Tale of the succulents

When I moved to Yuma I brought my Aloe vera and spider plant with me. I also had a gardenia that was just too big to fit into my car. I was sad to leave it behind. It was 3 years old and doing wonderfully. It bloomed all summer long.

When I got to Yuma I added some miniature roses, peperomia, some celosia, a firecracker plant (Russelia equisetiformis), and one other full sun loving plant. My plants loved Yuma in the winter and spring, but summer massacred them. The front porch is west facing but shaded for most of the morning. I tried to move some of the plants inside, but it was too dark. The only survivors of my first summer were the Aloe vera and the firecracker plant. The Aloe is just indestructible and the firecracker plant was moved into the tiny fully shaded corner near my apartment. The firecracker suffered some burns, but it has been recovering nicely. The Aloe got transplanted into a 14" bowl and looked beautiful. Someone else must have really loved it too, because it was stolen one night leaving me with one half-burned plant.

My Aloe (in the background)

I decided to find some plants that could survive. I took my que from the Aloe and decided to give succulents a shot. I was wandering around in target when I saw the cute 2.5" succulent pots. They also had a lovely terracotta 14" bowl. It was then that I decided I would make a multi-species dish garden.

The bowl right after I finished

I really liked it so I went and made a couple of more pots. I'll go into each of the plants and pots in detail in further posts.