Four Shaw Agaves

Agave shawii at the Jurupa Mountains Discovery Center.

Plantsman Gerhard Bock of the terrific Succulents and More blog made a dash to SoCal last weekend, and we met over at the Jurupa Mountains Discovery Center to check out the plants and the views. We both spent some time admiring two variegated stands of Agave shawii.

Agave shawii is more common in the wild in Baja California than it is here in Alta Cali, where most of the plant's native habitat has been paved over. Here's a distribution map. And here is a page from Calflora comparing shawii's ideal growing conditions to the inland location where I took these photos. Shaw agaves don't like inland heat, and they burn in full sun. At Jurupa, though, conditions (sloping ground, filtered shade) seem to be ideal. The plants Gerhard and I saw last week were beautiful.

 The agave in the next photo had a trunk, and towered over his kinfolk:

The variegation on the plant below was wonderful. Hard to tell from this photo, but most of the plants in the colony seemed to be variegated:

I have a little, variegated shawii of my own, acquired a couple years ago via trade with Riverside succulent expert Rob Roy MacGregor. Hope it looks this good someday! Be sure to check out Gerhard's blog for more terrific photos from Jurupa.

Cry, the Beloved Country

Well, there's that: we're not apartheid South Africa. At least not yet, anyway. Rough week!

An incomplete list of pro-women, pro-immigrant, pro-earth, anti-bigotry organizations that need our support. #vinewinesign

A photo posted by vinewinenyc (@vinewinenyc) on Nov 10, 2016 at 10:18am PST

Good suggestions. Here's Part Two:

And remember, local organizations need just as much (or more) help as established national ones. #vinewinesign

A photo posted by vinewinenyc (@vinewinenyc) on Nov 10, 2016 at 10:19am PST

These are suggestions from NYC. I expect there are many other worthy organizations, activist groups, artists, journalists — some local, some California-centric — that could use support: the local library is high on my list.

You might consider joining others in support of indigenous rights, our water, and our climate on November 15.

Feeling paranoid? (And perhaps you should be, all things considered...) This link is for you.

And this, from Chris Clarke:

This morning I saw a little blade of big galleta grass coming up a foot from the rest of the plant. It is such a small thing. It has so little effect on anything. But there are millions of clumps of big galleta grass in the desert. Each one sending out one shoot binds a little soil, sequesters a little carbon. Working together, they heal the earth.

A photo posted by Chris Clarke (@yucca.brevifolia) on Nov 11, 2016 at 4:31pm PST

In case his words get lost in the shuffle, I'll repeat them:

"This morning I saw a little blade of big galleta grass coming up a foot from the rest of the plant. It is such a small thing. It has so little effect on anything. But there are millions of clumps of big galleta grass in the desert. Each one sending out one shoot binds a little soil, sequesters a little carbon. Working together, they heal the earth."

Forward together, friends.

Wednesday Vignette: Salvage, and rain for ten minutes

How much rain did we get? Enough to wash the dust off the leaves of the orange tree, but not enough to wash the trickle-down mud off the leaves of plants below the orange tree. Used the Dramm wand for that. But it was real rain, and that was good enough. Gorgeous sunset last night, and beautiful cloudy day today.

The dark rock in the middle of this photo has been in the family forever. Pallet is from the feed store, circular saw blade from a local salvage/recycle yard, and hanging pots from a long-ago summer in Guanajuato. The manzanita branch was rescued from a lot clean-up near the cabin in Big Bear. Plants: Opuntia 'Santa Rita' on the left, with stonecrop 'Dragon's Blood'; a little Agave bovicornuta; Aloe erinacea (one of the few survivors of an aloe purge, since I can bring him inside for the winter); a cereus monstrose cultivar, one of six pieces a nice gent gave to me after he'd pruned the parent plants; and an Agave utahensis. Below them: Agave isthmensis on the left; little Opuntia basilaris brachyclada (a California endemic native to the foothills of the San Gabriels and the San Bernardinos); and down in the lower right corner, an Agave 'Sierra Mixteca.' The bougainvillea on the right is called 'Camarillo Fiesta,' just the kind of fantasy-of-Old-California name that would pull me in, but I love it for the pink and peach bracts.

This is the first blog post I've written since I retired. I remember blog-writing as an activity hobbled by time-constraint stress, and suddenly it's calm and restful. Amazing. During my last, busy year at work I bought a tablet, which is great for news and Instagram and falling asleep in an armchair at the end of the day, but unimaginable for blogging, at least for me. I want to get back to this.

I mentioned Instagram: you can see my photos here, or of course via the app. The IG crowd now includes Denise of A Growing Obsession, Loree of Danger Garden, Pam of Digging, Reuben of Rancho Reubidoux, and Gerhard of Succulents and More, to name just a few familiars. It's a good bet that your favorite landscape designers, nurseries, nursery owners, shops, national parks, botanical gardens, potters, bird lovers, photographers, and garden authors are on Instagram, along with many other terrific accounts. Warning: time sink.

The Wednesday Vignette meme is hosted by Anna at Flutter & Hum, where she writes today about life's fluctuations. Perfect!

Not drowning but waving

Calliandra x 'Sierra Starr' at it again with the red blooms. That's Agave murpheyi 'Engard' in the background. #calliandra #fairyduster #agave #inmygarden #patiogarden #nativeplants #southerncalifornia

A photo posted by @weezette on May 10, 2016 at 9:27pm PDT

Everything is crazy busy right now, but in a few weeks I'll be tacking a "re" in front of the just plain "tired," and the pups, the garden, the birds and the blogs will, I hope, be glad to see more of me. I've certainly missed them all. In the meantime, a couple more shots from Instagram.

New growth on (what may or may not be) Cylindropuntia whipplei 'Snow Leopard' -- great little plant from ye olde Mexican Hat Cactus Nursery🌵 #inmygarden #cholla #patiogarden #leafandclay #southerncalifornia #succulents

A photo posted by @weezette on Apr 24, 2016 at 2:06pm PDT

Pollinators are busy😳👍🏽 Opuntia polyacantha var. erinacea 'Grizzly Bear' from @rsabg #inmygarden #cactus #cactusgram #nativeplants #californianativeplants #southerncalifornia #patiogarden #leafandclay #succulents

A photo posted by @weezette on Apr 24, 2016 at 1:53pm PDT

Surprise bloom from a NOID #cactus 😳😍 ID help appreciated! #succulents #succulove #leafandclay #inmygarden #patiogarden #southerncalifornia

A photo posted by @weezette on May 10, 2016 at 9:12pm PDT

That feeling when you're pretty sure someone's watching you 😳 So happy to see lizards in the garden😜 #lizards #inmygarden #patiogarden #wildlife #southerncalifornia

A photo posted by @weezette on May 10, 2016 at 9:51pm PDT

Wednesday vignette: #AtTheH

In a greenhouse at the Huntington. #opuntia #cactus #AtTheH #huntingtondesertgarden #succulove #succulents #california

A photo posted by @weezette on Jan 16, 2016 at 4:27pm PST

I noticed a while back that all the cool kids were tagging their Instagram photos of the Huntington Desert Garden with #AtTheH, and slave to fashion that I am, I started doing that, too. (Yep, I'm @weezette on Instagram.) Turns out that the Huntington folks started the tag themselves, clever souls. And now a photo of mine is on display at the H itself! I about died of delight.

Putting up another round of Instagram prints from the #attheH crew! Check out photos by @_chicadeoro, @adg.photography, @belbodell, @danielbaldwin_, @dinparis2013, @grandiva002, @hannaheunjoo, @jasminerosetea, @jennifer_cole_, @kelly.gajewski, @keonekai160, @kotawade, @krubluk, @mjoyross, @mzpaulas, @odie_allen, @olivermfurth, @pasadenacharm, @renee661, @river_balboa, @rmeadors, @shawnparkin, @sleepywaldo, @stormwalking, and @weezette, now on view in the Mapel Orientation Gallery. Tag your photo with #AtTheH on your next visit, and we might repost—or display in our Mapel Orientation Gallery!

A photo posted by The Huntington (@thehuntingtonlibrary) on Feb 19, 2016 at 2:59pm PST

Instagram is chock-full of gardeners and plant nerds (gardenerds, as Piece of Eden puts it), and great for fast posts when you've been under the weather and tired from the day job, *cough*whoopingcough*cough*. Not that I'm counting the days until spring break or anything. So looking forward to getting back into the swing of things — tons of stuff to do in the garden, and the weather is beyond perfect right now.

More vignette goodness hosted by Anna over at Flutter & Hum.