Succulents

pots and pots of succulents

One winter I decided to become acquainted with succulents. I thought I would grow succulents in pots close to the house, so they could be out of the reach of frost.

Assorted Sedums

Out came a mail order succulent catalog, and in went my order for a collection of sedums. Assorted sedums duly arrived, and I threw away all the labels. Oops! But I wrote in my diary that my favourite was Sedum Adolphiii with its golden sunset coloured finger shaped leaves.

My gardening friend Astrid has a feast of succulents in her garden. In fact many are almost given weed status in the coastal hills where she lives. I grabbed tops off the ones I liked, and added them to the group.

succulent detail

Echeverias and Aeoniums

I also have some Echeverias which are rather dramatically coloured (one is a gorgeous chocolate brown), and a very small and thoroughly common Aeonium which is red and green.

These succulents in their pots form a beautifully coloured group in front of a squashed but thriving sunset coloured flax on the house patio. How much water do they need in high summer, though? Things get very hot some days.

under the dog-path seat

Super Sempervivums

When I was building the seat into the stone wall over the water race, I broke off some heads of the Sempervivum growing by the house, and just pushed them into the soil under the planks.

I thought that this area would be a bit exposed to frost in winter, and I'm never sure how hardy succulents are. So far, so good.

blue and white succulent

Sadly for this Succulent...

The blue and white striped succulent in this pot wasn't so lucky. Even though it was right up by the house wall on the decking, unfortunately the first frost got it. I didn't notice in time to save it. My friend Astrid has more of these in her garden, and I will ask her for a replacement.

The small wattle seedling disappeared under suspicious circumstances after the Webmaster announced his intentions to take 'time series' photos of the seedling's growth...