I recently became a very lucky girl on my quest to understand my garden. The previous owner of the house, we'll call her Misty, had lived in this house a long time, and appears to know everyone in town. About 25 years ago, she commissioned the garden for this house from a local landscape artist she knew. Well, he still lives in SB, and came by last week to give us some pointers on the garden. He gave me all kinds of information about what some of these plants are, what I was doing wrong with some of them, and ideas about where to place some additional plants I'd really like to add to the yard. I now have a cornucopia of information, and weeks and weeks of details that I can use in this little feature on HIAHS.
But enough about my dumb luck as I was approaching some lean identification weeks.
This is Aeonium haworthii. It's a very small aeonium, with the succulent rosettes only measuring two to four inches across. While it appears to be rare hardy and nearly invasive, it grows easily in moderate conditions without much watering or other assistance. Here is a closeup of some of the smaller rosettes:
While the leaves end up looking like a flower, there is actually a flower that can grow on this guy. I haven't seen that happen, and am not certain that my exact version will flower, so I'll just stick with the leaves-arranged-like-a-flower state that I have now.
This is Aeonium haworthii. It's a very small aeonium, with the succulent rosettes only measuring two to four inches across. While it appears to be rare hardy and nearly invasive, it grows easily in moderate conditions without much watering or other assistance. Here is a closeup of some of the smaller rosettes:
While the leaves end up looking like a flower, there is actually a flower that can grow on this guy. I haven't seen that happen, and am not certain that my exact version will flower, so I'll just stick with the leaves-arranged-like-a-flower state that I have now.
5 comments:
I thinks this is one of my favorites. Not sure why, but I like that it looks really simple. Plus, if/when it really doew flower, it will be like a bonus!
So glad you like this one. I'm surprised by the amount of simple that is also pretty.
I love these! My sister had a yard full of them in Colorado. We called them "Hens and Chicks" and the flower is usually pretty ugly. When it first shoots up, it's kind of neat, but basically it's a big stalk with some lumps on top. And then it turns brown. The greenery is beautiful, though, and looks great in rock gardens or spilling out of pottery. Hers grew around the bases of some bearded iris, and made lovely groundcover.
Actually, I also have Hens and Chicks in my yard, and that one will be profiled in a future week. That one is fuzzy and this one is smooth. Oh, and H&C has flowers while this one doesn't really.
Oh, the things I'm learning. :)
Neat! I didn't know there was a difference, and I look forward to reading about "real" Hens & Chicks. :)
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