Re: Easy Aloes and Echeverias for landscaping
Many thanks to David and to Sean. And yes, I did mean any possible
succulents. Virtually none of these will be "instantly" available to me, but
it gives me the knowledge so that if and when I come across them by mail
order, in someone's garden or remote possibility, in a nursery I know that
these are the ones!
I already grow Aloes arborescens, saponaria, ferox and ciliaris, and Ech.
imbricata which does spectacularly well. These all obtained by
scrounging......I've never seen any of them available to buy.
. 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?
In a word no! Only Perth is sandy, most of the remainder of WA is medium to
heavy soils, which is what we are. The winters however are very wet for a
period of about 4 months when we have most of our annual rainfall. The
plants I mention above have all coped with wet to waterlogged conditions in
the winter.
The summers are dry but only moderately hot.
Thanks again for the wealth of information.
Margaret 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: Friday, March 30, 2001 4:32 AM
Subject: Re: Easy Aloes and Echeverias for landscaping
> Hello Margaret,
>
>
> 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'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.
> >
