Foliage Follow Up/Wednesday Vignette - Some Like it Hot!

Much of the foliage in my garden looks a bit weary of the heat and dry weather but some are looking positively radiant.

Cacti and succulents love the heat.  Notice the Yucca recurvifolia 'Margaritaville' on the left.  It's one of four that were a gift from Hoover Boo at Piece of Eden several years ago.  They've grown nicely and need to find a place in the ground this fall.

I'm relatively new to this group of plants and have only this year learned that they do enjoy water during the growing season and even a bit of dilute fertilizer.  While they survived for the past few years, some have shown their appreciation of better treatment by putting on new growth.

This collection has grown to the point that many don't get to spend the summer outside in the danger gardenette.

 In three of the purple plastic pots are the spawn of Moby, the late Agave ovatifolia from the garden of Pam Penick.  Pam is the host of Foliage Follow-Up which occurs on the day after Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day and reminds us of the important role foliage plays in our gardens every day of the year. Click here to join the fun.

My own Agave ovatifolia will someday be joined in the ground by Ishmael, Ahab, and Elijah, Moby's progeny. 

 Lithops are spreading very slowly. 

The NoID blue cactus is a new addition this year.  What a captivating color!

Fasciated Opuntia 'Thetag'sintheresomewhere' 

 Cylindropuntia (Cholla) found by the side of the road beneath a free sign four years ago.  Someone had removed a huge plant and there were large chunks of it scattered all over the place.

The danger gardenette. It'll be interesting this fall to see how all of this will fit back in the greenhouse won't it?  Stay tuned to see if it can be done.

Meanwhile, the Cascade Cactus and Succulent Society's "Odd Plant Show and Sale" will take place on September 9 and 10 at Sky Nursery in Seattle.  Since the migration won't take place until October, there'll probably be a few more plants to wrangle after that event.

This'll be my contribution for Wednesday Vignette hosted by Anna at Flutter and Hum. 

Plant life in the soggy Pacific Northwest.

What green goodness is catching your eye this month?  

The Danger Gardenette Gets a Floor.

Perhaps you remember last spring when I cleared out this area, formerly a thicket of interesting but overgrown shrubs, to make space for my growing collection of potted succulents and cacti that had outgrown their former place in my garden.  I've called the collection The Danger Gardenette in honor of Loree at Danger Garden whose enthusiasm for this group of plants, especially agave,  influenced me to grow them.

The previous location.  The plants were covering too much of the path. 

Here's a view of last spring's effort in progress.

Beginning to add plants.

More or less finished.

A view from the fall just as the greenhouse was being wired and days before these all moved inside for the winter.

Once the plants were all taken away, the empty space was fairly ugly.  (Forgot to take a picture.) When we emptied the garage for the conversion, there were many piles of free pavers that had been stored in the garage but were now uglifying various parts of the garden.  The idea of using the pavers to make a better-looking floor for the D.G. would solve two problems so one day, I did just that.

This will look much better in the winter than the random collection of stands sinking into the  weed-filled mud.  I've started moving a few plants out for the summer.  For some strange reason, there are more plants this spring than there were last fall. Some may become permanent greenhouse residents. The migration begins!

Danger Gardenette Migration

You may recall a post about clearing out a new space for my collection of  spiky plants which I've affectionately named the danger gardenette after the blog of the agave evangelist who made me appreciate these plants even more.  Here we are on a very rainy day placing a few pots and plants to see where things might best fit.  Notice the fun metal agave that came from Dragonfly Farms.  I'm not sure that it's the best placement for it or any of the other plants but I'll keep playing.

Here are some plants that have just come out of their winter prison and in some cases have gotten their first watering since they were dragged inside.  These will stay in this area that only gets brief morning sun for a few days before traveling down to a the brighter area.

And some more.

And still more.  

Some already hardened off candidates pose for possible placement.  (Yes, the plastic pots will be gone when it's done and the conifer does not belong with this group;  it's also been moving around trying to find an appropriate place to live. 

Believe it or not, there are a few agaves not pictured that need to fit in here.  I could wrap the pots around the corner or maybe put some of the hardier plants in the ground.  Should be fun to see what happens!  Suggestions?

Growth

It's been almost two years since I first had the pleasure of meeting Loree (Danger Garden) Bohl in person and seeing her magnificent garden as part of a celebration of a significant birthday.   She gave me a couple of agave pups, some black mondo grass and a paddle of Opuntia ellisiana (I think.)  She was clearly trying to recruit me into her dangerous plant world in a gentle way.  O. ellisiana is glochid- free and the agave pups didn't have any sharp points.  I potted the paddle and pups.  The agaves have grown steadily but the Opuntia seemed to just sit for a while.  I brought it inside the unheated glass room this winter and ignored it.  When pulling out some of the plants recently, what should I see?   Is that sweet or what?  This is my first experience of how cacti put on new growth and I'm giddy!

Loree's enthusiasm for desert plants is infectious and I've come to enjoy many of these plants myself.  I bought the next furry Opuntia last summer.  The label says that it's hardy to zone 7 if kept dry enough.  It got the same dry and ignored treatment this winter and look what's happening!

I'm loving this.  No attention for months and they reward me with new growth.  This is so different from many of the plants that I'm a slave to all winter trying to meet their needs and keep them alive. (I'm talking to you Solanum quitoense!)

Loree's plant gifts were the beginning of what I call my Danger gardenette.  This changes each spring and fall as some things stay outside and others come in for the wet winter.  Each spring comes a rearranging of things.  Here it is taken apart with a few plants placed around.

Some of the ladies in waiting.

The Agave Americana mediopicta aurea spent the winter inside the house and got mealy bugs.  I'm happy to say that they're gone now through the use of systemic insecticide. The Aloe 'Goliath' came from our recent WeHop visit.

Where should I put this stuff?  Notice the big green bag of pearlite waiting to be added to potting soil for better drainage.

 

This is as far as I got the other day.  There are still many more dangerous plants waiting to find a spot and more things that need to actually be potted up and not just sitting in their nursery pots.   Maybe  I'll have to create a second  dangerous area. Perhaps  the yucca will find a home in the ground elsewhere to  make a lot of space for smaller treasures.  These will get moved around a lot before I'll be happy with how they look.  The important thing is that most of the kids that spent the winter inside are back out enjoying the sun.

More Opuntia growth that I discovered while moving these around.  For those of you who've experienced this a lot, this is old hat but I think it's the cutest thing ever!

It's interesting  how the generosity and enthusiasm of one gardener can influence another to find joy in a previously dismissed group of plants.  One of my favorite things about gardening is that I  keep making happy discoveries even after gardening for nearly 40 years!  It also helps that I've a memory like Teflon - nothing sticks so every day I discover something new!

 

Some Lucky Finds and a Question

In June, I got the oputia on the right to add to my danger gardenette, an homage to Ms. Danger Garden.

Over time, the poor thing has become pretty crowded and has some new friends who need pots.

So, I went to H & L Produce, owned by the same company that operates Tacoma Boys to look for pots and found this one for the opuntia.

 There was a fellow moving a few damaged pots so I asked him what he was going to do with them.  He said that they were going to be thrown away & said that I could have whatever I wanted to haul away!  Free is my favorite price!  I got all of the pots below for the price of two pots. the three round ones in the back are non damaged.  The square one on the right only has some dings on the corners which doesn't bother me.  Not sure about the huge one in the front; I have the missing piece and will perhaps glue it together. 

Anyway, I'm loving the free pots.

 Of course, repotting the opuntia and a few others requires ripping the danger gardenette apart.

 And throwing stuff everywhere.

 And putting it all back together.  Now the opuntia isn't buried  but I'm not sure I like the look of this grouping.  Maybe too many pots?  What would you do assuming that you want to keep all the plants,they must stay in pots, and they must stay roughly in this amount of space, and a set of say three really huge pots containing mixed plantings is not an option as many of these need to be moved  twice a year by my gardeners (me, myself, and I.)