of the areas they were appearing.  This is the UK, I do not expect to be over-run by wondering aloes.

So does anyone else have problems with unexpected wondering plants?

Found

This week seems to be full of finds.

There was the lost and found. With the new bed, I moved the agapathus.  You know the feeling that you may have missed / lost a plant somewhere.  It seems I missed one.

Then the new find. Agave parryis have a reputation for offseting, so it was only a matter of time.  This is the main view of my two different agave parryis.

Looking down from behind them today noticed this

Thankfully the two forms are very different.

That pale blue colour and the orange spines are a give away that it's HK1684. As this is my favourite parryi form I am happy.

A surprise find.  We have been having a great summer, the succulents are loving it but someone is struggling to find somewhere cooler. 

She is not allowed on the flower beds, I may have to let her off this time.

Time to even things up.

This haworthia attenuata variegata was one of last plants I got from my friend Paul before he died. His pot was rammed full of plants, all variegated to some degree. It was quite a sight. I was desperate for a bit to start my own pot, but he was understandably reluctant to spoil the look of his pot. We spent a while carefully turning it to see if any of the smaller offsets would come off and one did. Not the best, and only half variegated, but a start.

A few years later and my pot is full of plants, only most are not variegated. I forgot to take a picture of the pot before splitting them, but here is the mother now:

Being lopsided the type of pup depends on where it comes of the parent plant. In this case over half the pot was not variegated.

Then there were those that were exact copies of mum.

I toyed with the idea of replanting any with variegation, then noticed the plant I have been waiting for: a fully variegated pup.

Time to start again with this plant.  Thankfully it is one of the faster haworthia, so the pot should fill up in a couple of years.   Hopefully this time every plant will be variegated, giving me the pot I have wanted since first seeing Pauls.

A break form the rain

My friends always laugh when I say that June in the UK is our monsoon month.  They are not laughing this year, as it has been foul, with the last two days being full on thunder storms and flooding. Thankfully the flooding has not been bad as long as you are not trying to camp at a festival.

To get out of the ran it was time to take on one of the re-potting tasks.  The agave filifera variegata has gone a bit pupping mad.

It's never certain how easily pups are going to come off, so it was nice they came away without much problem.

Not a bad collection of pups, only a few without roots.  Those are only the pups, the mum is safely potted up elsewhere.

They'll stay potted up like this for a month or so while I decide what to do with them. It may be anything time for one of my hardiness tests. I probably have a few spare.

My succulent friends are doing well for spares this year.

Starting the annual pup cull.

Part of the re-potting process is removing offsets.  I used to keep every single one and pot them up for swaps, but noticed they took up space and often suffered if they were not moved on.  Now if the plant is nothing unusual I just take off very young pups (that way I don't feel so bad), as part of the re-potting process.  Today it was the turn of some of the agaves.

First up the un-identified agave filifera hybrid. There is still no formal id on this one, other than it came from a batch of a. filifera seeds.  It's a good solid plant.

The wierd thing about this plant, is that it doesn't seem to actually grow.  It gets new leaves, and old ones die, but it stays the same size. No offsets on this one, it never does, but it always needs a good clean up of the dead leaves. I have tried a slightly bigger pot this year in the hope of maybe getting some growth.

From the non-offsetter, to one of the biggest, agave stricta nana.  It was bought about 3 years ago at a local plant fair.  There was a group of them hidden away on one of the stall, all much bigger than you usually see in the UK.

This is a pupping machine, it's natural habit is to clump. Keeping it as a solitary plant is a full time job.  Thankfully it is not diffiuclt to remove offsets, a simple twist or pull on each one separates it form the mother.  I did save one, which has gone in one of my "victorian" pots.

Funnily enough the little pots came for the same fair as the nana did. A seller this year has a few of them, supposedly all victorian, and I have since seen them sold like that in another nursery, so maybe it's true. Either way they are cute little pots.  I have 5 of them and am playing with the idea of selecting my favourite plants for a series of miniatures.

There are two many plants to show each one, but the final one worth a spot is the manfreda maculosa x agave obscura.  This was from my friend before he died and I have been growing both forms to see how they turn out.  This more triangualar form is doing well.

The spots really come out in the sun.

It seems to offset freely, so took off quite a few and actually saved some of these.

These will make a few people very happy, there has been a waiting list for them so they are all off to good homes. You know who you are.

If only.

The two aloes that are more commonly found in UK gardens are a. aristata and a. striatula. You would think a hybrid between them would be interesting.  I have only ever found one and sadly is doesn't look good.

This photo was taken a few years ago, but they haven't changed that much.  Maybe if they continue to grow they may do something.

You would think with those parents hardiness wouldn't be a problem.  Sadly it's not the case and they have proved not to be hardy even in my London garden.  About the only good thing about loosing them over winter is it forces them to offset and you get pups.

Obviously with the new dry bed, it had to be tried once more. Inevitably the result was the same, the stem rotted leaving this:

Not a surprise. Although the top can probably be re-rooted for a change. We only had -3c as the low, so it shows how little it has inherited in hardiness.

There are a good number of pups as well. There is change though, take a closer look at the pups.

Each is variegated to some degree.  Normally I would put this down to lack of light, but that can't be the case here.  It is not unheard of with succulents, they can often start off variegated just to build your hopes, then switch back to fully green.

So what are the chances even one of these will stay variegated.  The normal form may not be very interesting, a variegated one may just make up for that and warrant protecting over winter.

Yucca and cordyline get in on the act

It is great at this time of the year, everything seems to be sending out new offsets or splitting. So it great that even the larger plants are at it.

One of the yuccas that seems to be getting more popular in the UK, is yucca aloifolia purpurea. The opinion on hardiness seems to vary, so far it has not done too badly and has settled into the succulent rockery.

Seems to hold its colour well, although will turn green if kept in the shade for any period of time.

Back in March I noticed an offset poking it's head above the gravel.  It has grown at a good rate and been joined by a second in the last couple of weeks.  The oldest now has a few leaves and is starting to develop the distinctive purple colour, the new one is just getting going.

If it carries on like this, it's gong to be a pest like the normal form.  Can't be digging up the offsets all the time.


The only cordyline currently in the garden is the more unusual cordyline karo kiri. Another of the test plants. The last one didn't do well in a pot over winter, this one in the ground was fine for this mild winter.

Please forgive the photo which makes it look like the cycad is growing out the top.

Photos on the internet show it as a clustering plant and someone in the UK has one which was damaged and sent out side shoots.  In fact when the original plant died, it sent out a few new shoots from the base. In the Uk you usually see them as solitary plants.

It needs to offset as with on one stem it's starting to look a little leggy, and in this garden that only ends one way: with the plant being cut up.  So was please to see that there are a few offsets / new shots forming form the base.

Lots of new shoots there to give a nice bushy plant. I am going to have to make sure I water and feed it over the first part of the summer to get some good growth, then consider what to do come winter.

All these new babies in the garden, it should be a much fuller rockery by the end of the summer. If it every stops raining that is.

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.

Favourite offset of the week: agave parasana 'Fireball'

It is getting to the end of the offset period, so this could be the last in this series for this year. It seems lucky then that it is another first for me.  Agave parasana 'Fireball' is one the best variegated agaves.

Being in the greenhouse has work wonders and it has put on really good growth this summer. I love the very vertical form of the parasanas, even the normal form is worth having in any collection and there a great blue forms as well.

Away getting distracted, there are two lovely little pups just poking its head through the gravel.

I'm going to have to fight the temptation to take these off next spring, as they seem to be very very slow if removed too early.

Favourite offset of the week: x gastroaloe 'Flo'

The first offset for any new plant is always exciting.  It doesn't matter if the parent is prolific, there is always the worry that you have one that will not offset.  This gasteria x aloe cross is a case in point, a swap from a friend whose plant produces loads of offsets. Sadly I do not know the parentage of x gastroaloe 'Flo', not sure if anyone does. Please let me know if you do.

I prefer these crosses to pure gasterias, partly due to the size and partly for the colour. Looking at the plant the other day I found this poking out from the lowest leaves.

Hopefully this is the first of many.

Most unusal offset of the week.

Not all offsets turn out as you would expect.

Can you see the offset just below the label in this pot containing agave blue glow?  Maybe a close up will help.

I think it is fair to say that's not an agave blue glow.  In fact these have been popping up in several pots around the garden.  They obviously all sat next to something that self seeded, so could be a sempervivum or an echeveria hybrid. 

If any survive the winter, I'll post what they turn into.

Most exciting offset of the week

Another week, another surprise, this time haworthia limifolia variegata. Without doubt one of my favourite plants, and also one of my slowest plants.  So it is a doubly nice surprise to look at the pot and find not one but two offsets!

The fun part of variegated offsets is wondering what they will end up like.  This is especially true  where the the variegation on the parent is not even.  The basic rule should be that that variegation will match the spot the offset comes from. All fine until the offsets are on runners, and to add to that the plant spirals makes it impossible to work out on this one. 

The good news is that it doesn't matter, it should be good whatever the variegation ends up like.  The other good news is that as I already have a couple of these, they will at some point end up being swapped for something equally as beautiful.  That could be some time away given how slow these are and needing to ensure the plants are big enough to survive on their own. 

I'm enjoying this theme at the moment, so what is your favourite offset of late? Please feel free to join in and either comment here, or better yet blog about your own most exciting offsets.

Keep single or allow to clump

With all the offsets appearing on plants, come spring as they get repotted there is the choice of removing the pups or allowing them to grow as a clump.  Why do I prefer some to stay as single plants and think others would look good as a clump?

Is it a neatness thing?

This agave stricta 'nana' is constantly producing pups, 7 taken off this spring.  It's quite chaotic as it is, so all pups are removed in the hope of keeping at least some order.

This agave filifera variegata is just as messy looking, but I quite fancy these as a clump. No answer there.

Maybe it's a space thing.

Agave parasana tends to produce offsets directly off the base, these get ripped off as soon as they are big enough to survive.

Likewise, agave romanii is a serial offender on the overcrowding front.  It looks quite natural though and has been potted up to give space to form a clump.  No answer there either.

Maybe more space would help.

Agave arizonica isn't a massive offsetter, and they tend to be a little distance from the mother.

Agave macroacantha x applanata producing its first offset.  A little way from the mother, but not sure it is going to work.  The jury is out with this one, both for the pup and if space is the decider.

Maybe I should accept there is no logic to it and it is a simple case of treating each case on their own merits.  Whatever the outcomes, they are all safe with their mothers for now. This time of year is for exploring and enjoying the new arrivals.