After spending a good part of the afternoon at the Desert Botanical Garden ( 1 | 2 | 3), I went back in the evening to see Bruce Munro’s Sonoran Light installations in all their multi-color glory.

When I got there at 5:30 p.m. it wasn’t completely dark yet so the Water-Towers didn’t seem lit (although they were). The illumination is quite dim and requires almost complete darkness to see well.

Water-Towers

Still, even like that these 69 cylinders are intriguing against the desert backdrop.

Water Towers

Walking around, I came upon various other Bruce Munro pieces that showed up better at dusk. The glowing spheres in the next set of photos are called Eden Blooms. They are installed in the Sybil B. Harrington Cactus and Succulent Galleries.

The dome in the plaza between the two sections of the Sybil B. Harrington Cactus and Succulent Galleries was pulsating with color, attracting a lot of attention. Called Beacon, this piece is based on a superstructure originally designed for greenhouses. Thousands of plastic bottles are threaded with lengths of color-changing fiber optics.

Beacon is the perfect name for this piece because it does beckon from afar, promising warmth, shelter, and hope.

Suspended from the curved roofs of the Sybil B. Harrington Cactus and Succulent Galleries, Chindi consists of prismatic acrylic rods, 21 ft. high and 5 ft. wide. The design was inspired by dust devils Munro saw when he lived in Australia.

Fireflies meander their way through plantings of cacti and agaves. They were the smallest of Munro’s pieces and would work quite well in a residential setting.

I was so focused on Bruce Munro’s pieces that I occasionally forgot to pay attention to the 8,000 luminaria bags that decorated the garden for the holidays. They are a major attraction in and of themselves. The candles are hand-lit (!) every night by what must be a veritable army of volunteers.

But back to Bruce Munro. Garden Butte, the hill behind the DBG, is covered with 30,000 spheres connected by miles of fiber optic cable. These Fields of Light cascade down the hillside onto the Sonoran Desert Loop Trail.

The original inspiration came from a visit to Uluru (formerly known as Ayers Rock) in the Australian outback:

I wanted to create an illuminated field of stems that, like the dormant seed in a dry desert, would burst into bloom at dusk with gentle rhythms of light under a blazing blanket of stars. ( 1)

This was a difficult feature to photograph. Because of the long exposure required, the changing colors merged into a yellowish hue. The following video, while not great, at least gives you an idea of how organically the color shift occurs.

Here is a series of photos I took from the top of the Sonoran Desert Loop Trail. From this spot you have a fantastic view of the Garden Butte, and you can see how extensive these Fields of Light really are. Again, please bear in mind that the colors are shifting continuously. In these static photos (long exposure of up to 30 seconds), the colors ended up mostly as yellow or orange hues.

A few more luminaria shots taken on my way to the Water-Towers installation:

The Water-Towers installation was my personal highlight. Now that it was completely dark, the constantly shifting colors of these 69 glowing cylinders, each about 6 ft. tall and consisting of over 200 water bottles threaded with fiber optics, produced a multisensory experience of pure magic. According to Bruce Monro’s website:

At the age of  21 Munro read a book called The Gifts of Unknown Things by Lyall Watson, a radical thinker operating on the margins of accepted science. In it Watson describes Tia, a young girl living on an island in the Indonesian archipelago who possesses the magical gift of seeing sounds in colour, a phenomenon known as Colour Synesthesia. Watson also claimed  the Earth has a natural pulse in the upper atmosphere, resonating at a rate of 69 beats per day. The pulse forms a deep note well below human powers of hearing. As a tribute to Watson, Water-Towers consists of 69 towers that change colour in response to the music emanating from within them. Each tower is about two meters tall and made from over 200 stacked water bottles illuminated by optic fibres. In their original formation the towers resembled enormous liquid batteries of light arranged in a maze formation. Music emanates from the towers; the soundtrack reflects the musical diversity of many nations.

Here is an animated GIF that shows how the colors change (I really should have taken a video so you could have heard the otherworldly music as well):

And another animation:

The final Bruce Monro piece I photographed, Saguaro, is a large steel and acrylic structure near the entrance. It represents the elements that caught Munro’s imagination when he first visited the DBG in December 2013.

As I was leaving the garden, I couldn’t help but take a picture of Dale Chihuly’s Desert Towers at the entrance:

Even the parking lot lighting made me feel all warm and fuzzy:

What an unforgettable evening that was!

About Bruce Munro

British artist Bruce Munro is best known for immersive large-scale light-based installations inspired largely by his interest in shared human experience. Recording ideas and images in sketchbooks has been his practice for over 30 years. By this means he has captured his responses to stimuli such as music, literature, science, and the world around him for reference, reflection, and subject matter. This tendency has been combined with a liking for components and an inventive urge for reuse, coupled with career training in manufacture of light. As a result Munro produces both monumental temporary experiential artworks as well as intimate story-pieces. ( 2)

To see more of Munro’s installations, visit his website: http://www.brucemunro.co.uk/.

Sonoran Light will continue at the Desert Botanical Garden until May 8, 2016. Visiting the garden at night requires a separate ticket. For more information, visit https://www.dbg.org/events/bruce-munro-sonoran-light.

RELATED POSTS:

• December 2015 Desert Trip index
• 12/28/15: Desert Botanical Garden, Phoenix, AZ ( 1 | 2 | 3)
• 12/28/15: Sonoran Light at the Desert Botanical Garden

I had been to Tucson, AZ seven times before my recent trip, and yet I had never made it to the Barrio Histórico. That’s why a visit to this historic district in downtown was at the top my list of destinations this time around. ´

My first stop was at the Cathedral of Saint Augustine on S Stone Avenue. Its history traces back to 1776 although its present Mexican baroque facade, reminiscent of Mission San Xavier del Bac south of town, wasn’t built until 1928. While I’m not religious, I’m a sucker for grandiose church architecture and loved this building.

Much to my surprise, I was able to park right in front of the cathedral!

The Barrio Histórico is also known as the Barrio Viejo (Old Neighborhood) or the Barrio Libre (Free Neighborhood) because in the old days its predominantly Mexican inhabitants were free to follow their own laws. It occupies roughly twenty blocks between W Cushing and W 19th Street and between S Stone Avenue and the railroad tracks. I parked on S Meyer near W 19th and simply walked around.

This old City of Tucson pamphlet has a good description of the Barrio’s history:

[The Barrio Histórico Historic Zone was]  first settled in the mid to late 1800s by residents who began building homes and businesses beyond the old Presidio walls […]. The real growth occurred during the Territorial Period, and development accelerated with the arrival of the Southern Pacific railroad in 1880.

While the Barrios were primarily working class Mexican neighborhoods, the residents enjoyed a surprising diversity of ethnic backgrounds, including Chinese, African American, Anglo and Native Americans. The working men and women of the Barrios labored in a wide variety of professions, usually right within the areas in which they lived. This resulted in not only an identity for the residents, but also provided a complete economic base within the confines of the neighborhood.

This looks like a front door but I can’t imagine it’s in use anymore

I like the jaunty hats protecting the growing tips of this Mexican fence post cactus

Most of the houses in the Barrio Histórico are small, single-story adobe and brick buildings that extend right up to the street. They were built this way to create a central courtyard which serves as a shady outdoor living space. According to the Barrio Viejo web site, “there is no larger collection of 19th century adobe buildings in the United States.”

Many of these Sonoran-style houses have been lovingly restored and now make for very photogenic subjects. Even though there isn’t much room for plantings, virtually every house features some greenery in the front, even if it’s just a few potted cacti. Others have a small tree or two, usually palo verdes or mesquites.

I had no particularly destination here so I let myself be guided by what caught my eye. At times I felt transported to another time, or another place. This kind of poking around is one of my favorite things to do on vacation, and I enjoyed— loved—every minute of it here. I hope my photos will do this very special part of Tucson justice.

Contemporary look with CORTEN doors

Even a CORTEN mailbox (?)

Corrugated metal gate and Yucca rigida, what’s not to love!

More metal goodness

Brick building with rectangular wooden archway

Fixer upper

Restored Spanish Colonial, a bit too fancy for the neighborhood

Pedilanthus macrocarpus

Backyard rainwater cistern

I loved this gate, and the palo verde on the left

Flowering octopus agave ( Agave vilmoriniana)

Colorful two-story row houses

One of my favorite houses

A metal artist must live nearby

I saw quite a bit of beautiful metalwork…

…but this was something else

Ocotillo ( Fouquieria splendens) and shadow

Opuntia, Agave americana and palo verde

Whimsical Christmas decorations

Look at the size of those opuntias! They’re small trees!

Another fixer upper…

…and another. Below the plaster you can see how the walls were originally built.

Check out the tiny opuntia in front of the wall

The corrugated metal fence on the right is killer!

Traditional Sonoran row houses

Small aloe planting

Ocotillo fence

Ocotillo against an old corrugated metal panel

I walked by several houses that were being fixed up, and I briefly chatted with a well-spoken resident who steered me toward the brick building with the rectangular archway you saw towards the top of this post. It’s very clear that this neighborhood is undergoing a quite a bit of gentrification. I hope it will manage to preserve its original character and charm.

RELATED POSTS:

• December 2015 Desert Trip index

Tucson is the home turf of Greg Starr, one the world’s leading agave experts and the author of what I think is the best book on agaves in print, Agaves: Living Sculptures for Landscapes and Containers (Timber Press, 2012).  Greg’s first book, Cool Plants for Hot Gardens (Rio Nuevo, 2009), is out of print but he’s actively working on a completely overhauled and expanded second edition.

I had first visited Greg on my December 2013 trip and was excited to see him again on my most recent trip to Tucson. Greg and his wife Carol live in the foothills of the Tucson Mountains on the west side of town surrounded by scenery that reminds me old westerns.

This is what I saw as I was approaching their house:

Could it get any more iconic?

Even though this is a subdivision, Greg’s house (all the way on the left in the next photo) is on a dirt road. This adds to the away-from-it-all feel.

Greg’s property is one acre. If I ever move to the desert (hope never dies), this would be the property size I would be looking for: large enough to give me room to garden with abandon, yet not so large that I would feel overwhelmed.

Greg’s house from the road. The frost cloth on the left protects his citrus trees.

Now I’m in Greg’s driveway looking towards the road.

I like the balance Greg struck in these plantings: Clearly he hand-selected each plant, but the overall look is less like a rigidly managed garden and more like a natural landscape. I’ve encountered this style of landscaping in many places in Arizona, and it really speaks to me.

Ferocactus pilosus

The feature I noticed immediately when looking at the front of the house is the rainwater cistern on the left. They’re common in Tucson (I believe Greg has several) but still a rarity in California. My 55-gallon plastic rain barrel is a joke compared to this.

Greg and I are such plant nuts that it barely took five minutes before we were looking at agaves. He has a lot of species planted in the ground, and I could tell how much they’d grown in the two years since my previous visit.

Two Agave colorata showing distinct differences in size and coloration

Greg with Agave colorata (the larger one in the photo above)

CENTER: Variegated Agave salmiana  RIGHT: Agave parrasana. The wire cages are to protect smaller plants from rabbits and javelinas.

Possibly Agave montana × gentryi

Yucca queretaroensis

LEFT: Agave horrida var. perotensis and Agave colorata  RIGHT: Agave zebra

Another Agave zebra, this one with larger, more widely spaced teeth

Agave parryi var. truncata

Agave vizcainoensis, a species from Baja California (and Gerhard and Greg’s shadows)

Agave schidigera at the base of Yucca rostrata

Agave schidigera

Agave shrevei

Agave parrasana and Agave pelona

FRONT: Agave parrasana  BACK: Dasylirion acrotrichum

LEFT: Agave multifilifera  RIGHT: Agave ovatifolia (3x)

Agave ovatifolia

Agave ovatifolia

Agave ovatifolia

Greg with Agave ovatifolia

There are a lot of whale’s tongue agaves ( Agave ovatifolia) on Greg’s property. This species, one of the largest and easily one of the most beautiful in the entire agave kingdom, has a special place in Greg’s heart. Agave ovatifolia was discovered in the 1980s by Texas nurseryman Lynn Lowrey, but it wasn’t formally described and named until 2001. Greg was instrumental in this undertaking. Check out Greg’s photos from the type locality in the Sierra Lampazos, Mexico, where Agave ovatifolia was first found. Greg hopes to lead a field trip to Mexico next year that includes the Sierra Lampazos location; I’m very tempted to come along.

Here a few more photos of the plantings near the driveway:

After an hour of yakking, we finally made it to the nursery. It occupies about 1/3 of the backyard. The outside tables were covered with frost cloth and I wasn’t able to inspect those treasures.

But the greenhouse more than made up for it.

While at first glance it may seem there isn’t that much, there is more than you think. Believe me. I could have spent the rest of the afternoon checking everything out.

Greg with one his prized Agave albopilosa

Agave albopilosa is a fairly recently described species that is completely unique: Each leaf ends in a small tuft of white hair. (In small plants, the “hairs” aren’t fully developed yet.) Seed has been available for several years but larger plants are still rare and pricey.

Agave albopilosa

Agave albopilosa

Flowering Agave ‘FO-76’ in the corner of the greenhouse. Greg says this plant never got regular irrigation, just some overspray, and yet it still managed to survive.

At this point I should mention that Greg isn’t “just” a plant nerd like so many of us. His background and knowledge goes far beyond that. He has a B.S. in horticulture (1979) and an M.S. in horticulture with a special emphasis on botany (1985), both from the University of Arizona in Tucson. He started Starr Nursery in 1985 and has been growing specialty plants ever since.

In recent years, his research has been focused on the agaves of Baja California. After many field trips to Mexico, he coauthored the definitive paper on this subject in 2015 together with Robert Webb, the co-owner of Arid Lands Nursery in Tucson: Webb RH & Starr G (2015). Gentry Revisited: The Agaves of the Peninsula of Baja California, México. Haseltonia 20: 64-108. (You can buy this issue of Haseltonia on the CSSA web site or download it from here if you have a BioOne account.)

Greg is growing many Baja agaves from seed he collected in the field. If you live in zone 9b and above, you’ll have no problem growing these in the ground.

Agave parryi seedlings, grown from seed collected from the Sierrita Mountains about 30 miles south of Tucson. Greg says he’s not sure yet what variety they are. He’s growing plants from four separate collections from Tucson south to the border.

Here are four Baja species in the greenhouse:

Agave sobria, “pseudogigantensis” form

Agave turneri

Agave azurea

Agave carminis. Explanation from Greg, just to give you an idea of what he’s interested in: “The agave labeled Agave carminis is from Isla Carmen and was initially described as a distinct species by William Trelease in 1912, but later reduced to synonymy under A. sobria by Ivan Johnston and that was followed by Gentry as well. I hope to have DNA run on the whole A. sobria complex and see if A. carminis and others described by Trelease, but later reduced to synonyms of A. sobria, are distinct enough to warrant recognition either as species or subspecies. The first step was to collect seed (check), then grow the plants (check), now get the DNA run.”

Here are a few other rarities in the greenhouse which, in hindsight, I should have picked up to trial for hardiness in Davis:

Agave valenciana, a giant from the state of Jalisco in Central Mexico that can grow to 5-7 feet tall and 10-12 feet in diameter

Agave chazaroi, another species from Jalisco. To me it looks like Agave attenuata crossed with Agave pelona, but of course that’s not a scientific statement. Agave chazaroi is a recently described species (2007) that appears to be quite cold-sensitive.

Agave chazaroi

Agave petrophila, another newly described species in the Striatae group that isn’t very hardy. I bought a plant from Greg a couple of years ago and it’s proven to be a fast grower in a pot (protected in the winter). I find it to be very attractive.

Agave nuusaviorum, recently split from Agave potatorum. Not much is known about it at this point.

Agave nuusaviorum, Agave carminis and others

Greg is about the nicest guy you could hope to meet. If you’re ever in Tucson, don’t hesitate to contact him to see if he’s around. He has a large variety of plants for sale and would be happy to meet with you.

In the meantime, you need to check out his book Agaves: Living Sculptures for Landscapes and Containers if you haven’t already. It really is that good.

And if you’re interests are more far-reaching, I can highly recommend the Field Guide to the Cacti and Succulents of Arizona published by the Tucson Cactus and Succulent Society. Greg is one of the coauthors.

RELATED POSTS:

December 2015 Desert Trip index

While it isn’t cold here in Davis (62°F in my backyard at noon on Monday, January 18, 2016), the sky has been depressingly gray virtually all month. El Niño has brought us 3.77” of rain in January, which is exactly 3.77” more than in January 2015 but a fraction of what many of us had been expecting. Still, it’s better than nothing, and you’ll find few people complaining.

However, I want to go back to Tucson, Arizona to finish up the first day of my visit there three weeks ago. I started Tuesday, December 29, 2015 with a walking tour of Tucson’s Barrio Histórico  and then paid a visit to agave expert Greg Starr’s nursery. Since I was on the west side of town already, I decided to swing by one of my favorite spots in the Tucson area: Mission San Xavier del Bac.

Nicknamed “the White Dove of the Desert,” Mission San Xavier del Bac is located about 10 miles south of Tucson on the San Xavier Indian Reservation, which in turn is part of the Tohono O’odham Nation. The mission was founded in 1692 by Padre Eusebio Kino but it took another 100 years before the structure that exists today was completed. With its elegant Moorish-inspired exterior, it is widely considered to be most stunning example of mission architecture remaining in the U.S.

The photos in this post are my visual love letter to Mission San Xavier del Bac. I’ve visited it on every trip I’ve made to Tucson. In spite of the steady throng of people, I find it to be a singularly peaceful and spiritual place. Just looking at the blindingly white building against the Arizona sky almost brings tears to my eyes, and not just because of the glare.

There is a wealth of information online if you’re interested in the mission’s history and architecture. I don’t want to rehash too much of it here.

While not extensive, the plantings in front and inside the courtyard are a nice mix of cacti and other succulents. They don’t detract from the beauty of the mission but rather add another layer to it.

These saguaros are still fairly small, but they’re already well over 50 years old

Mission San Xavier del Bac has some of the most colorful specimens of Santa Rita prickly pear I’ve seen anywhere

Courtyard in front of the mission

Cactus garden between the main church and the mortuary chapel off to the side

Interesting statue outside the church side door

The succulent plantings continue in front of the San Xavier Mission School next to the mission…

…as well as in the San Xaxier Plaza across the large parking lot.

I don’t know when the mission gardens were last redone, but older photos ( like this one) show a large multi-armed saguaro in front of the church that is no longer there. Going back in time even further (check out this photo from circa 1890), the gardens didn’t exist at all.

I, for one, am very glad that somebody in a position of power felt it important for the mission to have gardens. Most of the upkeep is done by volunteers, I’m sure, and I thank them for their dedication.

RELATED POSTS:

December 2015 Desert Trip index

Yes, there are agaves on Agave Place.

Agave Place, Tucson, AZ

The Wednesday Vignette meme is hosted by Anna Kullgren over atFlutter and Hum. You can read her current Wednesday Vignette posthere. Be sure to check out the links to other blogs that are also participating.

In previous years I went overboard when it came to covering plants on nights with temperatures below freezing (see here: 2011 | 2012 | 2013). This winter I decided to relax and cover only one plant: my Agave attenuata ‘Boutin Blue’, which starts to shiver when temperatures fall into the 30s.

While we hit 32°F six times in December, we only dropped below it once: on December 27. That was the day I headed out on my trip to Southern California and Arizona. I left our house at 6 a.m. and the thermometer in our backyard read 29°F, which meant it was a degree or so colder in the front yard. Indeed, the official low for Davis was 28°F—a balmy night in many parts of the country, but a c-c-c-c-cold one here.

For some reason, 28°F seems to be a magical number for many succulents. They’re fine at 30°F but start to show damage at 28°F and go into a serious tailspin at 25°F or below. The photos I’ll show you below bear out this observation.

To put things in a perspective, while my not-bothering-to-cover-things experiment was partially successful—plants I thought would get damaged at 28°F didn’t—other plants did. However, the damage appears to be cosmetic only, and all affected plants should survive.

Let’s take a closer look.

Agave desmettiana ‘Variegata’, one of many offsets from the plant that used to be next to our front door but flowered and died last year.

It’s in a large pot under the bay trees in the backyard where it should have been protected enough. It has some pretty unsightly cosmetic damage and will live However, I’m done with this particular agave and will replace it with something else.

Agave desmettiana ‘Variegata’ bulbils with leaf damage. Two trays around the corner have zero damage. Go figure.

  Agave desmettiana ‘Joe Hoak’, growing in the ground between our house and our neighbor’s

Again, only minor cosmetic leaf damage, but I’m annoyed at myself because I could have prevented it altogether by throwing a frost cloth over the plant

The black spots will be visible well into the summer, reminding me to be more vigilant next winter

Graptopetalum pentandrum ssp. superbum. This level of damage is surprising because I don’t remember covering it in previous years. But it, too, will live.

The aeoniums in the backyard only sustained minor damage (like this). They’re up against the house and fairly well protected.

Kalanchoe beharensis with significant leaf damage. This doesn’t come as a surprise since this species (like most kalanchoes) is very frost-sensitive. Still, it will live and push new leaves.

Agave potatorum ‘Shoji Raijin’ with enough cosmetic damage that I’m officially evicting this slow-growing dwarf cultivar from my collection (it’s not a favorite of mine anyway). Agave potatorum once again proved its wimpiness.

The closely related Agave isthmensis in the front yard fared a bit better, with only a few leaf spots. The volunteer jade plant ( Crassula ovata) seedling on the left has leaf damage, too…

…while this much larger jade plant next to the driveway (blooming, no less!) is completely unharmed. It could be because of a temperature difference as minor as 1°F.

Two pachypodiums that are losing their leaves (but not their lives): Pachypodium eburneum (left) and Pachypodium geayi (right)

This Agave pygmae ‘Dragon Toes’ took the worst hit. I had temporarily moved it from the front porch to the front lawn so it could get washed off by the rain and then forgot to move it back. I think the front porch would have offered just enough protection.

While ‘Dragon Toes’ will live, I’m really bummed by the extensive leaf damage. I may get rid of the mother plant and start over with one of the pups.

Most of my agaves (like this Agave applanata ‘Cream Spike’) are just fine, thank you—completely unfazed, in fact, by that little bit of frost we had at the end of December

This Cuphea ‘Vermillionaire’ flowered all the way into December until it was felled by the frost on December 27. But I see some green along the base so it should come back.

I fully expected this red bird of paradise ( Caesalpinia pulcherrima) just behind the Cuphea to lose its leaves (it always does around 30°F) but it’s hanging on to them this year. That’s a good sign. Maybe it’ll even flower this summer.

The only aloe with damage is this Aloe dorotheae. It doesn’t look damaged but the leaves are suspiciously soft. Time will tell. I knew it was risky to plant it out in the open outside the front yard fence. It’s not a hardy species.

This newly planted Russelia equisetiformis got knocked all the way to the ground. An established plant not far away has no leaf damage. Go figure (my phrase of the day).

Most succulents are doing very well. The Aloe ferox above is pushing its largest flower stalk ever.

The emerging flowers on my Aloe ‘Moonglow’ are undamaged

Even this fan aloe ( Kumara plicatilis) is fine. The desiccated leaf tips are common in potted specimens in our climate; they’re caused by drought and/or salt build-up in the soil. This plant will go in the ground in the spring so the leaf-tip problem will hopefully go away.

The biggest problem right now is the leaf litter (from a Bradford pear tree in the photo above) that is partially covering many succulents. I’ll work on removing the dead leaves this coming weekend. Mold is beginning to form under them, which could disfigure the succulents and/or cause them to rot.

January weather update: So far every night in January has been above 33°F. The next 10 days look to be frost-free as well. I’m going out on a limb here, but I think we’re out of the woods as far as cold weather is concerned.

When it comes to scenic beauty, I know few cities that can compete with Tucson. I’m talking not just about the untamed wild (like the five mountain ranges that surround the city) but also “preserved” nature, including Saguaro National Park, Sabino Canyon, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Tucson Botanical Gardens—and Tohono Chul Park.

I’m sure most Tucsonites are familiar with Tohono Chul, but many visitors have probably never heard of it. That’s a real pity because in a town with fewer natural attractions it would take center stage.

“Horse,” a sculpture by Kioko Mwitiki made of reclaimed metal

As I said in my 2013 post,  Tohono Chul Park is a 49-acre “living museum” that was once the home of a Tucson couple who fought hard to preserve a slice of native desert. Today Tohono Chul—“desert corner” in the language of the Tohono O'odham—combines nature with art and culture. Miles of trails wind through natural areas and demonstration gardens while three art galleries, classroom facilities and a fine-dining tea room offer attractions for people who are less plant-crazy.

Not that I think my opinion matters much in the grand scheme of things, but I highly recommend a side trip to Tohono Chul Park. And if you’re a member of another botanical garden, chances are you’ll get in for free under the American Horticultural Society’s Reciprocal Admissions Program.

Styrofoam cups protecting the Mexican fence post cacti ( Pachycereus marginatus) that surround Kioko Mwitiki’s horse sculpture

Sin Agua Garden interpretive sign (“sin agua” means “without water” in Spanish)

Ironic (although undoubtedly necessary) that there was plenty of agua dispensed elsewhere in the park

The largest and most unruly Agave weberi I’ve ever seen

It may look like somebody spilled a barrel of pickles, but it’s just Echinocereus pentalophus

Frost cloths were a common sight on this trip

The Desert Living Courtyard is “divided into ten distinct garden vignettes, featuring a variety of landscape themes, each designed to demonstrate for homeowners new and creative ideas for using water-conserving plants in livable landscapes combining color, texture and function.” ( 1) This PDF has a complete listing of all the plants found in the Desert Living Courtyard.

“Regal Horned Lizard”…

…by Dave Stone (cement over wire mesh)

Chiltepin ( Capsicum annuum)

Does anybody know what this grass might be? Could it be little bluestem ( Andropogon scoparius)?

Outdoor Living garden

Outdoor Living courtyard

Slipper plant ( Pedilanthus bracteactus)

Queen Victoria agave ( Agave victoria-reginae)

Yellow wall and ocotillo fence in Barrio Garden

Ocotillo fence detail

Palo blanco trees ( Mariosousa willardiana)

The Demonstration Garden “presents many ideas for creating a desert oasis at your home using native plants and local materials.” ( 2) I loved the covered patio with built-in seating and outdoor fireplace. If I lived in the desert, this is what I would want in my backyard.

It may be a staircase to nowhere but it’s a cool place to display potted plants

Agaves and opuntias in a sea of leaves. Reminded me of my own garden.

One of many paths criss-crossing the park

Old palo verde and Cereus grandicostatus

Another bench where it’s important that you look before you sit down

Octotillo ( Fouquieria splendens) and saguaro ( Carnegiea gigantea)

Octotillo ( Fouquieria splendens)

One of many stunning boulders in the park. According to its plaque, this one is “azurite, drusy vugs of malachite, chrysocolla, calcite quartz, sulfides and iron oxides.” Don’t feel bad if you don’t know what a “drusy vug” is. I looked it up and promptly forgot. I think it’s similar to a vuggy druse.

Another chiltepin ( Capsicum annuum)

Candelilla ( Euphorbia antisyphillitica)

The Retail Greenhouse with its adjacent outdoor sale areas is a fantastic place to buy plants. Its mission is “to grow and sell appropriate southwest and arid-adapted plants that promote water conservation and support wildlife, especially native pollinators, and to provide accurate information on the care and use of these plants in the landscape.” ( 3)

The selection was large and the prices were very reasonable. The 5-gallon Agave gentry ‘Jaws’ below was $25.

Big selection of ocotillos, most lilkely grown from seed

Lots of desert shrubs

I’m including this smoke tree ( Psorthamnus spinosus) because I would see magnificent specimens at The Living Desert in Palm Desert, CA a few days later

Perfect specimen of Opuntia sulfurea, a steal at $20. Did I buy it? No! Do I regret it? You bet!

Perennials suitable for desert gardens

Sundrops ( Calylophus hartwegii) maybe common here, but not in the Sacramento Valley—where they thrive (I have a handful of plants I grew from seed).

I can’t ever get enough of ocotillo fences

Chocolate flower ( Berlandiera lyrata) loves the heat and should be planted much more widely

Desert marigold ( Baileya multiradiata) had been on my want list for years. Now I have one.

The selection of trees was smaller this time than two years ago but there were still some nice specimens, like these palo blancos ( Mariosousa willardiana)

Ocotillo fencing for sale

And here is my haul ( check this post for a description). In hindsight, I should have bought a lot more plants…

RELATED POSTS:

• December 2015 Desert Trip index

I’ve seen a lot of metal agaves. In nurseries and garden stores, that is. Not so much in actual gardens. Maybe because it’s not so easy to make them look good in the company of life plants? (I know because I have a small metal saguaro cactus.)

But I must admit I thought these three metal agaves, potted up in large terracotta planters to boot, looked quite fetching. What you can’t see is that they’re on the second story ( street-level photo here). Getting them up there must have been quite a chore.

Metal agaves on 5th Avenue in Scottsdale, AZ

The Wednesday Vignette meme is hosted by Anna Kullgren over atFlutter and Hum. You can read her current Wednesday Vignette posthere. Be sure to check out the links to other blogs that are also participating.

After my morning outing to Tohono Chul Park I finally visited a place I’d always wanted to see but had never had time for on earlier trips: Ted DeGrazia’s Gallery in the Sun.

Ettore “Ted” DeGrazia (1909-1982) was an artist at home in many disciplines but he’s best known as an impressionist painter. While his work covered a wide range of subject matter, his paintings of Native American children—reproduced ad nauseam on everything from greeting cards to bric-a-brac—earned him fame and scorn in equal measure. Here is an example:

© DeGrazia Foundation

I don’t want to debate the merits of DeGrazia’s work, but I love many of his drawings and paintings (not the children, I will admit that). However, what brought me to this spot in the foothills of the Santa Catalina Mountains was the property itself. As you will see, what DeGrazia built here is simply breathtaking.

Looking at the main gallery, the Gallery in the Sun, from the parking lot

When DeGrazia brought the 10-acre parcel in 1949, it was in the middle of nowhere. There was no water and no electricity. Progress and development were inevitable, however, and over time the surrounding desert was bulldozed to make way for homes, businesses and even a country club.

Today the property sits in the middle of housing subdivisions. 10 acres is a lot of land, though, and it creates a comfortable buffer against neighbors. While I could see other houses, I still felt like I was in a very special spot in the desert.

The low-slung building behind the palo verde trees is the Gallery in the Sun. We’ll save it for last and explore some of the other buildings first.

Two agave species dominate the landscaping: Agave americana and Agave lophantha. Both offset like crazy and hence are well suited for mass plantings.

The first building I visited was the Mission in the Sun. DeGrazia hand-built this simple adobe chapel in 1952 with the help of friends. It is in memory of Padre Eusebio Kino, the Jesuit priest who founded many missions in Mexico and Arizona (including San Xavier del Bac south of Tucson), and is dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe, the patron saint of Mexico.

I love what DeGrazia said about his little mission:

“I built the mission for myself. I’m not a churchgoing man but I am a religious man and perhaps religious only within me. Religion to me is right or wrong. You do right and you’re a religious man. It’s not Catholic it’s just an old chapel for anybody who wants to go in there whether Christian or non-Christian.”

The flowers you see in the photo above are found everywhere on the grounds. They’re made from recycled cans.

The chapel couldn’t be more perfectly suited for its surroundings.

The cactus and agave plantings are the icing on the cake.

Santa Rita prickly pear (I’ll refer to it as Opuntia santa-rita although there is much confusion as to what it really is)

Before I went inside the chapel, I took a few more photos of the area around it.

A cactus tent? I don’t know what the significance is of these tipi-like structures.

Dead trees?

No, bloomed-out agave flower stalks

Ted DeGrazia’s grave

Rock tower near DeGrazia’s grave

More branches lashed together like a tipi (and Agave americana)

Mission in the Sun

The cross on top is made from a saguaro skeleton

Luminaria bags on top of the chapel

Where did this creepy figure come from?

Window detail, reminiscent of the San Francisco de Asís Mission Church in Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico

I knew the inside of the chapel was very special and I wanted to experience it by myself, with no one else around. I had to wait for a while…

…but for a few minutes I was alone.

I can’t quite express how much the seemingly simple beauty of this chapel affected me. The colors, the textures, the architectural details work together perfectly to create something profound.

The floor is rough-hewn rock, and the roof is open in the middle. A few spartan benches offer seating.

I’m clearly not the only one affected by the spirit of this place. The altar has become a shrine, decorated with crosses, photos of loved ones, candles and other small objects that have meaning to those who left them behind.

I’m not a religious person, but I felt how special this small adobe structure is. Maybe because it has soaked up the prayers, hopes and desires that untold scores of visitors have left behind over the decades.

In part 2 I’ll show you the small house where DeGrazia and his wife lived as well as the main building, the Gallery in the Sun, and its succulent-filled courtyard. There is a lot more to see!

RELATED POSTS:

• 12/30/15: DeGrazia Gallery in the Sun, Tucson, AZ (part 2)

• December 2015 Desert Trip index

Part 1 of this post ended at the Mission of the Sun, the simple yet magnificent adobe chapel Ted DeGrazia hand-built with the help of Native American friends. Just beyond is the house where Ted, his wife Marion and their three children lived. Like the Mission in the Sun, it was built in 1952. It’s small and unassuming and blends in seamlessly with the tan-colored foothills of Tucson’s Santa Catalina Mountains. Even though the cactus, agaves and desert shrubs were planted, they look completely natural.

The home where Ted DeGrazia and his wife Marion lived

The barrel cactus ( Ferocactus sp.) and horseshoe hanging complement the architecture perfectly

Shadow of a palo verde tree on the outside wall of the DeGrazia home

I don’t usually pay attention to curtains in a house, but these were fascinating

They look handwoven

Fireplace in the living room

Kitchen—no frills but homey

Next to the DeGrazia’s home is the Little Gallery, the space DeGrazia built in 1954 to display his work when no established gallery would carry it. Today the Little Gallery is open to lesser known artists who have difficulty finding a more conventional venue for their creations.

Just outside the Little Gallery is this ramada with a large mosaic…

…as well as a trio of saguaros underplanted with agaves and barrel cactus:

After poking my head into the Little Gallery but not lingering, I headed back to the main gallery: the Gallery in the Sun the entire DeGrazia compound is now synonymous with.

In the early 1960s DeGrazia’s fame (and bank account) began to grow and he was finally able to build the gallery he had been envisioning. “The gallery was designed by me,” he is quoted as saying. “I wanted to have the feeling of the Southwest. I wanted to build it so that my paintings would feel good inside.”

Walkway to the gallery entrance

Agave lophantha and Yucca elata

Completed in 1965, the Gallery in the Sun is a modest, low-slung adobe building surrounded by perfectly natural-looking desert plantings. The adobe bricks were all made on site.

Palo verde and Agave lophantha outside the entrance to the Gallery in the Sun

More Agave lophantha and golden barrel cactus ( Echinocactus grusonii)

I walked straight through the gift shop into the courtyard where I took the next set of photos.

The courtyard is stuffed to the gills with plants, pots, western Americana, and other odds and ends.

It’s cluttered and messy and yet completely charming.

It’s what my own courtyard might look like if I grew old in the desert and weren’t able to fuss over it any more.

No, it isn’t botanical-garden-worthy, but it kept my attention for a while.

Agave lophantha and a French horn—an eclectic combination seen in a planter bed in the courtyard

Once back inside the gallery, I was surprised by how much larger the structure is than it looks from the outside. The courtyard is surrounded by rooms on three sides, and a wall on the fourth.

The gallery houses a gift shop (the first thing you see as you enter) as well 13 rooms displaying works from the massive permanent collection. It’s said to include 15,000 DeGrazia originals from a variety of genres—not just paintings and sculptures but also ceramics and even jewelry.

The interior of the Gallery in the Sun is stunning. I didn’t take nearly enough photos of all the architectural details.

But I did photograph some of DeGrazia’s works that I liked far better than the Native American children he is so known for.

Ted DeGrazia, Trumpet Player. Oil on canvas. Bullfight Collection – 1966

Ted DeGrazia, Self Portrait in Pink. Oil on canvas. Retrospective Collection – 1980.

The floor is made of cement and cross-sections of cholla skeletons. I wish I had paid more attention to it during my visit.

After my visit, I found this 1996 Tucson Citizen article by John Jennings about the Gallery in the Sun. It describes so many interesting details I want to see for myself the next time I’m in Tucson:

Embedded in the floor of a walkway near the gallery’s main lobby is a small piece of turquoise surrounded by a thin gold rim. Difficult to see, even when you know where to look, it is the top of a ring De Grazia put there when he was pouring the floor, which consists of cholla cross-sections and cement. The small ring was given to De Grazia by a little girl who loved him and his work, and who was dying. He wanted it be a permanent part of the building he was creating.

There’s even a color named after Ted DeGrazia that involves prickly pear cactus (opuntias):

Female cochineal beetles, whose cocoons are attached to prickly pear cactus, produce a purple color when ground up, Reyes [the gallery’s resident director in 1996] noted.

“De Grazia thinned it down to make a vibrant pink, which now is called `De Grazia Pink’.”

The 10-acre site at 6300 N Swan Road was declared a historic district in 2006. The Gallery in the Sun is open from 10am to 4pm daily. Admission is free.

RELATED POSTS:

• 12/30/15: DeGrazia Gallery in the Sun, Tucson, AZ (part 1)

• December 2015 Desert Trip index

St. Louis-based blogger Alan Lorence of It’s Not Work, It’s Gardening! is not only an insightful writer and photographer, he’s also an accomplished woodworker. He recently started a new company, Nimble Mill, to market his handcrafted furniture and garden art. Nimble Mill has released three designs so far: the Whorn, a stool/table for indoor and outdoor use; the Bayce, a plant container or stand; and the Trang, a triangular variant of the Whorn.

The Whorn “spoke” to me ever since I saw a preview a few months ago. Last week I finally received my own pair. Eventually my Whorns will go in the backyard to serve both as additional seating and, for my own selfish purposes, as side tables when I laze in the hammock.

Even though the Whorn is designed for outdoor use, protected with a polyurethane finish that should withstand the elements, I’m keeping my units inside until the rainy season is over. And since they’re still shiny and new, now seemed like a good time to take a few photos.

The Whorn comes in a variety of colors. Mine are Just Red and Moss Green. (The shade of green looks a bit different in reality than it does in these photos. The colors on the Nimble Mill site are more true-to-life.)

The Whorn is not a flimsy piece of furniture—it weighs in at a solid 20+ lbs! Alan told me it’s made of southern pine but he’s experimenting with other types of wood as well.

The legs are stained Dark Roast, which offers a nice contrast.

At the bottom there’s a fill hole (covered with a bolt head in the photo below) so you can add sand, small pebbles, etc. to make the Whorn even heavier. I don’t think it’s needed, but it’s nice to have that option.

I love that each unit is handsigned and -numbered, much like a piece of art would be

This morning, my younger daughter, our black Lab Sasha, and I had some fun with our two Whorns.

A comfy place to sit

Sasha thinks the Whorn would make a good stand for her food bowl

Nice with plants…

…or just pots (pottery by Keith Kitoi Taylor)

Yours truly channeling Sia, the elusive Australian singer who doesn’t like to show her face

They’re all miiiiiiiiine!

The Whorn is not an el cheapo piece of furniture churned out by a Chinese factory, or sold by the thousands at IKEA. Instead, each unit is handmade, with Alan’s love of workworking and attention to detail showing at every turn. The Whorn is art—practical art.

For more information, please visit the Nimble Mill website.

Admittedly, this is not the best time of year to get new plants. It is, after all, still winter—even here in California. But for reasons that are no doubt part physiological and part psychological I tend to go stir-crazy in late January/early February, wanting nothing more than to work in the garden.

What usually helps tide me over is getting a few new plants. And that’s exactly what I’ve been doing over the last few weeks—all without leaving the house. What did we ever do before the Internet?

The thrills of opening a package with plants inside

My first new acquisition is Euphorbia tirucalli ‘Sticks on Fire’. Actually, it’s a bunch of cuttings I got from somebody in Southern California who was trimming the plant in their yard. Euphorbia tirucalli is not hardy here in Davis so it’ll live in a pot (maybe a red one). I do love the way it colors up in the sun.

The next group of three were plants I won in the raffle at the January meeting of the Sacramento Cactus & Succulent Society.

LEFT: Candle plant ( Senecio articulatus)  RIGHT: ×Pachyveria cultivar (intergeneric hybrid between a Pachyphytum and Echeveria, not sure which and the label didn’t provide any info)

Old Man of the Andes cactus ( Oreocereus trollii). It’s a hairy old man alright…

I also ordered four plants from Arid Lands in Tucson, AZ. As with all mail-order plants from Arid Lands, they arrived bare root, i.e. without soil. I stuck them in small pots filled with succulent mix and placed on a heat mat to encourage the formation of new roots.(I turn the heat mat and light on in the morning and off at night.)

LEFT TO RIGHT, STARTING AT 7 O’CLOCK: Agave albopilosa, Sansevieria pinguicula, Aloe comosa, Aloe dhufarensis

Aloe dhufarensis is a striking aloe from the Saudi Arabian peninsula (not from Africa, like most aloes). It forms a rosette of very pale leaves up to 24 inches across. I first saw it at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, AZ and have been looking for it ever since. According to reports, it can take temperatures as low as 20°F, which makes it one of the hardier aloes out there.

Sansevieria pinguicula

Agave albopilosa

Euphorbia tirucalli ‘Sticks on Fire’ joined the Arid Lands plants on the heat mat (rearranged since I took this photo)

Have you bought any plants yet this year?

This winter has been strange. Maybe because after four years of drought it’s marked a return to the “old days,” or a semblance thereof? We only had one night below freezing and certainly more rain than we’ve been used to lately (7.77 inches since November 1, 2015) At the same time it hasn’t been unseasonably warm like in recent years. As a result, the two groups of flowering “a” plants I keep an eye on at this time of year—aloes and acacias—are lagging behind a few weeks. Or maybe they’re right where they should be in a “normal” year? I must admit I keep forgetting what “normal” is.

Anyway, I did a quick check on the aloes and acacias on the University of California Davis campus this past weekend, and this is what I found.

A few aloes are in bloom in the alley between Haring Hall and the Sciences Lab Building but most of them are still in the bud stage

The big aloes outside the Sciences Laboratory Building are still a few weeks away from flowering

Aloe marlothii

LEFT: Aloe marlothii  RIGHT: Aloe ferox

Aloe marlothii

Aloe marlothii

Aloe ferox

Aloe microstigma

Two years ago, all of these aloes were in full bloom in early February.

The next photo is proof that this year winter (or what passes for winter around here) is sticking around a little longer.

Moving on to the Eric E. Conn Acacia Grove in the UC Davis Arboretum. Many trees are loaded with buds but all of them are still at least two weeks away from a good show. It all depends on how much sun we get. Today it was sunny but fairly cold (high of 57°F). However, for early next week Intellicast is forecasting daytime highs in the low 70s. That should help.

I’ll check back towards the middle of February.

Queensland silver wattle or pearl acacia ( Acacia podalyriifolia)

West Wyalong wattle ( Acacia cardiophylla)

Yesterday was a perfect late-winter day—blue sky and warm enough to work outside in a T-shirt. But instead of puttering around in the garden, I decided to give in to the plant-shopping itching that had been plaguing me all week.

It’s no secret that I love Annie’s Annuals & Perennials in Richmond, CA. I’ve certainly written about them plenty of times before ( 1234  5  6). While they’re not exactly around the corner, their selection is so huge that I don’t mind the 60-minute drive (yesterday it was even less because traffic was as perfect as the weather).

I’m always fascinated by the cabbage trees ( Cussonia sp.) outside the nursery. I have three different species in pots and bought a fourth yesterday.

Look at the crazy way this cussonia is growing!

The demonstration beds just inside the entrance are undergoing a major overhaul. To my surprise I noticed netting on the sides and on top. I wonder which birds they’re trying to keep out?

The cow looked happy as always.

I wish I could grow dudleyas but our climate is too hot in the summer.

Dudley brittonnii

Dudley brittonniii and Echeveria ‘Imbricata’

Echeveria diffractens

The area in the back is the “stage” where they hold talks and workshops:

Now let’s walk through the nursery, starting in the succulent section. With few exceptions (fruit trees and roses), Annie’s plants are in 4-inch pots; the label color denotes the price. Seeing a sea of labels in a variety of colors is a cheery sight.

Sempervivum ‘Silver King’

Xanthorrhoea preissii

Xanthorrhoea preissii seedling, the tiniest plant I’ve ever seen at Annie’s. Like all Xanthorrhoeas, it’s very slow-growing—so slow that it can probably live in this 4-inch pot for a number of years.

Dasylirion serratifolium, a close relative of the common desert spoon ( Dasylirion wheeleri). One came home with me.

Sedum hispanicum with impossibly small leaves

Echeveria peacockii

Echeveria peacockii

Cotyledon orbiculata

Cotyledon orbiculata

The selection of agaves was larger this time than before. Here are just some of the species available.

Agave vilmoriniana

Agave applanata ‘Cream Spike’

Agave ovatifolia

Agave gypsophila

Agave valenciana, a relatively recently described species from the state of Jalisco in western Mexico. Related to Agave marmorata, it’s a true giant—5-7 feet tall and 10-12 feet across—and quite frost-sensitive. On young plants, the underside of the leaves is purple. I don’t think any other agave has that.

Puya chilensis

Puya boliviensis

Puya boliviensis. I love how well-armed the leaves are. This plant knows how to defend itself.

Cephalophyllum pillansii, one of an ever growing selection of ice plants that Annie’s carries

Morina longifolia looked interesting

The proteas and leucadendrons tempt me every time but I’ve lost too many of these small starts to bother again

Begonia ‘Litte Brother Montgomery’. While the foliage looked a bit ratty, I couldn’t resist. As we head into spring, there’ll be plenty of new leaves.

Melianthus pectinatus, relative of the common honey bush. I wish I had a spot that’s consistently moist…

Crotalaria agatiflora. I’ve said it before, but I think the plant labels at Annie’s are absolutely fantastic. They sure know how to get your attention. “FOUR FOOT LONG chartreuse flower spikes!” Who wouldn’t want one of these!

Asclepias physocarpa, a milkweed on steroids, with very interesting seed pods

After having resisted the urge to buy one for years…

…and in spite of the fact that the seedlings were very small, I brought one home

I also bought one of these ( Papaver atlanticum)…

… and one of these ( Kniphofia northiae), next to the Xanthorrhoea preissii above the smallest plants I saw in the entire nursery. I’m hoping it will grow reasonably fast.

Gardeners who are into California (and West Coast) natives would be in paradise at Annie’s. The Natives section is huge. Here are just a few plants that caught my eye.

Ceanothus ‘Joyce Coulter’, a groundcover California lilac

Arctostaphylos edmundsii ‘Carmel Sur’, a groundcover manzanita

Dudleya farinosa, one several dudleya species native to California

Verbascum macrurum, one of ten or so verbascums Annie’s carries. I was tempted, but I’ve never been able to get verbascums to flower in my garden.

As I was walking into the office trailer to pay, I couldn’t help notice the Mimetes cucullatus outside. Even though it wasn’t in bloom like last May, it’s still a stunner. Too bad the small start I bought last year (and paid $$ for) didn’t make it. I think the summers in Davis are just too hot.

Mimetes cucullatus

And here’s what I brought home with me:

My haul

• Agave valenciana
• Asclepias physocarpa (family jewels tree)
• Begonia 'Little Brother Montgomery’
• Camissonia cheiranthifolia (beach primrose)
• Clarkia amoena ‘Aurora’ (farewell to spring)
• Cussonia natalensis (rock cabbage tree)
• Dasylirion serratifolium
• Delosperma nubigenum
• Drosanthemum micans
• Echium webbii
• Encelia farinosa (brittle bush)
• Eucalyptus preissiana (bell-fruited mallee)
• Glaucium flavum (yellow horned poppy)
• Kniphofia northiae (octopus red hot poker)
• Papaver atlanticum (Moroccan poppy)
• Senecio serpens (blue fingers)

Some of these will go in the new succulent mound that will replace the front lawn, others in the desert bed, and the rest in pots or in the backyard.

Yep, you read that right.

If you’ve ever dreamed of relocating to San Diego County (✔) and/or owning a succulent nursery (✔), now’s your chance. This kind of opportunity may never happen again.

Just take a look:

Dreamy, isn’t it?

All photos are from the official listing web site found here.

Of course there is a wee sticking point: price. I don’t currently have $1.5 million. But if you do, this is what you get:

Welcome to Paradise! Amazing lifestyle property features nicely appointed 2005 built house with beautiful canyon & sunset views over 8.44 acres of land. Ideal live/work home is currently a successful nursery with large inventory of cacti and succulents & national reputation. Add your own home-based business dream. Property zoned A70, horses allowed too! Nestled in a stunning private garden with patio & fenced pet area plus garage, the home is a comfortable, updated space. Secluded, yet only 3.6 miles from highway, 2 miles from Meadow Lake Golf Club, 10 minutes from central Escondido & 40 minutes outside downtown San Diego. No HOA. Owned solar panels reduce power bill to near 0! Property is being sold as a package, home, land, inventory, business goodwill, and operator training. Ask listing agents for details.

The nursery in question is Desert Theater Nursery. I’ve never been there, but I have friends who have and they rave about it.

Succulent expert, author and photographer Debra Lee Baldwin lives near Desert Theater Nursery and has taken many photos there that were later used in her books and presentations. She has put together a special web page with extensive information about the property and its potential as well as a series of beautiful photographs. If you’d like to receive the link to that page (well worth it!), please contact Debra.

And if you happen to plan a visit to San Diego anytime soon, be sure to stop by Desert Theater. I may be in San Diego next month, and if I go, I will make every effort to visit.

Momentous things are happening in our front yard. In a matter of hours, we went from this:

…to this:

…to this:

In the photo above, the metal edging outlines the areas we’re creating:

• Two succulent mounds, 2 ft. at their tallest. The soil will eventually compact to 1 – 1½ ft.
• 1 ft. wide paths, to be covered with gray decomposed granite (which will also be used as the top dressing for the succulent mounds). The path in the foreground looks wider than it actually is because of the distortion from the wide-angle lens I was using.
• 4 ft. wide Corten planter at the 1 o’clock position, to be used for vegetables. It’ll take a few weeks for the planter to arrive but it’ll look like this.

By tomorrow evening the soil for the succulent mounds should be in place. I may finally get to do some planting on the weekend!

The lawn in the back yard is gone, too. It will be replaced with Dymondia margaretae planted inside hollow pavers, which it will completely cover eventually.

Lot of things going on. Lots of material for future blog posts!

The Wednesday Vignette meme is hosted by Anna Kullgren over atFlutter and Hum. You can read her current Wednesday Vignette posthere. Be sure to check out the links to other blogs that are also participating.

When I asked a friend in Tucson what the best full-service nurseries are in town, he didn’t hesitate: Mesquite Valley Growers and Civano Nursery.

I checked them out on my recent trip, and I’m happy to report that I liked both. Actually, I didn’t just like Mesquite Valley Growers, I loved it. And I’ll show you why.

The first thing I saw as I was approaching Mesquite Valley Growers were the planting beds along Speedway Boulevard. They separate the parking lot (and nursery beyond) from the busy road.

There’s a lot to love here.

If this had been, say, a hotel or shopping center, I would have spent more time looking at these plantings. But the nursery was calling…

Golden barrel cactus ( Echinocactus grusonii) in a bed of candelilla ( Euphorbia antisyphilitica)

I forgot to take a photo of the nursery entrance because I was distracted (in a good way) by this sign:

One of the funniest signs I’ve ever seen in a nursery

I was at Mesquite Valley Growers the week after Christmas, and the nursery was still in full holiday mode. But this arrangement, made from a branch of mesquite tree that had come down at the nursery, would look good year round. The cyclamens were an unusual touch.

Hoe, hoe, hoe: This nursery has a sense of humor—plus some mighty big tools.

The nursery is huge, 22 acres according to this January 2016 profile. Unlike other retail nurseries that buy their plants from wholesalers, Mesquite Valley grows much of their own stock (hence the word “Growers” in the nursery name).

In addition to plants, there is a large variety of pottery, statuary, garden art, garden furniture, gift items, etc. etc. If I had wanted to look at everything they carry, I would have needed several hours.

As it was, I quickly walked through the shrubs, trees and perennials towards my main destination: the succulent section.

Agave bovicornuta trimmed for the holidays

The first of many cholla skeletons I would see

‘Desert Museum’ palo verde—for sale in every Arizona nursery I visited but still elusive here in the Sacramento Valley

This is the kind of information I appreciate in a full-service nursery

Did I tell you this nursery has a great sense of humor?

The succulents section was as impressive as I had expected to be, with plants ranging in size from 3-inch pots to 36-inch boxes.

The prices were impressive as well:

$300 for this Agave havardiana in a 24-inch box. That may seem shocking at first (and as a cheapskate I would never want to pay that much), but I think it’s actually quite fair considering how many years it takes for an agave to get to this size.

Yucca rostrata in a 24-inch box

Take a deep breath before you look at the price tag

Ocotillos galore…

…in all sizes

Agave parryi var. truncata

Agaves, agaves, agaves

More agaves

And even more agaves

Saguaro skeleton (back) and cholla skeleton (front). Some day I’ll drive to Arizona in a van and bring back a saguaro skeleton like that.

Columnar cacti

I loved these “I won’t freeze” signs. I saw them all over the nursery. Tucson does get frost at the height of winter. Learning from previous experience, I actually brought an ice scraper this time and used it on both mornings I was in Tucson.

More Yucca rostrata

More golden barrels and saguaro skeletons

An interesting way to plant a golden barrel cactus

Aren’t you tempted to load up your shopping cart?

Miniature version of the slipper plant ( Pedilanthus macrocapus ‘Compactus’)

I actually bought one last year under a different name: Pedilanthus cymbifera

Taxonomically speaking, all these names are invalid since the genus Pedilanthus has been subsumed under the much larger genus Euphorbia. Pedilanthus macrocarpus is now Euphorbia lomelii. Go figure.

I may be a Grinch when it comes to Christmas decorations, but I thought these Santa hats looked mighty stylish on these cacti

Another cholla skeleton!

Some day I’ll have my own totem pole cactus ( Lophocereus schottii forma mostruosa)

Yes, they do have to water their potted succulents in the winter

1 gallon cacti

Metal agave torch

I’d never seen a Santa cowboy hat before!

View of the succulents section

Smaller succulents and Talavera pottery

I loved (LOVED!) this face statue. Why? I have no idea!

If you’re ever in Tucson and only have time to visit one nursery….well, I would want you to see Greg Starr. But if you’re on the eastern side of town, swing by Mesquite Valley Growers. And have your credit card handy!

Agave mitis (aka Agave celsii) is native to the east-central Mexican states of Hidalgo, Tamaulipas and San Luis Potosí where it grows on steep cliffs. It typically offsets quite freely and is hardy to the low 20s, possibly lower (zone 8b).

My plant came from the Landscape Cactis and Succulents Nursery at UC Botanical Garden at Berkeley. My records, spotty as they are, show that I bought it as a 3-gallon plant on May 4, 2009 for $25. It’s been in an egg pot on the front porch ever since. In those 6¾  years it has grown tremendously, all in the same pot, but it has not produced a single baby. Maybe because it’s been in a pot all this time?

Late last year I noticed it leaning forward precariously. I thought it might be getting ready to bloom and I was just going to let it go. A couple of week ago I took a closer look and to my big surprise the soil in the pot was completely dry—think BONE DRY. Since the pot is right on the edge of the front porch, I had assumed it was getting enough rain to keep the agave hydrated. I guess not.

Figuring my Agave mitis would be happier in the ground that in a pot, I yanked the root ball out of the egg pot. At first it wouldn’t budge, but the soil (at least a third of which was pumice) finally shook loose and I got the plant out. Here is the root ball leaning against the (underused) display table next to the front porch:

Considering how overplanted everything is, I had a hard time finding a spot for this Agave mitis. But fear not, I did find one next to the Aloidendron ‘Hercules’ in the front yard desert bed.

It looks a bit like an apple-green rag doll but I’m hoping it will re-root quickly and get established.

And if it is indeed in the initial stages of flower, so be it.

P.S. My Agave mitis really is that apple green. Some are a more muted green, and some are a ghostly white (variety albidior).

We worked all weekend on our lawn removal projects—both in the front and in the back yard. There are still a few things left to do so the big reveal will have to wait a little while longer. But I want to share with you how my wife and I transplanted a big barrel cactus from a pot into the ground.

Here’s the bad boy:

I bought it in February 2011 at Mariscal Cactus & Succulents near Palm Springs. It was little smaller then; I’d say it’s grown by about 2/3. It’s now 16 inches tall and wide, not measuring the spines that stick out another inch on each side.

Mariscal said it was a fishhook barrel ( Ferocactus wislizeni) but when Greg Starr visited last summer, he thought it was actually Ferocactus herrerae. Some sources list Ferocactus herrerae as a variety of Ferocactus wislizeni, so the two appear to be closely related.

Here’s what we did to transplant this barrel cactus from its pot on the front porch into one of the succulents mounds that now occupy what used to be the front yard lawn.

STEP 1: DIG A HOLE

This is the most obvious step. Dig a hole in the ground where you want the cactus to go. Make it slightly bigger than what it needs to be.

STEP 2: PROTECT THE CACTUS—AND YOURSELF

I keep old towels, rugs, bath mats etc. on hand for this very purpose. I wrapped the cactus in an old IKEA area rug and a bath mat and held them in place with a couple of bungee cords.

STEP 3: REMOVE CACTUS FROM POT

I failed to take pictures of this because it required two sets of hands. My wife and I carried the potted cactus over to the white tarp you see in the second photo above (I didn’t want to make a mess on the new path). I gave the pot a number of whacks with a rubber mallet to loosen the roots that might have attached themselves to the sides of the pot. I then laid the pot on its side and pulled on the cactus while my wife pulled on the pot. At first the cactus wouldn’t budge. I was getting ready to smash the pot (the cactus is worth more than the pot) when the cactus finally popped out. I lost some roots but that’s OK.

STEP 4: PUT CACTUS IN HOLE

The hole I’d dug turned out to be a bit bigger than it needed to be so I dumped some 3/8 inch rocks in it. I set the root ball on top of that and filled the hole around it with soil and more 3/8 rocks. The soil we’d had brought it is very loose and already has both pumice and small pieces of lava rock in it, but with cactus it’s virtually impossible to have too much drainage.

IMPORTANT: It’s important to plant the cactus in the same orientation it is used to. In other words, the side that was facing south when the cactus was in the pot should still be facing south after planting. Otherwise the cactus will sustain unsightly sunburn. This kind of damage is permanent and will never go away.

I blurred out the left side of the photo above because I don’t want to give away too much yet. Look for the grand reveal of the front lawn removal project soon.

Since our barrel cactus used to live on the front porch where it only received directional sun in the mid- to late afternoon, I covered it with pieces of window screen to prevent sunburn. I’ll leave them in place for a week. Then I’ll remove the screen for 1/2 day for another week. After that, I’ll take it off altogether. I’m probably being too careful but the last thing I want is for my cactus to get horrible brown spots from sunburn.

None of this is rocket science, but many people hesitate to transplant larger cactus. The key is to protect yourself (so you don’t get hurt) and the cactus (so it’s spines don’t get broken or its skin damaged).

NOTES ON WATERING: I typically wait a week or 10 days before giving a transplanted cactus some water. This allows the roots to heal in case they were damaged.

I recently learned from Laurin Lindsey of Ravenscourt Landscaping & Design in Houston, TX that seaweed extract is beneficial in preventing transplant shock. I plan on giving my barrel cactus a dose as soon as my order of Maxicrop Liquid Seaweed arrives.

Tonight another El Niño system is moving in, promising up to ½ inch of rain in the Sacramento Valley, but this past week has been perfect: gloriously sunny and unseasonably warm. In fact, Sacramento broke all kinds of temperature records yesterday (77°F).

This boost of heat was the proverbial kick in the behind our aloes needed. After languishing in limbo for weeks, the aloes in the desert bed outside the fence have finally started to switch to flowering mode. This is just the very beginning. With somewhat lower temperatures in the forecast, I’m hoping we’ll get to enjoy the blooms into March.

Let’s take a look at what’s happening.

Much needed floral cheer in this planting strip

Even the ‘Aristocrat’ pear ( Pyrus calleryana ‘Aristocrat’) in the backyard is playing along. This is the only time of year I like it.

The two yellowish orange aloes are ‘Moonglow’, a Sunbird Aloes hybrid

‘Erik the Red’ on the left, ‘Moonglow’ on the right, both from Sunbird Aloes

Aloe ‘Moonglow’ flowers up close

Wide view of the planting strip

Another Aloe ‘Moonglow’. I have three now. The one you saw earlier is the mother, the other two (this one included) are offsets.

This is my favorite section of this bed. The tall aloe on the left is Aloidendron ‘Hercules’.

Looking the other direction (west)

Aloe ferox on the right

Aloe ferox

The red aloe is Aloe cameronii

Aloe cameroniii and ‘Moonglow’ #3

Aloe ‘Moonglow’ #3 with a clump of Agave macroacantha

Next weekend I’ll check back on the aloes on the UC Davis campus.