A prickly project

After hand-watering my cutting garden and fertilizing the dahlias yesterday morning, I decided to tackle a prickly low-reward project I'd put off for months.  It was time-consuming and few people would be likely to notice a difference once I was done but it was something that bugged me almost every time I walked through my front garden, which is generally a couple times a day.

This is part of the seating area/plant shelf that surrounds the Magnolia tree in our front garden.  Pardon the poor quality of the photo but, as it's in partial shade all day, it can't be helped.  I should also acknowledge that the construction is a little odd; however, as I do relatively little sitting in the garden, I dedicated half the structure to potted plants, most of which have been here for years.

The focus of my effort was the bromeliad in the upper right of the preceding photo, Nidularium wittrockia leopardinum.  I picked up this plant at the South Bay Bromeliad Association's sale in August 2016.  It's been in the same pot since I purchased it.  I've pulled out dead leaves at intervals over the years but, as it grew steadily denser, that became increasingly difficult and it started to look mangy.

This is the plant in its "before" condition.  You can see some of the dead leaves hanging over the side.  Dead leaves could also be found in the interfaces between plant clumps.  It's difficult to work with because its leaves are lined all along the edges with sharp spines.

The original plastic pot sat inside of a decorative ceramic pot.  The plant clusters were so densely packed, I had to cut the white plastic pot to free it.

I struggled to cut through the plant clusters to separate them.  Once separated, I peeled away dead and disfigured leaves, ridding the plant on a large number of slugs in the process.  I don't find many slugs (or snails) in my increasingly dry garden but the slugs had found the ideal environment inside the relatively wet interior of the bromeliad.

I replanted 2 plant clusters in another plastic pot, inserting it into the ceramic pot under the Magnolia tree.  I planted the other 2 clusters in another plastic pot, which I slipped inside a terracotta pot and deposited next to the lath house.

I also decided it was time to replant the noID bromeliad a friend gave me a couple of years ago.

The noID bromeliad and its pot arrived already planted.  The pot originally included succulent cuttings as well, some of which I'd removed earlier.  I removed the remaining gangly Crassula stems, then cleaned up the bromeliad, removing its dead leaves.

I repotted the bromeliad in its original container.  I pinched pieces of Echeveria prolifica from another pot to add interest.

I'm planning to harvest more of these Echeveria rosettes for other areas of areas of my garden.  Echeveria prolifica lives up to its name and spreads very quickly.

In addition, I replanted the pair of concrete shoes (shown in the first photo on the lower left) using succulents.

I think the Aeonium arboreum rosettes had been there for more than 2 years.  The shoe containers were a gift from one of my sisters-in-law years ago.

Feeling lazy at this point, I replanted them with Aeonium haworthii 'Kiwi' cuttings.  The hardest part of the process was getting the previous stems out of the shoes without breaking them.

I'd considered dividing the Neoregelia 'Guinea x Pepper' on the north side of the seating area/plant shelf but I simply ran out of steam.  That's a project for another day.

Neoregelia 'Guinea x Pepper' (upper right) may be the toughest bromeliad in my garden.  Most aren't all that happy planted in the ground because my garden overall is so dry, especially this time of year.

I've previously divided this one and planted pieces of it in an area along our north property line, which is probably what I'll do again.  A larger mass of the Neoregelia will have greater impact. 

The cooler temperatures we enjoyed last weekend spilled over into the Monday and Tuesday but we're expecting a slow warm-up as the week continues.  Hopefully, it'll stay within a reasonable range.

All material © 2012-2022 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party