Agave attenuata
What a season to be gardening on the west coast. Non-stop sunshine and fair weather made for one extremely busy May. We spent many the late eve racking up beautiful plants and sending them out throughout Victoria, Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland. Make hay while the sun shines. Grow beautiful plants and find them new homes. Such is the life of a nurseryman. What seemed like forever was over in an instance. My sense of time has been on the fast forward as of late. A rumbling succession of spring flowers have emerged this season. From one leaf grows two and then three, as days get longer and warmer the plants truly come to life. A jungle grows up almost overnight. Having setup the bones of this garden many years ago this season provided a remarkably effortless astonishing display.
Some notable plant news in my garden.
-This season one of my echiums flowered.
-My tetrapanax grew a few more feet and at it’s base many offsets have poked their heads. Dreams of a rice paper plant forest becoming more possible each day.
-Podophyllum ‘Spotty Dotty’ assumed dead last season (didn’t poke up once) appeared this year full force with 10-15 heads.
-Cardiocrinium Lily blooming right now. 12 cream shaded trumpets standing over 10ft tall in the garden. During afternoon dabbled shade flickers an intoxicating smell comes in waves.
-Front succulent bed thriving. Agave parryi spent the winter outdoors.
-New vegetable beds out front. Just planted a Ketchup and Fries tomato potato plant. I’ve been eating zero mile greens for months.
Life has been grand. Now for some photos. April through May in my garden & greenhouse. 
Growing plants industrially is not for the faint of heart. It’s a staggering thought to be handling literally millions of plants per year. Each one with their own special requirements. The natural programming to thrive given the opportunity. A little bit of this a little bit of that. Not too much water, but not too little. Just right. AND. presto. another perfect plant.
Do you like plants? Do you know what a petunia is? Oh good. Think you could go down to the lower houses and gather me up. Say 2500-3000 of them. I need them by Sunday, but no later than Monday. Flat after flat of visual feast.
A hard thing to fully conceptualize but I sometimes stand back and wonder. Where do all these begonias end up to grow? Probably down the street, some a few towns away. In mountain gardens and beachside villas. Apartments. Mansions. Hospitals. Grocery Stores. Police Stations and your grandma’s window sill. I’m a cog in a complex system of the plant industry. Where do your begonias come from? 
May is a crazy time of year for us. Some weeks tend to feel like that movie ‘GroundHog Day’ with Bill Murray . We work from sunrise to sunset, day after day. It has it’s challenges but is a satisfying meditation to endure. As people escape the clutches of winter they go absolutely plant crazy here in Victoria B.C. It really is an awesome event. The scavenger hunt begins and people rush out to find their old favorites and the rare and new. I really do love the job. After a long day in the sun, we often have dinner out in the garden. A lush coolness is in the air. A great place to unwind and relax the mind, body and soul. 
Corokia ‘Little Prince’ 
A view from the bedroom. 
Manfreda is flowering. So far over 7ft tall. 
Agave victoriae-reginae 
Podophyllum ‘Spotty Dotty’ 
Xerophyllum tenax ‘Bear Grass’ 
First echium blooms. 
Sinningia leucotricha 
Agave attenuata
A word to the wise that our annual plant hoarder’s plant sale will be happening Sunday June 21st (Father’s Day) @ Cook & Fairfield. A fantastic array of plants from near and far. Color & annuals, perennials and oddities, vegetables and herbs. A fine assortment of amazing plants. For the person just getting started or the gardener who has everything. Show up early for the best selection. 1 Tetrapanax will be available via silent auction. Come check out my outdoor succulent garden and swap a plant story or two. My plants are orphans and need new homes. See you there! 🙂
The days are getting shorter, the weather wetter and like it or not, winter – IS – coming. Nothing makes you miss a summer vacation to a hot cactus wonderland like a couple weeks of good old fashioned British Columbia rain and gray. Let’s take a moment to forget the wet boots and mud puddles and reminisce of warmer days.
Add this one to your bucket list if you have a fascination in exotic plants, The Huntington Botanical Gardens is truly a national landmark. Famous for it’s large amassment of established rare flora, the garden has one of the finest collections of outdoor cacti in the world. Beyond succulents, the property also has many other incredible plant collections organized into over a dozen specialized gardens. Wander through a lush bamboo forest into a dry Australian prairie, up through a Camellia forest and across a bridge to the Japanese Gardens. Whether you’d like to visit a cloud forest in a glasshouse, indoor bog or art museum, anyone with good taste will find satisfaction in a trip to this awe inspiring location.
To start off I’ll share some of the photos I took in the succulent gardens. I’ve never seen anything quite like it in my entire life.
Upon entering you’re greeted by agaves and aloe trees.
Large Agave attenuata in a sea of Aeoniums
In Canada we grow our aloes in terracotta pots, here they grow as big as trees.
This euphorbia was well over 15 feet tall.
A large Pachypodium (madagascar palm) in flower.
While my Cyphostemma juttae grows painfully slow, this one looks better than ever. I love fat plants.
Speaking of fat plants, Tylecodon paniculatus.
More aloes that rival small trees.
Large euphorbia.
A favorite of many caudiciform collectors, one of the largest Dioscorea elephantipes in cultivation.
Gnarly caudex.
A twisted labyrinth of cacti and succulents.
The geometric shapes of euphorbia never cease to amaze.
I was happy to have encountered this clump of Haworthia forming these incredible emerald hills.
It looks as though these notocactus leninghausii are looking at someone. Is it something I said?
I’ve never seen so many specimen worthy succulents all packed into on location. This shot reminds of me a Richard Scarry picture.
A rather charming clump of a personal favorite, Parodia magnifica.
Oreocereus celsianus.
Mammillaria geminispina
Impressive clumps of Echinocereus grusonii were abundant throughout the garden.
Although not exactly rare in cultivation, the size of these clumps is certainly impressive.
Need I say more?
Mammillaria compressa looks good on it’s own.
..but looks better in mass.
This one looks well defended.
Don’t touch.
There were also abundant large specimen agave in all shapes and sizes.
Lovely spiky rosettes.
An oldgrowth Queen Victoria Agave.
”
Please note the large agave bloom spike center stage.
They just grow bigger down here.
Field of echeveria
Aeonium cristate
Aeoniums
A towering yucca tree in bloom under the hot Californian sun.
Knobby Cactus. (ID PLEASE)
Fresh from Mars, they’ve landed.
Speaking of knobby cacti check out this impressive Lophocereus schottii var. monstrose.
…And now for some flowers
Stapelia gigantea in bloom, mind the odor and take it from me, do not get down on your knees and take a big whiff. You might want to eject your lunch, they don’t call it a carrion flower for nothing.
Aloe blooms.
Whew. Are you’re legs sore? Hearts warmed? Heat Stroked and Sun Burnt? No… Oh wait, we’re still in Canada aren’t we.
Theres no place like good old wet home.
Thanks for joining me on this tour, and thank you Huntington Gardens for preserving such an incredible destination. Stay tuned for more photos of other parts of the Huntington Gardens.
