What You Need to Know About Dudleyas Amazing tips

Recently a writer with The New Yorker asked me what people need to know about dudleyas and the plants’ likelihood of survival out of the wild. She was researching the recurring thefts of Dudleya farinosa, a succulent native to the Northern CA coast.

Dudleya farinosa poachers. Photo courtesy of CA Dept. of Fish and Wildlife

It seems that in Korea, China and Japan, succulents are hugely popular among housewives, students, and other residents of small spaces. Dudleyas, related to echeverias (rosette succulents from Mexico) are collectible novelties that sell for up to $100 apiece. Some say their appeal is their resemblance to lotus flowers.

No plant—succulent or otherwise—is free for the taking, even from public land. Yet poachers fly into San Francisco, rent cars, and stop by Home Depot for cardboard boxes on their way to California’s rocky ocean cliffs. They slither through mud, dislodge boulders, rip silvery succulents from near-vertical perches, then scurry off to a post office.

Dudleya farinosa in habitat

Dudleya farinosa grows on near-vertical rock faces.

The CA Department of Fish and Wildlife has increased its vigilance, and with the help of the CA Native Plant Society, has been keeping an eye out for suspicious behavior—like people emerging from hiking trails carrying ropes and bulging backpacks from which telltale stems and roots protrude. But by the time the poachers are caught, the damage has been done.

“It’s senseless,” I told the The New Yorker‘s “California Chronicles” columnist. “It harms our coastal ecology, makes it easier for weeds to become established, and kills beautiful plants.” Instead of flourishing where people can see them for years to come, “those stolen dudleyas will just turn squishy and rot.”

It’s not easy to replant a dudleya, even in its own habitat. Photo courtesy of CA Dept. of Fish and Wildlife

How to Keep Dudleyas Alive

The common name for dudleya is “liveforever” because some can live 50 to 100 years—in the right spot. Wild plants, like wild animals, do best in their native habitat.

Dudleya farinosa, like many Dudleya species, requires near-vertical rocky hillsides, plenty of sun but not too much, and no summer water. It also likes moist ocean air. Most noticeable in larger species such as D. brittonii (native to Mexico)and D. pulverulenta (Southern CA), flowers that form on the tips of long bloom spikes produce seeds that fall far enough away from the mother ship that her offspring don’t compete with her for nutrients.

By summer’s end, after months without rainfall, a dudleya’s oldest, lower leaves have dried. They still cling to the stem, protecting it from heat, sun and desiccation. The plant hunkers down, goes dormant, and folds its upper leaves over its vital core. A dudleya during the season of Santa Ana winds looks like a pile of withered foliage, maybe with a few dry flower stems sticking out. It’s tempting to try and revive a sleeping dudleya, yet if you water it, you risk it rotting.

A dudleya’s older leaves dry and cling to its stem.

Dudleyas grown by nurseries are domesticated compared to those on Cliffside’s and better suited to residential gardens. Plant them in a rock wall or at an angle in gritty, fast-draining soil like decomposed granite, so water drains away from their roots. It’s best not to grow dudleyas in pots because water can pool around their stems. Inland, protect them from hot afternoon sun in summer. The powdery coating (farina) that makes certain species silvery-white acts as a sunscreen by reflecting UV rays, so it’s best not to touch the leaves. Not to mention that doing so will leave fingerprints.

Kelly Griffin’s Dudleyas

I suggested that The New Yorker interview dudleya expert Kelly Griffin, succulent product development manager for Altman Plants, the largest grower of succulents and cacti in the US. Griffin, a renowned breeder of aloes and agaves, is also an avid dudleya hybridizer. In my recent YouTube video, he shows the Dudleya cultivars he’s testing in his own garden.

Dudleyas in Kelly Griffin’s garden

They’re indeed beautiful: Large, lush, floriferous and full of vigor. Should the unthinkable happen and native dudleyas become rare, Griffin’s hybrids are certain to live on in cultivated gardens. This isn’t unprecedented, in fact it’s the case with other widely grown succulents no longer in the wild, like Aloe vera and Echinocactus grusonii (golden barrel cactus). However, it’s uncertain whether Northern CA’s plundered dudleya population will ever be the same.

There are two distinct types of dudleyas: Those that form colonies of multiple rosettes with pencil-like leaves, and those with solitary, wide-leaved rosettes. This is Dudleya greenii, native to the Channel Islands off the CA coast.

 

Roadside Dudleyas

In San Diego County where I live, dudleyas are fairly easy to spot. Steep, rocky escarpments within a few miles of the Pacific are potential habitats. After winter rains, the plants plump and produce new growth. They do best where they don’t have to compete with weeds, and they tend not to face south because it’s too hot in summer. When driving Highway 76 (the Del Dios Highway) between Escondido and Del Mar, look for silvery stars clinging to rocky outcroppings. It’s gratifying that dudleyas within sight of thousands of daily commuters are out of reach. There’s almost no place to park, and even if a poacher dared, drivers whizzing past would be witnesses.

Related Info:

Read the New Yorker article: Succulent Smugglers Descend on California. 

See my YouTube video: What You Need to Know About Dudleyas

Listen to the Radio New Zealand interview that resulted from my being interviewed by The New Yorker.

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A Garden of Collectible Succulents in Corona Amazing tips

Do you collect special succulents that you’d like to grow outdoors in your garden? If you’re in Southern CA, do visit the cactus and succulent garden at Sherman Library and Gardens in Corona Del Mar, CA. It showcases so many great tips and ideas!

Pat Roach and I pose in Sherman’s succulent garden.

Imagine…a dear friend who lives in LA had never been to Sherman Gardens! I’m in San Diego, so an Orange County botanical garden was the perfect place to meet to celebrate the fact that we’re finally the same age. (She’s a math teacher but kindly didn’t say that I’m six months older and always will be.) So on a bright early-spring day, Pat Roach and I became ladies-who-lunch at Sherman’s la-dee-dah garden cafe.

Initially a home that later became a nursery, Sherman’s 2.2 acres now are a venue for weddings and other events. It includes lathe houses, beds of annuals and roses, fountains, a koi pond and tropicals. It’s on busy Coast Highway, but once beyond the fence, you’re in a different world. Outdoor areas are themed and make smart use of every square foot.

Pat and I first met when she took my design class, so at Sherman we spent most of our time in the cactus and succulent garden, which beautifully blends specimen plants with rocks and boulders. Designer Matthew Maggio is a horticulturist knowledgeable about how the plants grow in habitat, which is always a boon to effective placement and cultivation. Matt redesigned and replanted the 1,200-square foot area 12 years ago, and continues to help it stay looking good.

One of its focal points would work in any size garden: a large, shallow terra-cotta pot set amid boulders. Burro-tail sedum and Senecio repens cascade out of it, and echeverias surround the lovely agave in its center. Photos I’ve taken of the pot over the years show a succession of agaves, each variegated to echo a Furcraea foetida ‘Mediopicta’ nearby.

2007: The wide, shallow terra-cotta pot showcases Agave ‘Joe Hoak’.

 

2011: Same terra-cotta pot, redone with variegated Agave vilmoriniana. Notice the furcraea in the background (the two plants visually blend together), and the addition of red bromeliads.

 

2019: Now large, the furcraea appears to explode behind the pot. In it, with wavy leaves, is variegated Agave gypsophila.

My photos from earlier visits also show a large Dasylirion wheeleri midway down the garden’s long, narrow bed. It has since been replaced with bromeliads, aloes and agaves, perhaps so visitors can better appreciate how blue Senecio serpens forms a meandering river and visually unifies the bed’s diverse plantings.

2005: Dasylirion wheeleri dominates the long, narrow bed, which doesn’t yet include colorful mosaics.

 

2011: Although the long bed now has colorful rocks, succulents and bromeliads, the dasylirion still shouts, “Look at me!”

 

2019: Bromeliads and agaves have replaced the dasylirion, and mature tree aloes lend balance, height and interest.

 

Sherman Library and Gardens is at 2647 E. Pacific Coast Hwy, Corona del Mar, CA. Hours: 10 to 4 daily. Closed major holidays. Free parking. Adults $5.

On My YouTube channel:

Succulent Design Ideas from Sherman Gardens

In this 4-min. video, I take you on a tour of the highlights of Sherman’s succulent garden

Plant IDs:

Agave attenuata ‘Variegata’ sparkles at one end of the long bed.

 

Stems of Euphorbia cooperi suggest a series of bells.

 

Dioscorea elephantipes, lower right, resembles a turtle’s back.

 

String of pearls (Senecio rowleyanus) appears to flow into balusters below it.

 

Agave nickelsiae (formerly Agave ferdinandi-regis)

 

The garden’s climate and proximity to the ocean make this collection of ice plants (mesembryanthemums) possible.

Euphorbia horrida ‘Snowflake’ in Sherman Gardens’ euphorbia section

 

Plenty of sun and growing amid rocks help to turn Aloe dorotheae red

 

Haworthias at Sherman Gardens include (clockwise from top): H. cymbiformis ‘Variegata’; H. truncata; H. limifolia ‘Variegata’; H. retusa (or possibly bayeri).

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Critique: Newport Beach’s Grand Succulent Garden Amazing tips

If you’re planning to design, revamp or evaluate a succulent landscape, find out what I like and what dismays me about Newport Beach’s grand Civic Center succulent garden. It’s large-scale, but its plusses and minuses apply to waterwise gardens of any size.

From my YouTube video, “Newport Beach’s Grand Succulent Garden”

Opened in 2013, the Newport Beach Civic Center graces a coastal community of homes with an average value of $2,000,000. The complex cost $140 million and is a masterpiece of modern architecture within sight of the Pacific. Overlapping, S-shaped awnings atop a series of sleek buildings suggest ocean waves. The multi-acre succulent garden along the complex’s north side is a public park.

It has a nice layout, with wide, serpentine paths that invite strolling and rolling (everything from baby carriages to wheelchairs). There are multiple plantings of large specimens—Dracaena draco, Aloe bainesii, Beaucarnea recurvata and columnar cacti. These likely were mature at installation in order to be in scale with their setting, and doubtless were craned-in at no small expense. Filler plants include agaves, dasylirions, aloes, puyas (a succulent bromeliad), golden barrels, aeoniums, Senecio mandraliscae, and silver-leaved Cotyledon orbiculata. Warm-toned gravel enhances the design, holds moisture in the soil, inhibits weed growth, and lends visual continuity. In light of the fact that structures across the street have water-thirsty lawns and tightly pruned shrubs (landscaping that doesn’t make sense on so many levels), what’s not to love?

Silver and blue succulents dominate the Newport Beach Civic Center garden

Highly toxic euphorbia

Well, Euphorbia resinifera, for one thing. I like the mounding growth habit of this African succulent, which suggests a short-spined cactus consisting of squarish, columnar green stems. It grows slowly into ever-expanding colonies. However, this cool-looking plant is quite hot…and not in a good way.

Euphorbia resinifera has short, sharp spines and—typical of the genus—milky sap.

Its milky, resinous sap contains resiniferatoxin, which is similar to capsaicin in peppers but a thousand times hotter. On the Scoville scale, resiniferatoxin ranks at 16 billion units, 4.5 million times hotter than a jalapeno. So if the sap should enter an open wound or eye, the sensation would be like a blow torch. Of course that’s only possible when Euphorbia resinifera grows where someone could fall on it, break its stems, and get scratched by its thorns…like along the downward curve of a pathway in a public garden frequented by kids on scooters, skates and bikes.

Adding a curb would create a barrier that keeps kids from careening into Euphorbia resinifera. 

A missed opportunity

Another succulent in the garden, prickly pear cactus (Opuntia sp.), is far from pathways…which is no surprise because it’s obviously unfriendly.

Prickly pear cactus (lower center) grows well away from foot traffic.

Yet Opuntia species that lack spines are nowhere to be found, and they would have been suitable anywhere. Opuntia cacanapa ‘Ellisiana’, shown below at a nursery, grows tall (upwards of 6 feet), offers a pleasing silhouette of ever-branching ovals, forms a sculptural green backdrop, starts readily from cuttings, gets by on rainfall alone, and is entirely harmless.

Spineless paddle cactus at a nursery

Silver swords and serrated leaves

Spare-no-expense plants such as Puya venusta (a succulent bromeliad) and Cleistocactus strausii (a fuzzy columnar cactus) blend together in a surreal, silvery harmony of starbursts and snowy poles. But IMHO they’re a bit too texturally inviting to be at toddler-level.

Silver swords combine with bromeliads near Civic Center windows. From my video: “Newport Beach’s Grand Succulent Garden”

Yes, of course, parents should teach children not to touch unfamiliar plants, especially any that are spiny, thorny, toothed or bristly. But what about plants that touch kids? Over time, the puyas have become crowded and some, seeking light, have grown horizontally. Here’s one that had to be cut back from the pathway, which has destroyed the plant’s symmetry and bloom potential.

A truncated Puya venusta at the Newport Beach Civic Center succulent garden

I also wonder if the area that this silver grouping occupies—north-facing, close to the building and beneath its wavy eaves—is sunny enough for puyas to bloom. After all, that’s what they’re known for: eye-catching, truly-blue flowers.

Big silver puyas bloom blue.

Best-ever beaucarneas

On the plus side, the garden showcases how to mound and topdress soil, use planted islands, and how just a few sculptural succulents can create an intriguing, low-maintenance, low-water landscape. This is illustrated by a grouping of Beaucarnea recurvata. (Its common names “ponytail palm,” “elephant’s foot palm” and “bottle palm” are misleading—these tree succulents aren’t palms.) Like many agaves and cacti also in the garden, beaucarneas are from Mexico. They’re easy to come by, inexpensive even in 5-gallon pots, grow fairly rapidly when in the ground (about a foot a year), tolerate mild frosts, and have intriguing Dr. Seuss-like forms. What makes each “succulent” is its bulbous, water-storing base (caudex). In summer, the trees’ topknots produce feathery sprays of cream and pink flowers.

Beaucarnea recurvata in bloom

Out-of-control agaves

But for me, the most perplexing aspects of the garden are its rows of century plants (Agave americana) that occupy large beds between walkways and street. I suspect that what must have seemed brilliantly economical six years ago has become a maintenance nightmare. Though quite common and often free for the asking, century plants eventually get as big as Volkswagens and produce numerous offsets (“pups”) from shallow roots.

Trimming a century plant like a pineapple removes problematic foliage, but it’ll pup regardless

These large agaves’ thick leaves are wickedly toothed along their margins and tipped in sharp spines. I suspect that after a few years, century plants began encroaching on walkways. The need to prune some of them likely led to the aesthetic decision to trim all of them so they looked the same.

As shown in my YouTube video, “Do’s and Don’ts of Growing Century Plants,” Agave americana produces pups (clones of the mother plant), which in turn spawn grandpups.

 

These pineappled century plants (Agave americana) are in my YouTube video, “Newport Beach’s Grand Succulent Garden”

En masse these agaves resemble a pineapple plantation, but that doesn’t offend me. What does, is that agave leaf pruning and pup removal are labor-intensive. Moreover, many municipalities won’t accept agave green waste—the plants are too fibrous, spiny and slow to decompose. I’m curious how thousands of sliced-off century plant leaves, each nearly as large as its machete-wielding gardener, have been (and will continue to be) disposed of.

Agave alternatives

There do exist large, statuesque agaves that are not especially treacherous and don’t pup like feral dogs. Two that would have worked well here (if it were possible to source them in quantity) are Agave guiengola and Agave ovatifolia. But using better-behaved agaves is just one alternative. Also from the Southwest US and Mexico are low-maintenance, low-water succulents such as yuccas, dasylirions and hesperaloes. They’re dynamic planted in multiples and don’t bloom-then-die like agaves do.

If I were to give the Newport Beach Civic Center’s succulent garden a letter grade, it would be a C+. I’d like to give it higher, but online info indicates that numerous large and expensive specimens (like Aloe thraskii, a tree succulent) that had been planted early-on, died. Perhaps they couldn’t tolerate being transplanted or were sited incorrectly. Regardless, my sad conclusion is that inadequate horticultural research prior to the installation of this grand succulent garden wasted time, taxpayers’ money and potentially terrific plants.

Related Info:

On this site…

Succulents for Coastal Southern CA Gardens (plant list)

No-Water Succulents for Southern CA (garden of Mark and Cindy Evans, Laguna Beach)

On my YouTube channel…

Watch the video of my visit to the Newport Beach Succulent Garden

 

Don’t miss my video about the pros and cons of a large succulent that’s often free: Agave americana

 

Agave expert Kelly Griffin and I show half a dozen lovely, non-pupping agaves.

 

Books by Debra Lee Baldwin

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Fun and clever ways to display succulents Great Tips

Succulents can be arranged in so many clever ways! Whether you're putting something special together for a gift, or just want to add some more succulents to your home, I've put together some of my favorite projects below. Before you jump in, you'll want to make sure you have the right supplies. [...]

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