See a 60-Year-Old Succulent Garden Amazing tips

Come along with me on a tour of a marvelous, 60-year-old succulent garden in San Marcos, CA. Our host is Kevin Smith, a Palomar Cactus & Succulent Society (PCSS) member and the garden’s caretaker for the past 7 years.

"It's filled thousands of plants and hundreds and hundreds of species," Kevin says, adding that the garden was started by the PCSS in 1962. For decades, volunteers from the club continued to add to, tend and fine-tune it.  As you can see by my photos, areas of it suggest the famed Huntington Botanical Gardens near Pasadena.

Dry leaves persist on aloes a half-century old. Those shaggy skirts insulate the trunks in winter and shade them in summer.

Many succulents you've seen in my books, website and YouTube channel thrive in the garden, which occupies 1.5 acres on the Palomar College grounds. Because many specimens are mature, this new video will help you evaluate whether similar plants might be good choices for your own garden.

Free for members

Belonging to a Cactus & Succulent Society club is a great way to obtain beautiful, unusual succulents for free or at minimal cost. In addition to monthly speakers and "brag plants" on display, CSS meetings include succulent swaps, auctions and sales.

Succulents and cacti that members donated to the garden long ago continue to provide cuttings, offsets and pups that enhance newer members' landscapes. As well as being a botanic legacy, the Palomar garden illustrates plant sharing at its best.

Rick Bjorklund and Kevin Smith discuss plants in the Palomar College Cactus & Succulent Garden

In the video I welcome a special guest: succulent collector and horticulturist Rick Bjorklund of the San Diego C&SS. He and I were there in January when many aloes and crassulas come beautifully into bloom.

Visit in person

The garden is open by appointment to Palomar College students and PCSS members and guests. It's also the locale of the club's annual pot-luck picnic every August.

For more info...

• Contact the Palomar Cactus & Succulent Society, info@palomarcactus.org
• Palomar College Interim Supervisor for Grounds & Recycling, Tony Rangel, arangel@palomar.edu; (760) 744-1150, ext. 2133.
• Palomar College Facilities Office: FacilitiesOffice@palomar.edu; (760) 744-1150, extension 2629.

Below is a gallery of more than 50 photos from my visit. It represents what caught my eye, but is in no way a comprehensive inventory.

Palomar Garden gallery

Aeoniums

Agave 'Sun Glow'

Agave attenuata

Agave filifera ssp. schidigera

Agave franzosinii

Agave ghiesbreghtii

Agave kichi-jokan

Agave lophantha 'Quadricolor'

Agave macroacantha

Agave oteroi

Agave shawii

Agave vilmoriniana (octopus agave)

Aloe arborescens?

Aloe cameronii

Aloe ciliaris

Aloe dichotoma

Aloe ferox

Aloe juvenna

Aloe marlothii

Aloe vanbalenii

Beaucarnea recurvata

Beaucarnea stricta

Strelitzia reginae (bird of paradise)

Cotyledon orbiculata

Crassula arborescens & Euphorbia grandicornis

Crassula perfoliata var. falcata, green variety

Crassula ovata (jade)

Crassula ovata, pink flowering variety

Crassula perforata

Crassulas, stacked

Cylindropuntia fulgida. (cholla)

Dracaena draco (dragon tree)

Dyckia 'Keswick'

Euphorbia grandicornis

Euphorbia ingens with fruit

Euphorbia lambii

Euphorbia milii

Euphorbia stenoclada

Euphorbia tetragona

Euphorbia xylophylloides

Ferocactus stainesii

Ferocactus with fruit

Gasterias

Haemanthus albiflos, Crassula perforata

Mangave sp.

Myrtillocactus geometrizans, green form

Pachypodium lamerei

Puya chilensis

Salvia guaranitica

Sansevieria pinguicula (walking sansevieria)

Selenicereus (Hylocereus)

Senecio mandraliscae

Senecio jacobsenii

Tillandsia sp.

Yucca filifera

Yuccas in bloom

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Patrick Anderson’s Seminal Succulent Garden

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DIY Succulent Bonsai Amazing tips

In my new video you'll see a succulent bonsai expert prune roots and branches of a 'Cork Bark' portulacaria and stage it in an art pot. Great DIY tips!

I use the term "succulent bonsai" loosely for potted succulents that suggest traditional bonsai, i.e. "the art of growing ornamental, artificially dwarfed trees or shrubs" (Webster's).

Award-winning caudiciform succulents staged like bonsai, at the Intercity Show

Succulent bonsai is similar to the art of staging succulents for shows. Collectors pair prize specimens with handmade pots, then enhance them with crushed rock topdressing and ornamental rocks.

Pachyform book

Preferred succulents for bonsai often are those with fat trunks and roots, as seen in Philippe de Vosjoli's book, Pachyderms: A Guide to Growing Caudiciform and Pachycaul Plants. The author defines these as "species that develop thick bodies with sculptural forms."

Living Sculptures

Each is unique and perfect for enhancing patios and other outdoor sitting areas where plants are protected and easily viewed. Like pets, such specimens need grooming to look their best...but are not nearly as time consuming as, say, a small dog or bonsai'd pine. Another plus is that succulents staged like bonsai, unlike true bonsai, are rarely at risk if owners forget to water them.

A gnarled Portulacaria afra 'Cork Bark' with variegated leaves. Textured bark lends the look of age. 

In my new video, "DIY Succulent Bonsai," we revisit that Mecca of rare and intriguing succulents in San Marcos, CA: Botanic Wonders. Anthony the founder and manager demonstrates how to pot and prune Portulacaria afra 'Cork Bark', a Frank Yee cultivar that Botanic Wonders obtained from the Huntington Botanic Gardens.

The appearance of great age is a bonsai keynote. Textured trunks and limbs of 'Cork Bark' become "even more gnarly over time," Anthony says, adding that enthusiasts can get a head start with six-year-old 'Cork Bark' specimens in one-gallon pots.

Or slash the bark

Slicing the bark of Portulacaria afra will scar it.

Scarred trunk, after healing. By Tom Jesch, Waterwise Botanicals

You also might start with common, smooth-skinned Portulacaria afra, perhaps one dug out of your garden and heavily pruned. To give it a gnarled bark, slash its trunk and branches with a knife. As wounds heal, they'll leave scars. This sounds brutal, but Portulacaria afra can handle it. After all, in Africa, elephants inadvertently propagate the plant by stomping and shredding it. Its common names are "elephant bush," "elephant food," and in Africa, "Spekboom."

Wire wraps a Portulacaria afra 'Variegata' to aesthetically direct its growth. (Rudy Lime)

Portulacaria afra also doesn't mind having its roots pruned and elevated. Moreover, plants have flexible branches that can be wrapped with bonsai wire and trained downward, sideways, twisted, curved, and/or upright---however you like.

In the video, Anthony removes a 'Cork Bark' from its nursery pot, prunes its roots, and plants it in an art pot (by Jerry Garner) using Botanic Wonders' own brand of potting mix. Next he top-dresses the soil with crushed lava, adds a decorative rock, and prunes the branches to encourage cloud-like leaf clusters ("pads").

Tools

Anthony uses these tools in the video. Links are affiliate (Amazon).

Bonsai soil scoop

 

Bonsai scissors

 

Bonsai root hook

 

Types of succulent bonsais

Portulacaria afra is arguably the easiest, but as Anthony notes, "any cactus or succulent can be staged like a bonsai."

Operculicarya decaryi bonsai with elevated roots (Al Klein)

Those on display at Botanic Wonders include an impressive Operculicarya decaryi owned and trained by Al Klein, Anthony's business partner. Although only a few feet tall, it resembles a majestic redwood.

Larry Grammer and Michael Romero pot-up succulents at California Cactus Center in 2010

I've been fortunate to meet and photograph the work of several noteworthy succulent bonsai artists. Sadly, both Rudy Lime of San Diego and Larry Grammer of Pasadena's California Cactus Center have passed. I've added their names (and those of other artists, if known) to captions of their creations shown here.

Find additional ideas for your own collection of bonsai succulents in the gallery below. As always, comments and questions are most welcome!

Succulent Bonsai Gallery

Adenium obesum (Grammer)

Crassula ovata 'Gollum' (Lime)

Crassula ovata 'Hummel's Sunset'

Crassula ovata 'Gollum' (Lime)

Crassula ovata 'Hummel's Sunset' (Lime)

Crassula ovata, Ray Burge (25 years old)

Crassula sarcocaulis (CA Cactus)

Cyphostemma 'Fat Bastard' (Botanic Wonders)

Dioscorea elephantipes (Keith Kitoi Taylor)

Euphorbia stellata

Ficus palmeri (Julian Duval)

Ficus palmeri (Michael Buckner)

Ficus petiolaris (Grammer)

Fockea edulis (Grammer)

Fockea edulis (Grammer)

Fockea edulis (Kitoi)

Fockea edulis

Kedrostis africana (Kitoi)

Mesembryanthemum (Lime)

Operculicarya decaryi (Lime)

Pachypodium horombense (Kitoi)

Portulacaria afra (Grammer)

Portulacaria afra, 4 by Rudy Lime

Portulacaria afra (Lime)

Raphionacme flanaganii (Botanic Wonders)

Sedum frutescens (Grammer)

Trichodiadema bulbosum

Tylecodon paniculatus (Kitoi)

Tylecodon reticulata (Kitoi)

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Is Mistletoe a Succulent? Amazing tips

Is mistletoe a succulent? No. Is it a cactus? No. What then is "mistletoe cactus?"

(If you're curious about real mistletoe, scroll down.)

Meet mistletoe cactus

I suspect a nurseryman came up with the name hoping to create a market for various Rhipsalis species. The plant's pendant growth habit and pea-sized white or red fruit likely inspired the connection.

Native to forests of Central and South America, these subtropical cacti consist of slender, leafless, branching stems. They're not parasitic like true mistletoe; rather, they grow in moss or debris in the crooks of tree branches.

This Rhipsalis capelliformis in Wanda Mallen's collection suggests a green Cousin Itt.

My easy-care variety

My garden in Zone 9b has no greenhouse nor lathe house, so I grow few tropical plants. Even so, when I saw Rhipsalis pilocarpa at my local succulent specialty nursery, I couldn't resist giving it a try.

Rhipsalis pilocarpa blushes red. The species name refers to white hairs growing on its branches.

In three years, the plant---originally in a 4-inch pot---has grown a foot or more in length and filled in nicely. Where stems receive bright shade only, they're green; in greater sun, red. Globular fruit follow translucent white flowers.

The pot hangs in a privet tree that I've limbed-up. Horizontal branches about an arm's reach overhead are ideal for hanging potted succulents. These lovely cascades typically need protection from harsh sun in summer and frost in winter. Learn more about succulents for hanging pots.

Mistletoe cactus care and feeding

According to the New York Botanic Garden (NYBG), "despite the humid, jungle conditions of their native habitats, these cacti are adapted to grow in media that is prone to dryness. An ideal soil mix is one part perlite (for drainage) with one part potting soil, one part peat and one part coarse orchid bark (for structure and nutrition)."

In general, mistletoe cacti prefer temps above 50 F. The NYBG adds that to form flowers, they need to stay below 65 degrees F "for a month or so after flowering and again before setting buds."

Fertilize when flower buds begin to form. Apply "a tomato-type fertilizer every two weeks through the flowering period, and then monthly for the rest of the year, except for the rest period following flowering." (NYBG) Like most succulents, they're in danger of rotting if overwatered. You know you've overdone it if leaf tips turn yellow.

Meet true mistletoe

A sycamore tree hosts a green cluster of mistletoe. Branches beyond the mass are spindly, due to being deprived of nutrients.

"Real" mistletoe includes 1,500 species native to Europe, the British Isles, Australia and North America. The epiphytic (tree-inhabiting) plant pierces tree bark and limbs with hairlike roots. These ingest water and nutrients, causing branches to die.

It's anyone's guess how a parasitic plant became associated with kissing on Christmas. Perhaps it's because mistletoe generally grows high overhead, and forms a large, leafy green ball that's easy to spot and to stand beneath.

As for mistletoe cactus, by all means kiss someone below a pot of it.

If you'd like to grow mistletoe cactus, Mountain Crest Gardens sells Rhipsalis pilocarpa. During the holidays, Amazon offers handpicked mistletoe twigs as well as decorative artificial ones. (Affiliate links.)

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