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Agave ‘Fatal Attraction’ has leaves that are more striking than less hazardous.(Courtesy of Tom Karwin)
Aloe cameronii (Red Aloe) is vivid red when stressed, and green when coddled. (Tom Karwin — Contributed)
Agave ’Sea Star,’ a natural hybrid from northern Mexico, has great colors. (Tom Karwin — Contributed)
The Quadriciolor Agave’s leaves have dark green, light green, yellow, and little red teeth. (Tom Karwin — Contributed)
Inspired by the Monterey Bay Area Cactus & Succulent’s Society fall sale, I acquired several plants (mostly Mexican natives) to add to my garden. This column includes notes on the reasons for adding these plants, as well as notes for a day of plant collecting.
Echeveria agavoides var. ‘Corderoy’. This hybrid Echeveria has the common name Wax Agave because its leaves resemble an Agave’s leaves (“agavoides” means like an agave). This plant grows a rosette up to 8 inches wide, with colors from bright green to neon yellow, with red tips. A small addition to my Echeveria collection.
Echeveria ‘Chantily’. This Echeveria is a mutation developed by noted hybridizer Dick Wright. This particularly attractive uncommon plant has undulating pale blue leaves flecked with red tips. My specimen, now 6 inches across, will grow to 12 inches wide rosette.
Agave lopantha ‘Quadricolor’ (Quadricolor Century Plant). This distinctive agave has long, dark green leaves with yellow edges, a pale green mid-stripe, and dark reddish marginal teeth, adding up to a striking appearance. This acquisition is a replacement for an earlier specimen, which was done in by an Agave Snout Weevil, which somehow found its way into my garden.
Agave funkiana ‘Fatal Attraction’. This plant, similar — and perhaps related to — A. lopantha, has narrow dark green, thick leaves with a lighter central stripe, and ending with a dark terminal spine. It grows to 2 feet high, 3 feet wide. It has been in my garden for a while, and has busily produced offets, known as pups. It can develop into an attractive colony, but I have separated several offets to share.
Agave x ovatisana ‘Sea Star’ (Sea Star Hybrid CenturyPlant). This plant is a natural hybrid of two plants that grow sympatrically, meaning they exist in the same geographic area. San Marcos Growers describes its “wide spade-shaped gray colored leaves that have broad cream-yellow colored margins on the lower two thirds of the leaf and reddish brown teeth and terminal spine.” It will grow up to 2 inches high and wide, as a great-looking and “simply fantastic” addition to my agave collection.
Aloe cameronii (Red Aloe). An African plant, native to Rhodesia, shaped like the common A. arborescens, but much smaller (about 2 feet high, 4 feet wide). Its deep red and copper tones, which respond to hot, dry conditions, make it a striking addition to the landscape. I have seen this plant featured in online tours of other gardens, and waited for it to be available locally. It appeared at long last as a mature, single specimen in Home Depot, which usually has multiple options of common plants, but which can provide surprises.
In recent columns, we have considered including exotic plants in your garden, while filling your garden with a major percentage of native plants, which support the insects which are essential food sources for birds. Some experts recommend that gardens should consist of at least 70% native plants and the rest could be exotic plants.
This is not a magic mix, but it clearly favors the wild balance of nature.
Exotic plants can be welcome and intriguing additions to the landscape, but some, because they like their new environment and are no longer controlled by their natural enemies, thrive with unusual vigor, become rambunctious, and crowd out other plants.
Several plants that have been found to be invasive in California including some that might be found in garden centers or big box stores.
To identify these troublesome plants, gardeners should review the invasive plants lists developed by various organizations. These lists include overlapping entries, but each list could have plants that do not appear on other lists.
Rather than listing the web addresses of several of these invasive plant lists, interested gardeners can discover them with a Google search of “invasive plants in California,” and them exploring your choice of websites to become familiar with these garden thugs.
Good gardeners should take care to limit the spread of invasive plants. Your action agenda should include not bringing any of these plants to your garden, removing any that are already in your garden, checking neighboring gardens for plants that could invade your garden), and asking your neighbors and friends to join in the continuing effort to discourage the invaders.
The Cactus & Succulent Society of America will present the webinar, “The Genus Sansevieria,” at 10 a.m. Oct. 2. This popular plant, sometimes called “Mother-in-Law’s Tongue’ is a member of a genus with more than 100 taxa. The presenter, Robert Webb, will describe the genus Sansiveria, present some newly described species, and some potential species that are yet to be described. To register for this free event, visit cactusandsucculentsociety.org/.
Tom Karwin is past president of Friends of the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum, Monterey Bay Area Cactus & Succulent Society, and Monterey Bay Iris Society, and a Lifetime UC Master Gardener (Certified 1999–2009). He is now a board member and garden coach for the Santa Cruz Hostel Society.
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