Steve and Claudia Casebolt's Paradise Part One: The Plants

I met Steve and Claudia when the Cascade Cactus and Succulent Society came to visit my garden. They're delightful people with whom I had the pleasure of spending an afternoon last month.  Steve is a retired science teacher who began his career in pacific northwest but then took what was to be a one-year job in the Boston area.  Twenty years later, Steve and Claudia returned to the home they'd bought all those years ago bringing with them Steve's collection of cacti and succulents for which he built a greenhouse.  Today, we'll look inside the greenhouse at some of that bicoastal, swoon-worthy collection; tomorrow, we'll venture outside of the greenhouse into the garden.

Table after table of wonder.

Look at all of that great work space!  

Haworthia truncata 'Lime Green' was new to me.  Aren't those patterns incredible?   Steve was very kind and gave me an offset of one of his.

Ceropegia bloom hanging over a cactus. 

Steve grows many plants from seed and also makes his own pots.  Is there anything he can't do?

Agave!

This had the most interesting tongue-like texture. 

Babies!

Here Steve is separating  plants to pot and give to me.  Plant people are so generous!  Steve was also generous with his knowledge.  The potting mixture he uses for these beauties is equal parts of pumice, soil, and Turface,  (a soil conditioner. It is a calcine clay product used to improve drainage, reduce compaction, and hold moisture,)

The tray in the foreground is one that Steve had prepared to take to a talk he was giving.  Can you tell which ones are cacti and which are not?  Click here for a bit of help.

Aloe ferox

Tune in tomorrow to see the beautiful setting in which this collection resides.

Happy Autumnal Equinox!

" Sorrow and scarlet leaf,
 Sad thoughts and sunny weather.
  Ah me, this glory and this grief
  Agree not well together!"

  -  Thomas Parsons, 1880, A Song For September

"The breezes taste

Of apple peel.

The air is full

Of smells to feel- 

Ripe fruit, old footballs,

Burning brush, 

New books, erasers,

Chalk, and such.

The bee, his hive,

Well-honeyed ham,

And Mother cuts

Chrysanthemums.

Like plates washed clean

With suds, the days

Are polished with

A morning haze. " 

- John Updike, September