Kelly Griffin Collectors’ Group Amazing tips

The savviest succulent collectors frequent a new Facebook group: "All That is Kelly Griffin." Kelly, a renowned succulent breeder, is responsible for dozens of aloe and agave cultivars.

Kelly is perhaps best known for colorful dwarf aloes textured with raised dashes. He also hybridizes aloes that make great landscape plants---which is mainly where my interest lies. Kelly scours the world for rare species, sometimes out-climbing goats in remote, rocky regions to gather seeds.

Above: Kelly calls this Aloe viridiflora x A. ferox "Smokey Eyes."

The best way to find Kelly once was at San Diego Cactus & Succulent Society meetings. He's a past-president and judges show plants. Yet public gatherings are dicey these days. With the "All That is Kelly Griffin" online group, you needn't leave home to see eye-candy succulents, learn from members (and the breeder himself), and show off your own KG collection.

Self-described "avid fan" Gina Julia started the group in May, 2020. "It's mainly for members to show Kelly's aloes in different growing environments," she explains, "and how beautiful they really are in their forms and colors. It is also our 'giving back' for the joy he brings to collectors."

How a Hybridizer Thinks

Although he may have been bemused, initially, by a Facebook group dedicated to his life's work, Kelly soon started adding comments and photos, answering questions, ID'ing plants, and sharing insights. "When you take two nice species and put them together, the result you hope for is not always the one you get," he says in a comment that accompanies his photo of an F1 cross:

Aloe suprafoliata x cameronii. Seed-grown Agave ovatifolia is in the background.

Of white aloes Kelly observes, "I have been trying to make a good white aloe as well as every other color combination. In 'Snowdrift' I was pleased with the shape, margins, growth habit, vigor, flower and solid color. It is a plant that I asked to go to production. I think it is better than most of mine in this vein."

Aloe 'Snow Drift' PPAF (Altman Plants)

Kelly's own garden

I met Kelly in the '90s as a journalist covering dry-climate gardening for magazines and newspapers. Much later, after my books came out, I made several YouTube videos with and about him. His is one of the Featured Gardens in my book, Designing with Succulents (2nd edition), pp. 128-131.

Kelly praises Agave guiengola during a visit to his garden.

 

See the video 

Gallery: Kelly Griffin Aloes

Below you'll see photos by Kelly, used with his permission. They're from the "All That Is Kelly Griffin" Facebook group. Most are aloes under cultivation in the test garden at Altman Plants, Vista, CA.

Aloe 'Blue Distans' (distans x meyeri) KG

Aloe 'Delta Dayglow' KG

Aloe 'Delta Rose' PPA KG

Aloe divaricata hybrid 'Zigzag' KG

Aloe ferox, green flower KG

Aloe fievetii hybrid cross KG

Aloe cv 'Frida'

Aloe hereroensis KG

Aloe 'Krakatoa' KG

Aloe mawii x A. powysiorum

Aloe microstigma KG

Aloe 'Oik' variegate

Aloe 'Peach Blush' KG

Aloe peglerae hybrid KG

Aloe rubroviolacea cross KG

Aloe 'Snow Drift' PPAF (Altman Plants)

Aloe suprafoliata x cameronii KG

Aloe vacillans from Yemen KG

Aloe viridiflora x A. ferox KG

Aloe 'Wildfire' KG

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Aloes: Details, Photos & Varieties

Aloes: How To Grow & Varieties What you need to know about aloes plus a photo gallery of plants ID’d About Aloes There are dozens of species of Aloe, from tall trees to dwarf cultivars. Aloes typically have juicy, triangular leaves that form starfish-like rosettes. Some are smooth, others toothed and prickled. Such spiky protrusions, like…

Read More

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Bird Puzzle Feeder: A New Way to Enjoy Your Garden Amazing tips

My bird puzzle feeder is a fun and novel way to observe backyard birds. When given a challenge, birds show persistence, determination, and how clever they are---or not, LOL. In my new Bird Puzzle Feeder video, you’ll enjoy nine different species, from darling titmice to badass orioles. For a list of simple, inexpensive DIY items, see below.

Birds as performance art

During my first 25 years of gardening in rural Southern California, other than noticing repetitive squawks like a rusty hinge, I was oblivious to birds. The closest I came was collecting ornamental bird houses and turning bird baths into succulent planters.

Finches snarf seed from hanging pots (by Alicia Iraclides).

Then we had a houseguest—my MIL—whose sole interest in the garden was its birds. I set up a feeder and quickly became captivated...then disappointed that commercial feeders don't do justice to flying jewels. So I made my own. See some of them in my earlier YouTube video: Create Beautiful Feeders for Backyard Birds (5:01).

Determined to get some suet cake, this scrub jay did a beak-stand. 

Why a bird puzzle feeder?

During Covid, I wondered: What if birds did more than munch? How could I better savor and showcase their intelligence and quirkiness? As a challenge, I put food at the bottom of a wire basket. They could see enticing tidbits but not get to them---not directly. It took some longer than others, but all figured it out. (Well, except for one. Let's just say California towhees are not the brightest.)

Titmice' large eyes make them adorable. They go nuts (forgive the pun) over raw peanuts. 

DIY supplies

I found the heavy-gauge, black wire basket at a thrift store and used floral wire to make gaps smaller. Find a similar "farmhouse egg basket" on Amazon. If you make your own, be sure it has no sharp points (use "flush cutters" for smooth, flat, clean cuts). I hung the feeder from a nail in the eaves with a chain of S-hooks. Green floral clay or museum putty secures interior food holders.

THE BASICS:

Farmhouse egg basket 

S-hooks

Museum putty

BIRD FOOD:

Orioles like grape jelly. All others: raw shelled peanuts, sunflower seeds or a suet cake rodents don't like.

MAKE YOUR OWN BASKET:

1.5 mm soft, flexible wire

Flush-cut wire cutters

OPTIONAL: Floral wire, green floral clay

Product links are affiliate.

Enjoy the video

In my new video, Watch Wild Birds Solve a Bird Puzzle Feeder (12:20), you’ll see nuthatches, goldfinches, house finches, two kinds of orioles (so colorful!), titmice (so cute!), jays, grosbeaks, and those with a rusty-hinge call: spotted towhees.

You'll love watching nine different kinds of birds solve the puzzle feeder.

As always, I welcome your comments and questions! ~ Debra 

Watch the video

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