Wednesday, June 2, 2021

A lower profile

Five years ago, after removing the last of our lawn, I planted the area on the east side of our back patio with small succulents, including two 6-packs (12 plugs) of Aeonium haworthii 'Kiwi Verde'.  The Aeoniums thrived and grew much larger than I'd anticipated based on my prior experience with 'Kiwi Verde's' flashier cousin, 'Kiwi'.  In contrast to 'Kiwi', which produces relatively few blooms each year, 'Kiwi Verde' produces a larger number of blooms.  This year it produced a profusion of them.  As Aeoniums are monocarpic, these can distort the look of the plant clusters.

With all those flowers springing from individual succulent rosettes, the succulents lost their neat mounded appearance.  However, the bees love the flowers so I left the area alone until the flowers had faded.

Once the flowers were spent, the plants looked terrible so I decided to start over from scratch.

As the Aeoniums' roots spread far and wide, removing the plants meant removing many of the surrounding succulents as well.

After I tore out the plants, I harvested a mountain of cuttings, most larger than those I'd purchased in those original 6-packs.  As I didn't have any better idea what to plant in the area I'd cleared, I decided to replant some of the 'Kiwi Verde' cuttings but add a border of 'Kiwi' cuttings.

Two of the flats shown here were filled with 'Kiwi Verde' cuttings and one with 'Kiwi' cuttings, collected from elsewhere in my garden

'Kiwi' doesn't grow as tall as 'Kiwi Verde' and it works well as an edging plant.  

Before replanting, I added planting mix in an effort to improve the sandy soil somewhat.  In addition to planting the Aeoniums, I removed two offsets from the large Yucca 'Blue Boy' shown in the background and replanted those in bed to echo the three Yuccas that were already there.  I considered massing more blue fescue grass (Festuca glauca) here in lieu of the succulents but the fescue doesn't do as well in the sandy soil.

I tweaked the smaller bed on the other side of the path to roughly mirror the succulent plants in the larger bed.

There's already a border of Aeonium 'Kiwi' just beyond the Euphorbia 'Sticks on Fire' so adding more 'Kiwi' here should create greater cohesion

I like the lower profile of the beds surrounding the path as they don't interfere with the view of the new Ginkgo tree.  However, if I come across an interesting groundcover that can tolerate the sandy soil in the area adjacent to the patio, I may change it out again.  



I can always use the leftover succulent cuttings elsewhere - or give them away.

I used up all the 'Kiwi' cuttings I'd taken but I put the remaining 'Kiwi Verde' and some Aeonium arboreum and Euphorbia 'Sticks on Fire' cuttings out for neighbors to take.  The first cuttings went before I'd even finished putting everything out.  


All material © 2012-2021 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party


10 comments:

  1. Such a beautiful garden you maintain and nourish. Bet your neighbors are so excited to live near you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't know about that, Susie, but the garden makes me happy in any case.

      Delete
  2. It won’t be long at all till you get a stunning aeonium display. Win win situation, in a way the plant has renewed itself :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love how alien these plants look to me (zone 5b gardener) as if from another planet ! I also love how you just rip out a section and start fresh again because it looks like it is going to be beautiful .. again I have to say I am very envious of that Gingko tree .. it will glow in the Autumn sun when it morphs into a stunning gold colour !

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I might as well be on a different planet, CGJ - depending upon the source, I'm in zone 10b or 11a. But you can grow much that I can't so I get envious too. We gardeners are a greedy lot ;)

      Delete
  4. This is so so beautiful. Your gardening and floral selection and arrangement prowess is unique and the way you care for your plants is so special. Your peers might be jealous of you.. Lol. Lovely garden and thanks for sharing with everyone.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Looks great, Kris. It always feels good to freshen up a bed and those Kiwi Aeoniums make it so easy, and look fab in no time.
    I see in the pix you have the marine layer keeping things cooler. We need one of those for the next few days that are getting progressively hotter, topping 95ยบ... ugh. And to think last weekend was in the 40s! My poor plants must be very confused.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That kind of rapid flip-flop in terms of temperatures can be hard on plants. I hope that 95F heat doesn't last, Eliza. Our inland valleys have had some spikes like that already but we've generally stayed under 90F along the coast. The marine layer has made a major difference here for the last 10 days or so. Dare I hope it'll continue into July?

      Delete

I enjoy receiving your comments and suggestions! Google has turned on reCAPTCHA affecting some commentator IDs so, if you wish to identify yourself, please add your name to your comment.