Miniatures/Succulents - Part 2

My knowledge of &/or exposure to succulents, up until this last year, was limited to Jade plants, that hardy, almost impossible to kill, ubiquitous Jade that back in the day, every good love & peace-nik grew alongside their marijuana plant.

Succulents are plants with parts that are thickened, fleshy, and engorged, usually to retain water in arid climates or soil conditions. Succulents are not a species..a given species can have both succulent & non-succulents in their family tree & vice versa, multiple species may be succulent, while not related, such as cacti.

The main attraction for many (me, included) is the ease of succulent propagation; whether from a leaf or root cutting, or seed, most succulents will readily reproduce in a wide variety of potting medium & environmental conditions. One can build a collection of succulent plants quite rapidly, compared to other varieties.

As I grew different types, I was intrigued that many of them looked like "mini-bonsai" or faux bonsai plants when potted..And so, alongside my tree collection, however incongruous it might seem, I've started building a collection of succulents.

And to bring some order to the chaos, I'll create an Album specifically for Miniatures/Succulents, so I have some historical record of each plant..coming soon.

Re-potted Red Caro & New Additions

 Yesterday, I repotted my Red Coprosma..used the same training pot & held off on root pruning except for cleaning-up some exposed roots, as I wanted to minimize any trauma..this plant is recovering from being badly burned by an accidental use of full-strength fertilizer & I am treating him with "kid gloves"

The accident also affected 3 other trees; 1 dead, 1 lived but permanently disfigured, 2 others which are recovering. Lesson learned? Yes!

On a brighter note, also potted some new additions to our succulent collection:

Euphorbia -
Crown of Thorns

Golden Rat-Tail
Cactus

Haworthia

Miniatures/Succulents

A little over a year ago (early summer - 2024) when I was just starting on my horticultural adventure, a neighbor-lady brought me a jar full  of Jade plant cuttings & asked if I would like to have them..

I gratefully accepted & in a few days time, some of the cuttings were showing tiny roots and so this odyssey began.

I potted a couple in very small bowls & realized that they looked like little bonsai..gave a couple away to various folks, which promoted my thinking.

Soon I had rooted cuttings "coming out my ears"..when someone suggested I offer them for sale in our community thrift store. Our building is largely tenant-run & has a very active tenant association (they call it a co-op) in that we regularly host luncheons, brunches, & decorate for holidays..these activities have costs attached which are not paid for by the management company & so the proceeds from the Thrift Store go to help pay for those activities.

Now I'm having trouble getting small pots like these at a reasonable cost since the
source for these is China. But the real upside to this story is my exposure & introduction to Succulents, of which I shall write in a future post.

1st Snow of the Season..

There was an early-season Alaska Low that blew through So. Cal this week and, yes, we got our first snow..on the mountains..above 3000 ft..Mt. Baldy (local mountains) was "dusted" as they say with snow on the peaks..got chilly here, but we had rain, rain & then, some more rain..but, oh-boy, did my trees love it!

I moved all of the plants (see photo) under the overhang of the apartment above me, but they still got more than adequately watered..at least, I got them out of the wind..most plants don't mind the cold & don't seem to mind a little wind, but put the rain & wind together & you have a widow-maker.

Everybody came through the storm just fine & they all loved the rain..after a steady diet of municipal water, I'm sure the rain was like a fine wine to them..(tap water here is terrible)

My Magic Water-Wand...

 If you consult almost any authority on the basics of growing plants, almost the first thing they will tell you is that "over-watering/underwatering is the No. 1 cause of failure" Most plants, I find are remarkably resiliant & can tolerate poor soil, poor water, too much/little shade/sun, but unless they are plants that evolved in the desert, they need water to survive.

  I tend to overwater..so when I discovered that cheap, accurate hygrometers are available on Amazon, I didn't hesitate..now that I've used a hygrometer, I wouldn't be without it. Much as a meat thermometer is to a  gourmet cook, the hygrometer is to a container gardener. I call it my Magic Water Wand, the wand reaching down nearly 7"; that means that instead of measuring the water content of the first inch or so, my magic wand reaches down into the root ball to tell me whether it's wet or dry.

Why is this important? Recently, I acquired a new plant from one of the major Home & Garden Supply co.'s, & as is my routine, gave him a good drink of water as soon as we got home. But the water seemed to run right through the plant & a while later, when I was watering my other trees, I checked the new plant & got a DRY reading?? I took multiple readings at various depths & discovered that while the very top & the very bottom of the plant were moist, the middle 3-4 inches were bone-dry.

The middle is where the rootball lives..and the rootball IS the plant..so this led to the whole ordeal (for the plant, not me) of de-potting, root-comb-out & prune & re-potting, as documented in the Blue Point Juniper Photo Album 

Since I started using the hygrometer, I have not lost a plant to overwatering..because my plants are being properly watered, skipping a day does no harm & because my plants are properly hydrated, they are happy & that makes me happy.

 Allow me to introduce you to...

Another new plant? Another Juniper? 2 Junipers? Yeah, but this one's a different cultivar..a Blue Point Juniper, so named for it's blue-green  needles. This plant is usually found as a ground-cover or a low-lying bush, but will grow to 2-3 feet, over time.

Source: Home Depot

Cost: $11.

The foliage is so dense on this plant that I could not tell if it had a single "trunk" or multiple trunks, until I started pruning. After 2 pruning sessions, he is starting to reveal what looks like a multi-trunk profile, but the unclipped dense growth is still hiding his "bones".

You can see how the process develops & follow how this little tree progresses over time by viewing his "Photo Album"..each plant in the collection has his own pictorial history in the dedicated Albums, listed on the right-hand side of this page.

 Oct 5, 2025

Days Getting Shorter

Another page on the calendar turned.. feels like summer is over..days getting shorter..early mornings now are cool, not "brisk" yet, but there's a different feel now. The sun is going down a little bit earlier every day as we slide inexorably towards winter, or what we call winter, here in southern Cal.

                                 

Just for fun, I'm growing a couple of Hatch Chili plants; although it's not necessarily the correct time of year to be starting plants, they seem to be doing fine. Grown from seed, ordered from Sandia Seed in New Mexico, these are the "real deal".. Hatch Chili's have a near-cult like following among affectianados of the sweet spice that is acclaimed across the spectrum of chili-pepper enthusiasts.

I germinated the seeds in peat pots (my go-to since discovering them during my cannabis-growing stage in the 70's & 80's) & transplanted to 3" plastic pots..I will probably transplant them to terra-cotta once they've achieved near-mature size. 

Speaking of "potting"...

Yesterday I potted the only cutting from my Monterey Cypress, that survived..he is only 2 1/2" but it took 6 months or more to get there..I got a chance to see his root structure, which is not much larger than his top-side, but looks healthy & reaching out. The cutting is from the Wilma Goldstreet that was badly burned by an accidental chemical application of full-strength liquid fertilizer (Liquid SeaWeed) & I was not sure if the "Wilma" would survive, but she did survive & is now slowly recovering. At any rate, regardless of what happens, I have another Dwarf Cypress for the collection.