Rosaliene’s Succulent Garden – Summer 2024 – Los Angeles – Southern California
This summer, June through August 2024, the average temperature for the contiguous American states was 73.8° F (23.2°C) – 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit above average – ranking as our nation’s fourth-hottest summer on record. So says NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information. California – together with Arizona, Florida, Maine, and New Hampshire – “sizzled through their warmest summer on record.” Heatwaves are growing more frequent, more extreme, and longer lasting in the U.S. West and across the world as the climate crisis drives increasingly severe and dangerous weather conditions.
To end this summer with a bang, an excessive heatwave arrived on Thursday, September 5th, bringing a record-breaking temperature of 112°F (44.4°C) in downtown Los Angeles on Friday, September 6th, says the National Weather Service. With temperatures in the nineties in our neighborhood in West Los Angeles for five days straight, I was forced to stay indoors – no weekend gardening – until relief came on Tuesday, September 10th.
Neighbor’s Garden – Summer 2023 – Los Angeles – Southern California
Gone are the days when I could spend hours soaking up the summer heat at the beach. Nowadays, I risk suffering from heat stress, as occurred on two occasions during a heatwave in July. To get out for my weekly chores meant leaving home after 4 p.m. when temperatures became bearable. Mind you, even then, I couldn’t forget my hat and a bottle of lifesaving ice-cold water. Worse still, I had to reduce my weekend gardening hours to just two hours from 5 to 7 p.m.
Thanks to an unusually wet winter, after several years of drought, our plants responded well to the excessive heat. In August, Tropical Storm Hilary also drenched us with two days of steady rainfall and cooled us down, if just for a while. The Propeller or Crassula Falcata succulent plant stole the show with its spectacular red blooms. A gift from a former neighbor who moved out last year, the plant (shown on the left) produced five blooms this year, compared to two last year. The Propeller plant, shown on the right in its early stage, is a young plant I bought last year that has flowered for the first time.
A new neighbor, who moved in last year, transformed his plot with a metal bench and added several potted plants. The flowers he planted for summer added joyful color to our garden. (See captioned photo.) How wonderful to have another garden enthusiast among us!
The garden featured below belongs to another neighbor and friend, a working mother of a seven-year-old daughter, who caught the gardening bug some years ago. In a once-neglected area of our courtyard, she has created a garden that changes colors with the seasons.
Located near the rear entrance/exit, her apartment is unique in having a two-panel glass wall, instead of a window, in her dining room area. As shown in the photo on the right below, she has taken advantage of the afternoon sunlight to set up an indoor garden. With its wide variety of plants, her garden is a delight to explore.
African ‘Lily of the Nile’ – Rosaliene’s Garden – Los Angeles – California – June 17, 2023
After an unusually wet and frigid winter, I was relieved that most of my plants had survived the deluge. A few, like the potted lime tree and croton bush, gained new life. Spring struggled to come into its own, remaining cooler than normal. The plants that flower in the spring are featured below. The captioned photo of the purple African ‘Lily of the Nile’ was the last plant to flower and is still in bloom.
The drought took a toll on the Amaryllis lilies, as shown in the photos below. This is the first spring that the stems only produced two flowers instead of four.
Amaryllis – Spring 2014Amaryllis – Spring 2023
The yellow Calandivia succulent plant added much needed color to the garden plot in front of my apartment. I’ve had this plant for several years now and, despite the drought, it continues to bless my spring days with much needed joy. The adjacent plant pot with purple Graptoveria Debbie also added a touch of color with their star-shaped yellow mini-flowers.
Yellow Calandivia Succulent Plant – Spring 2023Purple Graptoveria Debbie – Spring 2023
My favorite succulent rosettes, like the two plants below, all flowered this year. They have a strong not-so-pleasant scent that attracts the stray bees that visit my corner of the garden.
Aeonium ‘Kiwi’ – Spring 2023Aeonium ‘Kiwi’ – Spring 2023
My indoor garden got a great boost this Mother’s Day with five new plants from my sons. So far, none of them have died. I keep them on top of the sideboard cupboard below my living room window where they enjoy the morning sunlight. As you will note in the photo, three of them are on the window ledge.
Temperatures are expected to rise this weekend. I’m brazing myself for the summer heat ahead. To my American readers, a Happy Independence Day!
Rosaliene’s Indoor Garden – Los Angeles – California – Spring 2023
Rosaliene’s Succulent Garden – Los Angeles – Southern California – December 8, 2022
In August, I shared my challenge of “Creating a drought-resistant garden in The City of Angels.” By October, I completed the painful task of uprooting the plants struggling to adapt to our extreme heat and drought. I’m happy to report that most of the plants have adjusted well to once-a-week watering, a fifty percent reduction.
Not surprisingly, the Aeonium Mint succulent plants suffered the most. I uprooted three plants in areas where they faced over four hours of intense afternoon sunlight. What a difference from their cousin, shown on the right, that receives only a few hours of direct sun in the morning!
Aeonium Mint – Afternoon Sun – September 28Aeonium Mint – Morning Sun – September 28
The expansive, five-foot-tall Pencil or Firestick plants have all partially collapsed. After cutting off the collapsed branches and trimming the fleshy stems, I fortified the remaining branches with wooden sticks, as shown in the photo below. The Firestick is my favorite succulent plant for adding height and color—red, orange, yellow, and green—to a succulent garden with few seasonal flowering plants.
Pencil or Firestick Succulent Plant – December 8
The ten-year-old, three-foot-tall jade plant, rooted in the ground, is also not happy with water rationing. On Thanksgiving Day, another branch collapsed. I sliced off the branch and did a general pruning to reduce the weight on the remaining branches. To prevent another collapse, I secured all the branches together with green ribbon, as pictured below. I’m considering the painful choice of cutting down the plant; I will wait and see if it recovers with less evaporation over the winter months.
The potted jade is doing very well. I marvel at the way plants adapt to the confining space. As shown in the photo to the right, the leaves with orange edges are much smaller than its all-green, earth-rooted relative.
Jade Plant – December 8Potted Jade Plant – December 8
I reserve the gray water I save after domestic use for my son’s three potted fruit trees—guava, lime, and orange—as well as my vegetable plants. The infrequent visits of Mother Nature’s pollinators have been the greatest constraint for our dwarfed fruit trees. After several years of watching their blossoms fall from the stems, I was surprised this year to see the appearance of two oranges, five guavas, and several limes. The lime tree has shed most of its leaves following the drop in temperatures.
Potted Guava Tree – December 8Potted Lime Tree – December 8Potted Orange Tree – December 8
The Christmas Cactus is now in full bloom, adding color to my garden plot. But it’s the Camellia trees—now laden with buds and early flowers of pink, red and white—and an Indian Hawthorn shrub that steal the show at this time of the year. (All photos were taken on December 8.)
Christmas CactusIndian Hawthorn ShrubCamellia Tree
NOTE: The captioned photo is a section of our largest garden plot, located across from my apartment.
Rosaliene’s Succulent Garden – Los Angeles – Southern California – August 21, 2022
Eighty-one days have passed since emergency drought restrictions went into effect in Southern California. In an August 16th Press Release, Adel Hagekhalil, General Manager of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) that supplies our neighborhood with water, announced that discussions are in progress regarding the effort of the Colorado Basin States to develop “an aggressive but realistic plan to reduce demands” on the Colorado River by 2 to 4 million acre-feet. The MWD imports water from the Colorado River and Northern California to supplement local supplies.
“As these discussions continue, we urgently call on everyone who relies on Colorado River water, including communities across Southern California, to prepare for reduced supplies from this source, permanently,” Adel Hagekhalil said. “This is not simply a drought that will end, allowing reservoir levels to recover on their own – this is a drying of the Colorado River Basin. We are going to have to live with less. Working together, we know we can meet the challenge.” (Emphasis mine.)
So far, we have received no new directives from the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power (LADWP) regarding any further reduction in water allocation of about 80 gallons per person per day. Meanwhile, I have found ways of saving and reusing domestic usage for watering my small vegetable garden. Caring for my succulent and other ornamental plants remains a challenge.
US Drought Monitor – California – May 31, 2022 Source: US Drought Monitor
Gardening on the weekends has been my lifeline since the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in March 2020. When I am outdoors among the trees and plants, all my cares and fears disappear. I am fully engaged. I am present. I am at peace.
Since drought is a recurring issue here in California, I have planted mostly succulents that are quite content with watering once or twice a week. Some succulents prefer even longer periods of ten to fourteen days between watering. But a sudden rise in temperatures can shock even the sturdiest of succulents. In March, when we experienced two days of high summer temperatures, a branch of my largest, three-foot high, jade plant collapsed with heat stress. With summer almost upon us, there will be no respite for several other plants that need extra water for giving their best.
Rosaliene’s Garden Plot with Succulents – City of Los Angeles – California – June 3, 2022Continue reading →
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