More new Agaves!

Agave stricta

More new plants have been installed! Go check 'em out - it's been a veritable festival of planting this week as Matt and I have been out there every day since Wednesday, and more is to come at PRG.

First up, today we planted a gorgeous group of five Agave stricta (Hedgehog Agave) plants - these ones are ultra, super spiky so don't go cuddling them... weeding around them will be a real pleasure too. Let's just say we are planning to get a load of mulch to keep the weeds down really soon.

Agave parryi

They're planted right by an Agave vilmoriniana "Stained Glass" (Octopus Agave) which is funny - Hedgehogs and octopi!

Up the street a little way is a group of six Agave parryi we also installed today.

This one is a real favorite of ours, with lovely gray-blue leaves and a nice round shape, and we should see babies sprouting up from them soon enough.

Agave "Sharkskin"

Yesterday we put in quite a few new plants too. We made a group of five Agave "Sharkskin" behind the kiosk at the bottom of the garden. This one has lovely gray and smooth leaves.

We also moved four Ochagavias to a better group, combined several groups of Dietes bicolor together to make a nice area for them, pulled out a lot of dead Euphorbias and weeded and weeded and weeded... yes, the pile of debris for Recology to take is huge, but they haven't responded to the 311 request yet, so bear with us.

Yucca filifera

We put in three Yucca filifera at the top of the garden, right between two massive Agaves. They look pretty smart - one day they will be tree-sized but it will be a VERY long time (decades...) so don't hold your breath.

OK that's it for today. More to come tomorrow - if you want to join us, feel free! We'll be there from mid-morning on.

Rough times

Ochagavia litoralis
(Cardoncillo)

Having watched many plants die at PG, and not feeling desperately sad about all of them (after all, we're a xeric garden: if it can't survive some drought we don't want it!) I started noticing that some really tough plants have died. And since this is a rare weather event, I felt it's time to step in and see if we can save them.

Yesterday Matt and I went out with our watering gear for the first time in years and spent and hour giving a good soak to a few of the good plants that need help, and would be tough to replace.

Aloe reitzii var. reitzii

Of course, a lot of the plants out there look perfectly happy - Agaves, most Aloes and CA natives are all bopping along looking great. A lot of the Australian plants have not missed a beat.

As you can see from the photos, the Ochagavias are flowering for the first time (surprise!) and the Aloe reitzii var. reitzii as well - apart from being a bit squashed by Moby Dick the big Agave americana, this one is gorgeous!


However, the list of dead or dying right now is:

Berberis linearifolia
Buddleja "Ellen’s Blue" and the other big one Joan gave us
Cestrum fasciculatum
Cordyline "Kiwi"
Cordyline sp. - surprised about this one
Cynara cardunculus
Euryops
Festuca glauca
Fuchsia boliviana "Alba"
Kniphofia "Dwarf Yellow"
Leptospermum scoparium "Red Ensign"
Leucadendron "Safari Goldstrike"
Philadelphus
Psoralea pinnata
Salvia gesneriiflora "Tequila"
Tibouchina urvilleana 

...and that yellow flowered Australian edging shrub whose name I can never remember.

Aloe reitzii var. reitzii

Cussonias are looking ropey. Surprisingly the Brugmansia clings on. Phormiums are in bad shape. Several Aloes are tightly curled up and praying for rain. It's all a bit sad really.

I'll water again next week and make an assessment. Hope we can make it through to the supposed El Nino we're expecting. October?