Every year, we post photos from our years long experiment growing the African native lithops (living stones) in the garden. Our success underscore our contention that so much of the information you find on-line and in books, is simply incorrect. As we’ve discussed in the past, lithops are much more winter hardy than is generally
Mythops – The Art of Living Stoned Read More »
Flowering now in the garden is the North American native, Echeveria runyonii, a Northern Mexico succulent native to rocky cliffs in the state of Tamaulipas. This gem was discovered in the wild by our friends at Yucca Do Nursery in 1990 and the species was later named in honor of botanist, Robert Runyon. This delightful
Here’s a mid-December photo of our recent introduction, Agave ovatifolia ‘Kraken’, with its exceptional display of teeth and striking blue-green foliage. Agave ‘Kraken’ is a sport selected from Agave ovatifolia ‘Vanzie’ and will form a solitary specimen 4′ tall x 7′ wide.
The Kraken has Risen Read More »
The beautiful Gaillardia aestivalis var. winkleri ‘Grape Sensation’ is still in full flower as we approach the end of October. This amazing, but quite rare blanket flower is only found in a small area of the East Texas pineywoods region. Although it’s currently listed as a variety of Gaillardia aestivalis, we feel it deserves to
A Grape Sensation Read More »
Through the years, we’ve killed far more than our share of Zauschnerias, California fuchsia, but a combination of building a crevice garden and planting the superb clone, Zauschneria canum var. arizonica ‘Sky Island Orange’, we have a winner. Our clump, which is in full flower in October, has been growing here since 2018. To say
Shaz-zauschineria Read More »
July has been a great month to enjoy the floral show of the most winter hardy member of the genus Aloe. Our plant of Aloe cooperi, below, is happy as can be, growing in half day sun in our crevice garden.
Rock on with Aloe Cooperi Read More »
Globularia is a genus of small, rock garden-sized plants in the Plantaginaceae family, with a native distribution centered around Mediterranean Europe. I admired these during our 2012 Balkan expedition, but it wasn’t until we constructed our crevice garden empire, that we really began to have much success with the dryland plants in our wet, humid
Globs of Globularia Read More »
This winter took out several of our trial barrel cactus, but despite the losses, we’ve still got a good selection of survivors. Peak flowering season is late April through late May, so below are a few that we’ve manage to photograph during that period. The key for growing barrel cactus in cold wet climates is
The foliage of Asphodeline damascena is looking absolutely wonderful…like a blue beetle’s wig from the 1960s. This little-known member of the Asphodel family hails from the dry deserts of Turkey and Syria/Lebanon. Other current members of the family include the genus Aloe, Haworthia, Hemerocallis, and Kniphofia. The short spikes of white flowers will appear soon,
11 degrees F was a bit more than our clump of Massonia depressa had hoped for. Although the cold temperatures burned a bit of one leaf, it not only survived, but is now in full flower. That’s pretty amazing for a South African bulb that Wikipedia authoritatively states “does not tolerate freezing temperatures”. Rock on!
Depressed Massonia Read More »
