Meet the B Team

Some people ask "when is it a good time to repot succulents?' and, if today is anything to go by, the answer might be "when you feel guilty".

Folks, it's time to meet the much neglected, but freshly repotted, B-team of my succulent collection. As you can see from the glamorous photo below, the first time our gas meter has made it into this blog, this gaggle of potted succulents looks like they are well kept and much cared for. Nothing could be further from the truth!

When I planted out my backyard succulent patch, transferring
my potted collection to their new home in the ground, there were
many potted leftovers. Some went to good homes as gifts, a few
were left out in the street with a "Free Plants" sign nearby (and
they all went in an hour or so). But a selection of them stayed
on for duty as the "B Team". Their job was to provide backup
plants in case any plants in the ground failed. Well, that didn't
happen, and so the B Team has hung around down the side of
the house, where the garbage bins and gas meter reside. And
so I mostly forgot about them, except to wince slightly every
week when putting out the garbage. "Must repot those succulents,
or get rid of them, or something else" I have said to myself
many times, and so today, Good Friday, I felt guilty.

These haworthias were in a miserable clump of slumped potting
mix that rose no higher than halfway up its pot, and they didn't
seem to mind at all. But I did, so today I broke up the whole clump
and have turned this into three pots of these guys, which look
like they were designed by Gaudi, the Barcelona Cathedral guy.

This graptoveria (?) was thriving on neglect, sprawling out of
its pot and monstering its neighbours. I snipped off the wanderers
and there's still plenty of colour and action going on here.

Same deal with this... graptopetalum (??), loving the side
passageway, a diet of natural rainfall and no other assistance.

Finally, this utter weirdo has also grown.
Half an hour of Googling seems to indicate that
this might be Euphorbia tirucalli, a stick-like
thing without leaves. A neighbour who was
moving house gave it to me, but neither Pam
nor I particularly liked it. I just kept on
growing it for curiosity's sake – to see what it
actually "did". Answer... not much, although
it too has grown well in the alleyway of shame.

To compound all my crimes, it being Good Friday none of the gardening centres were open, so all I had for potting mix was ordinary potting mix, a bag two-thirds full. Still left over from the succulent garden revamp were two full bags of washed, coarse sand, so I mixed some of that into the potting mix (50:50) to create enough mix for all the repotting. I'm working on the theory that as the backyard in-ground succulent garden, which is about 50% coarse sand now, is belting along nicely, then that sand is the magic ingredient which makes my succulents grow. Plus crossing your fingers, that helps too.

I also have a couple of bags of white pebble mulch left over from the makeover, and it really helps to make the repotted succulents look snazzier, doesn't it?

And so that's the B Team's moment of glory. Repotted, photographed and blogged about. Autumn has barely begun here in Sydney, as summer is hanging around like it doesn't want to end. It has been very warm and humid for the last few weeks, with overnight temperatures still up in the 20s (°C) and days in the high 20s and low 30s. Today is cooler, good repotting weather, and hopefully there'll be a couple more months of autumn for the B Team to get growing. I'll check on their progress every garbage night!

Loving their new home

Steady growth is a deceptive thing. It wasn't until I compared my September and December photos of the revamped succulent garden that I realised how much things have grown there. At least I know they're loving their new home, and that's the main thing I wanted to happen. Digging in vast amounts of sand has provided them with the free-draining soil they needed, and this relatively dryish spring has suited them just fine. Thank you Huey, the Rain God, very supportive gesture. And so it's on with the guided tour, and if any succulent experts can help me with a few names, I will be forever in your debt.

This morning, December 9, a happy little succulent patch.
Check out the photo below, to see how well it has grown.

This is the day I planted it all out, September 2. 

This hovering 'helicopter' shot shows how there's a bit of
crowding going on, but most of them have room to grow.
The main problem here is the green Sedum 'Autumn Joy'
centre left, which is making life hard for the sempervivums.

These portulacas (yellow and red flowers) have come up by
themselves. They are a weed of  a thing, so weedy I waged a
 battle to be rid of them a few years back, but with all the digging
of soil in so many places, some seed has come to the surface
and, typical of portulacas, raced away. Letting them grow on
might prove to be a mistake, but I do grudgingly admire them.

Sedum rubrotinctim 'Jelly Beans' with a little
pink tinge to the tips, are doing outrageously well.

Ditto the grey-blue Senecio nearby. Slow down!

At the back of the bed, a formerly neglected,
potted Crassula argenta 'Coral', a fat-trunked
mini tree, is loving its new home. Its interesting
dimple-ended fat succulent leaves were sparse
when I transplanted it here, but it's piling on the
foliage now and is now looking much more imposing.

Black-leaved Aeonium 'Schwartkopf' has grown a lot, so too
its neighbour, who I think might be a Senecio ameniensis.

Well-named, Kalanchoe 'Copper Spoons' in
front, with another Senecio amaniensis at the
back, both belting along in the sandy soil.

This weirdo is an echeveria, E. 'Topsy Turvey'.

Euphorbia caput-medusae, or Medusa's head, will soon
be wearing a veil of these pretty little yellow flowers all over.

This trailing succulent, about to flower, is Senecio jacobensii.
It's probably happier in a hanging basket, on the edge of a
rock or ledge, but I am hoping it will grow down the gentle
slope. I have another one in a basket, just as a back-up.

At this stage, its flower looks like a bunch of julienned carrots.

As mentioned earlier, these sempervivums are being crowded
by the rapid spread of the Sedum 'Autumn Joy'. I'm keeping
a watch on this, which I suspect is an unfolding disaster.

Now, for the bit where the succulent experts might be able to
help. This person is growing well, colouring up nicely, but as
for its name I've got short odds on it being a graptoveria, but
go ahead and surprise me, tell me it's something else. All the
original plant label said was 'succulent'.

Same deal with this fascinating person, whose name I don't know.
When planted back in September, it looked decidedly unhealthy,
a bit 'wrinkly' in the foliage, but now it looks like it's back from
the health resort. Searching for something like it in books and
online has come up with the possibility it's an Argyroderma
of some sort (a what?); and there's a rough chance it could be a
haworthia even, but I honestly don't know its name.
EDIT: thanks to reader/commenter Ngeun, who has a great 
blog called Lithopsland, at first it looked like this person is
a Lapidaria of some kind, but then a kind friend of Ngeun's 
had a look, and the final decision is that it's Corpuscularia,
Probably C. lehmannii. Thank you LT Expanded!

Finally, if you have spotted one or two weeds lurking in the background of photos, yes they are there in numbers at all times. So far I roughly estimate that I have yanked out a few thousand baby weedlets in the last three months (lots of oxalis, natch). From this experience I think pebbles might be pretty but they are the least weed-suppressing mulch ever! Fortunately, in the extremely soft, sandy soil the weeds come out, roots and all, very easily. Wandering outside in the morning to pull out another few dozen weedlets has become part of the daily routine, but I think it has helped a lot. 

The other important benefit of spending those few minutes fussing over the succulent patch every morning is that it is so much rewarding fun. And that's the main thing!

Some (slow) progress

The guy I work for, Don, has a great garden design method that is known as 'put and look'. It's simple enough: just put the potted plants (still in their pots) where you plan to have them, then stand back and see how they look. If you don't like that look, move them around until you do. That's usually a doddle to do with seedlings, baby shrubs and saplings, but with a 10-year-old, 2m tall curry tree in a large, heavy pot it was strenuous going. Enough complaining, here's how 'put and look' worked out.

The curry tree used to be on the 'far right' of this photo,
just behind the money tree (ie, a crassula) on the right.
Before moving the curry tree I had to lean it on its 
side and use tree loppers to cut through the thick roots 
which had grown through the bottom of the pot and 
no doubt were halfway down to China. Rolling it 
around to its new spot took a while, too, but it's 
good morning work, curry-tree-rolling!

No doubt the curry tree will settle into the soil, develop
a lean and need propping up, but it already looks bigger
and happier in this more open spot. As I have cruelly
cut off its tap root it will no doubt lose some leaves and
sulk a bit, but I am hoping that the magic of seaweed 
solution (Seasol) treatments plus the mildness of our winter
will encourage the roots to grow again. We shall see.

The money tree is staying where it is. For a while I 
entertained the foolish idea of moving it, but it's staying
where it is, and the curry tree is to move up the lane.

I showed the full story of this gardening crime last
posting. This was once a potted plant but its roots found 
their way into the soil, the plastic pot burst long ago and
this had grown into a beast with an anaconda-thickness
trunk. Somehow I think moving it might be somewhere 
between impossible and fatal, probably both. So ugly as it
is, but with a story to tell, here it resides.

In between the curry tree and the money tree is this
person, Crassula argentea 'Coral', a charming weirdo 
for whom I have quite a soft spot. Love the chunky trunk,
and the oddball foliage. I think I will plant this one into
the ground, but at the moment it's staying in its pot until the 
'put and look' decision is finally made (ie, Pammy likes it too).

Here's a close-up of its foliage, which is, depending on
which leaf you examine, either hollow at the end or 
deeply dimpled. This isn't a photo taken today, by the way. 
It's one taken back in 2008, when this was a far 
healthier, happier and sunnier personality.

Here's the 2008 plant. Compare this dense foliage on 
this far younger tree with the relatively sparse 
coverage on today's tree, two photos above. I am sure this
is purely due to a lack of sunlight, as the rescued plant has
been heavily shaded by both the grevillea and the rosemary 
which have now both gone to that great compost heap in the sky.

So this is the humble site of stage 2 of the makeover 
(stage 1 was clearing out all the unwanted stuff and having 
it carted away). I still want this to be a succulent bed, 
but not with everything in a difficult-to-manage jumble of
pots. At this stage I'm thinking of laying two courses 
of bricks around the bed, and filling this with a 50:50 mix
of sand and soil mix, so it's very free-draining, the kind
of soil that succulents love.

Here's the old 'succulent city' back in 2008, and 
a happy jumble of plants it was, too, and I would like
to maintain something of the colour and spirit of 
this potted gaggle, but without the pots.