not in the doldrums
It’s the end of summer and most areas of the garden seem to be in some sleepy botanical torpor, exhausted from the heat. Not much is blooming. Brown is everywhere.
And then by contrast there’s this little over-performing corner, formed in large part by chunks of succulents that John has collected over the years…
Cascading over a back wall are the shocking red flowers of this crassula (I think it’s Crassula perfoliata var. minor, a.k.a. Crassula falcata). Its companions in this photo are a couple of other succulents, one of the goth-black aeoniums (Aeonium arboreum ‘Zwartkop’) and what’s likely Graptopetalum paraguayense. The three are pretty easy to find and like nice combined.
After the winter rains the foliage on all of these plants plumps up and looks pretty spectacular. But as summer settles in the aeonium and and graptopetalum drop their larger leaves in favor of a tight cluster of leaves packed at the growing end of the stalks. The bigger the leaf the greater the water loss. The crassula will retain its leaves, however, although they’ll look a little shriveled in the drought. The fact that the leaves are folded in half probably helps to shade the leaf, reduce transpiration and reduce moisture loss.
The flowering of the crassula varies by year. The photo above is from this season, actually not one of the better years. To the left is a shot from last August. This year’s not quite as flashy, but in the slow heat of August and September, I’ll take it.
September 01 2009 05:45 am | Categories: gardening • my garden | Tags: Aeonium arboreum • Crassula perfoliata var. mino • drought-tolerant landscaping • Graptopetalum paraguayense • succulents
Steve on 01 Sep 2009 at 4:46 pm #
James, the pastel colors on those succulents are actually striking. In many ways — and like many plants — their end-of-season look can often be their best face. Very cool!
Country Mouse on 01 Sep 2009 at 6:17 pm #
I’m very interested in learning more about succulents for use in the defensible zone, as they are very useful there — as well as pretty. Now I know that late summer color is another reason! I’ve only actually seen one succulent growing wild near our home — Dudleya caespitosa — So I would perforce be looking farther afield for succulents that won’t invade and that will tolerate our climate.
tina on 01 Sep 2009 at 7:00 pm #
Anything that cascades over a wall in such a graceful manner is a keeper!
susan morrison (garden-chick) on 02 Sep 2009 at 11:54 am #
I like the way the red flower echoes the brick — sorry, we designers are always interested in the whole composition.
FYI, I know you’ve already done your time with this meme business, but wanted to let you know I gave you an honorable mention on my blog. Susan
Pam/Digging on 02 Sep 2009 at 7:42 pm #
Those plants do look great. It’s nice to find something performing particularly well at this difficult time of year.
Wendy on 04 Sep 2009 at 4:18 pm #
veeeery very cool!
BeWaterWise Rep on 07 Sep 2009 at 3:06 am #
These plants are interesting! The color red gives a vibrant feeling. As you know water is in short supply and places like California are facing a water shortage. Hence we need to implement water-wise gardening. http://bit.ly/n8Okj will give you simple tips on water-wise gardening!