Re: Easy Aloes and Echeverias for landscaping

Hello Margaret,

I'm certainly no expert on succulents, as I don't have
enough sun in my own garden to grow as many as I would
like, and have to content myself with planting them
out in client's gardens for the most part.  I've
designed a few gardens using only succulents, and
really find it quite fun to do.  Sean O'hara would
also be a good person to ask.  I can certainly reply
to the question of what is easily grown, as my
preference is to go with what is available and works
in our area, especially if I need them in quantities. 
Brian Kemble of the Ruth Bancroft garden is another
wonderful local resource for us here in the Bay Area,
as he is intimately familiar with the collections at
the Bancroft garden, travelled in South Africa, and is
pretty good at hybridizing as well.

Some of the Echeverias that I commonly use in a USDA
zone 9 climate:
Echeveria agavoides-easy,fast,large,hardy and showy
bloom
E. colorata-also very hardy
E. derenbergii-dwarf/tight clumper with grayish blue
foliage, smaller scale plant
E. elegans-smaller, faster clumping, prefers partial
shade, with a whitish cast to plant, easy
E. x imbricata-classic old garden form here in
California, hardy, fast clumper, lovely glaucus
foliage, showy bloom, a hybrid btwn glauca and
gibbiflora v. metallica
E. Pulv-Oliver- a hybrid which takes shade or sun,
with fuzzy green foliage on tall branching stems, and
beautiful orange flowers, even in quite deep shade

The above are all more tolerant of wet soils in winter
than the showy hybrids using E. gibbiflora, such as
Morning Light, Pearl von Nurnberg, etc.  These I find
do best with cooler coastal summer climates and kept
dry in winter, best in pots under shelter in heavier
winter rainfall areas.  They are superb in coastal
southern California, and do well for me if I don't get
lazy and leave them out in the rain, and remember to
fertilize and water them in summer.  Some years they
do very well for me, other years I lose them, for lack
of attention to their preferences.  Many of the
hybrids seem to prefer being restarted from cuttings,
especially if you are wanting to push them to extreme
largest sizes, and will "pup" from the remaining stem
as well.  Possibly best done in early spring...

I also use this method to get largest sizes on E. x
imbricata, which can reach 8 inches across if well fed
and watered.  None of these except perhaps E.
agavoides is really happy with hot summers, where they
mostly occur in Mexico is high altitude mountains
which are winter dry, summer thunderstorms, cooler
night time temps, and growing on cliffs/slopes, and
sometimes in cloudforests as epiphytes on trees.  In
heavier soils, many are prone to getting eaten by
grubs which will hollow out the underground potions of
the stems, so watch for declining vigor.  Key tips are
fast drainage, and cool temperate rather than hot
blasting summer sun.  Full sun in cooler maritime mad
climates however...

About Aloes, I don't grow nearly as many, but love
them all.  Listing them from easiest to more
difficult/less hardy:
Aloe saponaria-indestructible, and fast to multiply
A. arborescens-large grower,(6-10' tall)
A. aristata/brevifolia/humilis/virens-all easy, dwarf
clumping types
A. ciliaris-nice climbing/vining type, often planted
at base of phoenix canariensis palms here
A. mitriformis-easy
A. x johnsonii-a dwarf clumper, very free blooming,
almost all year
A. striata-gorgeous form and foliage, similar to A.
saponaria but more refined, less tolerant of full,hot
summer sun
A. marlothii/ferox/spectabilis-all large growers,
trunk forming with branched bloom spikes.
A. plicatilis-perhaps best in containers as it is
almost as tender as A. vera, and subject to a
disfiguring foliar fungus on older plants here in
California, and very slow to root from cuttings as
well.

I presume in your area of Western Australia the
limiting factors are  high summer heat along with
winter frosts, and occasional very wet winters.  In
habitat, many of the Aloes growing in hotter desert
areas prefer shade to full sun, in cooler coastal
California, full sun is not a problem.  Although they
can take no summer water, they will look abit ragged
and withered without it,with burnt tips and shriveled
leaves.  In cooler coastal gardens they get by just
fine without summer irrigation.  I have lost plants to
poor winter drainage in my heavy clay soil, so this is
important, but you are generally sandy, no? 

I'd also recommend the book called Dry Climate
Gardening with Succulents, American Garden Guides, in
consultation with the Huntington Botanical Garden,
publ. 1995, ISBN 0-679-75829, an excellent paperback
pictorial reference.

You didn't ask, but some of my other favorite
succulents for landscaping, especially for form and
foliage color:
Bulbine frutescens, Aeoniums of all types, Sedums of
all types, Senecio mandraliscae-incredible massed for
blue foliage groundcover, Cotyledon macrantha and
orbiculata, Crassula species, Kalanchoe species,
Dudleya species, Dyckia species, Puya species and
Hechtia species(bromeliads), Graptopetalum
paraguayense-great for massed ground cover with pearly
gray foliage, and Graptoveria.



--- Margaret Moir <olivehill@wn.com.au> wrote:
> 
> Margaret and Peter Moir
> Olive Hill Farm
> Margaret River, Western Australia.
>      www.wn.com.au/olivehill
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: david feix <davidfeix@yahoo.com>
> To: <medit-plants@ucdavis.edu>
> Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2001 3:04 AM
> Subject: Spring blooms, especially orange, blue and
> yellow!
> > Sedum dendroideum- a great small shrubby/succulent
> > groundcover(2 to 4 foot tall) for dry shade or
> full
> > sun, and in brilliant yellow bloom with glossy
> green
> > foliage, and contrasting nicely with an adjacent
> Aloe
> > ferox which is in spectacular deep orange bloom
> right
> > now.  Aloe plicatilis is also blooming fully now. 
> The
> > .
> > Leucadendron cordifolium/Pincushion Protea and
> > Echeveria agavoides continue the orange theme at
> the
> > moment, and give  soft orange highlights to the
> > sunnier parts of the garden.  All of these are
> good
> > oranges to work with if you usually don't like
> orange,
> > as they don't last too long to clash with later
> spring
> > blooming things, but give a real lift in early
> spring,
> > when a dash of vibrant color is a nice antidote to
> > winter.
> David, Ive been meaning to ask for some time about
> succulents such as
> Echeveria, and which ones you find do well in the
> open given light frosts
> and winter wet. Thanks to Glenns comments earlier
> I'm now confident with
> Aloe plicatilis and ferox, and I know the Yuccas are
> OK, and the Dracaena
> draco. But can you tell me some other aloes,
> echeverias etc?
> 
> Margaret.
> 
> > __________________________________________________
> > Do You Yahoo!?
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> 


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