I've been planning to rehab the succulent container near our back door for months. A trip to a new-to-me succulent nursery in nearby Torrance provided both the incentive to do so and a supply of fresh material. The nursery is an offshoot of
California Greenhouses/OC Succulents and it specializes in succulents and other drought tolerant plants. I've visited the Irvine location
many times and when I learned they'd opened a store much nearer to me I made plans to check it out, although it took me almost a year to finally get there.
Unfortunately, I left my trip until mid-afternoon and, as they close at 4pm, I didn't have much time to explore. Focused on succulents in 4-inch pots, I found plenty of those in a very large shade-covered tent structure. I took a few photos.
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| The area was neat and well-organized |
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| and all the plants were in pristine condition |
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| I didn't have time to check out the bromeliads, much less the larger succulents in the outside area or the indoor plants |
I came home with 14 plants, all succulents. Some of them went into replanting the pot by the back door. I cleaned up and reused the
'Sunburst' Aeoniums and the variegated
Portulacarias that were included in the pot when I first planted it, filling in with another of my favorite succulents,
Echeveria 'Blue Atoll'.
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| This was the planter as it looked back in January with Aeonium 'Sunburst' hogging all the attention |
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| This is the newly replanted container. Unfortunately, the Aeoniums are sun-scorched, something I didn't notice until I cut their tall stalks in preparation for replanting the container. I'm guessing this was yet another impact of the nuclear heatwave we experienced in early July. While some of my other 'Sunbursts' are bleached out, no others are scorched like this and I'm wondering if reflective glare from the the patio surface could've been a factor in the damage. |
There was a very large, healthy specimen of 'Blue Atoll' at the nursery. It was impressive but the 4 I included in my pot cost about half as much altogether.
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| It filled a 10-inch pot. I didn't know it could grow this large. |
I noticed that the color of the
'Blue Atoll' Echeverias I've planted out in the garden has faded. Although some growers said full sun exposure is acceptable, I think they'll probably retain their blue color better with less sun so I plan to keep my refurbished pot out of the hot afternoon sun.
I used another
Echeveria and
Portulacaria in replanting a pot by the front door.
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| This pot was formerly occupied by a Senecio candicans but that plant seems to prefer life in the ground to life in a pot so I moved it |
I expect I'll be paying another visit to OC Succulents in Torrance soon. Their selection and prices are much better than my local garden center.
Best wishes for a cool, comfortable weekend. For my local friends, may the fog be with you!
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| We've enjoyed morning fog for 3 days now. This photo was taken at noon yesterday when the fog held on until 2pm. It's kept our afternoon temperatures much lower than those we started out with at the beginning of the week. |
All material © 2012-2018 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party
