Re: Aloes/Echeverias
At 03:45 PM 3/29/01 +0800, Margaret Moir wrote:
>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 -
Nothing could be easier than Aloe arborescens, which forms a largish mass
of stems/crowns over time, striking in winter when numerous spikes arise
from each head, producing a floral display that can rival Echiums later in
spring. The standard color is a dull red-orange, but there are yellow and
coral forms that I know of.
There are some hybrids with this species that often turn out to be easy plants:
A. x spinosissima (A. humulis x arborescens) - mostly stemless, with
grey-green upright leaves full of pale yellow to white raised 'spines' (not
really very wicked, mostly decorative), red-orange flowers in a single spike.
A. x caesia (A. ferox x arborescens) - pale green leaves are toothed along
the edges, a single spike of soft red flowers fading pale yellow/white.
There are various other hybrids of A. arborescens being made with A.
suprafoliata, marlothii, petricola, thraski, africana, speciosa, etc.,
etc. These are worth searching out and trialing as I suspect they will be
easy and interesting to grow.
A. striatula is a bushy, multi-stemmed plant with golden yellow-orange flowers.
A. cilaris seems to be rare in its natural form here - often what is
offered are other hybrids that are easy, bushy, and floriferous.
A. brevifolia is a low, grey-toned, rosette forming plant that will
eventually cover great areas. The chunky, toothed leaves are
textural. Red-orange flowers in single spikes.
A. mitriformis & A. distans openly creep and travel horizontally across the
ground, quite curious and striking against rocks and wall tops. Both have
triangular chunky leaves and capitate spikes of reddish flowers.
At the public succulent garden where I volunteer, there are hybrids of A.
saponaria & striata which are larger and more vigorous than either
parent. These occur naturally in the wild (there are many natural
hyrbids). It is part of our educational display in the garden as it is
easy to see the intermediate forms between the two species, also planted in
this bed. All some into flower right now, with many salmon orange branched
heads, creating a wonderful show!
There are also many Echeverias we grow in this garden, and some I grow in
my own garden. The most vigorous are the hybrids of E. agavioides and
elegans (and perhaps other species). They are large in size, make nice big
rosettes, offset nicely, and are easy and tough. We also have a form
somewhat allied to E. imbricata, but bigger and looser. It offsets
profusely and have a nice blue-gray color with pinkish-rose tinges around
the edges. I do not have names for any of these as they came to me without
qualification. Since it has been very difficult to find good named
pictures of these, we still do not know.
Hope this helps!
Regards,
Sean O.
h o r t u l u s a p t u s - 'a garden suited to its purpose'
Seán A. O'Hara fax (707) 667-1173 sean.ohara@groupmail.com
710 Jean Street, Oakland, CA 94610-1459, U.S.A.
