Succulent Fix...East Austin Succulents

Last week I was really close to shopping for some succulents on EBay.  I exercised a bit of self control and was rewarded with an email from East Austin Succulents letting everyone know that they were having a sell.  My friend Amy and I did the only logical thing any succulent obsessed gardener would do...we hopped in the car and made the hour and a half road trip to Austin!  They had moved since the last time we were there, and I had really been wanting to see their place as well.  I remembered my camera this time.  These are just a few shots of their lovely new greenhouse.  This top one is an aloe that I also snapped a picture of the name tag.  It's one I'll be looking for.

Aloe Ramosissima

 

This next one is full of one of my favorite Kalanchoe's...Kalanchoe beharensis 'Fang'.  This is an entire little tray of starters and they were lovely!  I wanted to touch them all!

Now for what I brought home...



A Kalanchoe of some sort...it's not the panda plant because it's much fuzzier than that.  I'll figure it out eventually!  My main concern was that it was one I didn't have and I wasn't about to leave it there.

I think this next one is in the gasteria family or something like that.  She's nice and fat and a very nice color!

Another Kalanchoe...I think this one is referred to as 'Copper Spoons'.  I like it and can't wait for it to get big!

This one might be in the sennicio family, but again I'm not really sure.  The one laying flat obviously fell over and started rooting on it's side.  Amy's looks much more "put together", but I needed this one!

A little Stapelia, Stapelia scitula, love it!!  I googled it, and I can not wait to see it bloom.  It's blooms have the foul smell like the 'gigantea', but on a much smaller scale. 

I don't know what these next two are.  They're fuzzy...one's serrated and the other is more smooth edged.  The bottom one has a bloom and it looks like it's going to be rust colored.  I'll share that as soon as it opens.

My luck with aeoniums hasn't been great, but I couldn't pass up a fuzzy one!

Another Kalanchoe that I might have, but then again, it could be one Charlie ate and I just haven't noticed.  Either way, this one has a bunch of pretty little blooms just about to open, so it only made sense to bring her home.

I think this one is a Crassula.  I had one this past summer, but the intense heat of the crazy summer burned it right up.  I'll be more careful with this one.

And my most odd find on this trip...a variegated Kalanchoe beharensis 'Felt Leaf' or 'Elephant Ear'.  I have the normal one, but this one is variegated and I really needed it.  In fact, I had already paid for my original purchases and spied this lovely when I was taking pictures of Eric's other lovely succulents. 

Had Eric been there, I most likely would have come home with all the names, but the name hunt is part of the fun. 

If you're in Austin, you'll want to take a detour and stop by East Austin Succulents.  For me, it's well worth the drive to spend the hour or so perusing through the interesting and sometimes special finds. 

Mandy

New Succulent Additions

While I was at Rainbow Gardens for the sole purpose of identifying my Jewel of Opar, I couldn't resist a walk through the succulents.

First I found something that I've only seen once and that was at East Austin Succulents and also not for sale.  It's a Kalanchoe tomentosa, but not the usual Panda plant, Chocolate Soldier or even Golden Girl.  No, it's the giant leafed, super fuzzy one!!!  It's so fuzzy that it's actually kind of scratchy when it rubs against your skin, and it's leaves are huge compared to the other varieties that I have.

Now to find the pink tinged one that I've only seen online. 

They also had a few of the Kalanchoe 'Fang' variety.  My large one froze last winter, and the puppies decided to pluck the babies that I was growing up a few days earlier.  Of course I needed another one.

This next one is new to me.  It looks like it might be a Kalanchoe variety, but I'm not sure what.  I just really like the color, it reminds me of Kermit the Frog.  I'm thinking Kalanchoe because it looks a little like my Flapjack variety, but maybe not. 

The weather man keeps promising that we're past the triple digit heat, so maybe, just maybe these won't get fried!  It's funny how quickly they respond to the reprieve from the heat.  My Flapjack's have been stunted all summer...they're all nicely red around the edges, but wouldn't grow.  Just in the week that it's not been so hot, I can see where they've already started growing again.  Friday and then again today, we were blessed with some much needed rain.  I'm expecting nice changes as a result of this treat in the coming weeks also.

Succulents that Need Identified

Does anyone know what these little guys are called?  A neighbor down the street gave them to me, and I'm not having any luck finding out what they are.

This one looks kind of like a Christmas Cactus, only it's not. I'm told that this one gets spectacular blooms, but that they only bloom at night and just for one night.  Amy had one, but it succumbed to the last hard freeze we had.  We're both looking forward to it growing so that I can start another for her. 

This one looks prickly, but it's not...just pointy. :)

I think I'm going to put them in a basket together...I like the contrast of smooth and spiky together.  If they  don't work together, I'll just pluck them and put them in their own pots. 

The third one is a Silver Squill I think...scientific name Ledebouria socialis.  She gave me this one too, and I'm pretty sure I found this one online yesterday for the name, but correct me if I'm wrong.

Thanks for your help! 
Mandy

Special Delivery!

I was delighted (that's putting it mildly) this afternoon when I checked my mail.  Expected the usual humdrum Wednesday junk mail, I was pleasantly surprised to find a little box tucked in amongst the junk mail! Julie from, A Succulent Life, had offerred to send me some of her 'Mother of Millions', Kalanchoe Daigremontiana, and today they arrived!! Want to see them???  She also included two other little succulents, but we're not sure what they are yet.  Oh...did you want to see them?

A lot of the little babies, thinking about 20 fell off in shipping, so they're now laying on the dirt just waiting to take root!  I've been looking for one of these for 2 years now, so I'm very excited to have one of my own now.  I put the other two in a pot together for now.  The larger one looks like a type of Aloe, but I'm not too familiar with the Aloe group, so I'm not sure.  Looking forward to watching them grow!

Julie,  thank you again for being so generous to share and wow are you quick!  My husband was amused and probably a little shocked that I got plants in the mail.  Needless to say, as soon as I opened them up, pots and dirt followed right behind and now they're happy on the back porch. 

To make the day better, the countdown is closing in for my mother to get here...2 1/2 days to go!  Because I know that I tend to sidetrack easy, I thought I'd get a headstart on the cleaning task...yuk! Tonight, with my girls help, we got the upstairs completely done and tomorrow will tackle the downstairs.  Times like these are when I love my little house...so thankful that it's relatively easy to keep clean and if I put my mind to it, I can have it sparkling in 3 hours!

Have a great day!

Mandy