We've come a long way from our first show in 2004 to now!
2006 Flower Show Booth
Setting up the 2011 Booth
I think my first experience displaying plants at the flower and garden show was 2004. I had just completed the first 11 months of setting up the new Growing Grounds and had no idea what to expect. I decided to commit to a certain size booth and then set a goal to produce what I would need to stock it during the five days of the show.
Once I decided to participate in the show, the next problem was logistics. How do I get the plants to the show and restock on a daily basis? My good friend Ron Michelson of Half Moon Bay Nursery, www.hmbnursery.com, offered to let me use a section of greenhouse to stage extra plant material. I rented a U-Haul box truck and boxed up all of the plants so that I could move them in an un-shelved truck, and designed a wooden structure to display the plants at the Cow Palace.
I learned a lot in the first two years. The show met and exceeded my expectations in terms of networking, sales, publicity, and exhaustion. Each night, after a 12 hour day at the show, I went back to the nursery with a flashlight to get plants that I had sold through the day. I went into Ron’s greenhouse about 5 a.m. each morning before the days show, picking up flats of plants I had staged there, and headed up to restock the display. I think the only other time I experienced this level of exhaustion was my first trip into the Trinity Alps, carrying an absurd amount of food and drink. Both experiences taught me a great deal in a relatively short period of time.
Loading plants for the 2011 display.
My primary reason for participating in the garden show was to get exposure for my plants and my business. I hoped I could recuperate the cost. My timing was right and the show provided exposure beyond my expectations. I ended up collaborating with Sean and James of the Organic Mechanics, www.organicmechanics.us, and they translated potted succulents into creative landscapes. I met very special people like Peter Whiteley of Sunset Magazine and some of the top landscape designers in Northern California. Over the years, the show has provided me with many opportunities to show off my plants and has led to many valuable collaborations.
2007 Under the Sea Garden
Every year my connection to the gardening community grows in ways I would never have imagined and the San Francisco Flower and Garden Show has played a major role in this experience. The display gardens give designers the opportunity to show off creative ways to use succulents. My booth allows me to offer for sale a concentrated, but diverse, display of plant material.
2010 "Cube" in collaboration with Organic Mechanics
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Planting Inspiration at Home
The Succulent Gardens booth has come a long way since those early days. I plan the garden show “crop” a year before the show. In October we set aside all of the 2”, 4”, and 6” plants for the next year’s show. Customers come into the nursery and ask us “who are all those plants for that are not for sale?” I tell them, “Those are the plants set aside for my customers at next year’s garden show.”
Plants staged for garden show.
The plants for the garden show are divided into five separate groups and each day of the garden show, before the show opens, my crew goes in and pulls out the material from the previous day and sets up a completely new inventory of plant material. For our customers, this means it does not matter which day they visit the show, the display is completely new and fresh each day. For the plants, it means the plants that did not sell are back in the nursery the very next day, receiving TLC from my wonderful nursery crew.
2011 Dovecote
This year I am not producing an Undersea Garden, a “Cube,” or a Dovecote. I did have a plan for this year's show, but complications delayed this year’s plan and you will have to wait until next year for the next “big thing.” Instead, we have concentrated on our booth and will give our 100% full attention to bringing you, our customers, the best selection of succulents possible.
It’s Showtime! Plan your visit to the San Francisco Flower and Garden Show March 21-25 and come see us in booth 1131.
Note: The Succulent Gardens Nursery will be CLOSED March 19-25 while we're up at the show with you!
Posted March 14, 2012
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Summer as arrived! Right after Sunset Celebration I took a short trip to San Jose del Cabo, at a surf break called the Rock. We arrived on a Sunday afternoon, and were in the water at 5pm. My first wave of the trip was a disaster when someone lost his board as I was riding by. Three stitches in my shin, two days out of the water and I was good to go. The plants were hanging out back home, as only succulents can do, and didn't suffer in the least while I was away!
So here's what's going on with Succulents this time of year:
Aeoniums are beginning to go to sleep for the summer, particularly in the warmer areas like the central valley, Sacramento and the deeper coastal valleys like Carmel Valley. Don't be surprised if some of your Aeonium's begin to defoliate as summer progresses. This is not a very good time to be pruning Aeoniums.
Echeverias have already begun blooming and more will follow. Watch for aphids on the flower buds. If you see the bugs, wash them off, or use bug spray. If you use bug spray on the Echeveria and some of the chemical collects in the center of the rosette, be sure to go back and rinse the chemical out to avoid chemical burn. Some people just prune the flowers to get rid of persistent bugs. This is growing time for Echeverias and a good time to do any pruning you might want to do. We will remove the flowers from the Echeveria elegans in a week or so, so the texture of the rosettes in our display beds will be more visible.
When plants are actively growing, it is also a good time to fertilize. I do not recommend any specific fertilizer. I do suggest reducing the dosage recommendation by 1/2 and only fertilizing about once each month. For mixed container plantings that are fully developed, you can reduce the dose by 1/2 again, just providing a maintenance feeding and trying not to encourage too much growth.
Agaves typically grow pretty well in the summer. Growth rates are noticeably increased by regular watering and feeding. Agaves can survive pretty well without water and feeding once they are established, but their growth will slow considerably and they may also get burned leaf tips. This is a good time to prune the lower leaves of the Agaves that you want to clean up. Plants that were damaged by hail this past winter can have their lower leaves removed now. Remember to protect your skin from the Agave juice which can be a bit caustic. Using a serrated blade, or sharp pruning saw usually works better than clippers to cut the fibrous leaves
Crassulas and Cotyledons are mostly growing in the summer and are also good candidates at this time of year for feeding, watering, pruning, and propagation.
Many of the Aloes are finished blooming and some may have big flower stalks loaded with seeds after the humming birds have been out there pollinating. Collect some seed and try growing some. If the flower stalks are completely dry, you can hold the stalk and rock it back and forth to remove it from between the leaves. You can also wait for this to occur naturally if you don't want to bother.
Sempervivums put out many of their offsets in the early to late spring. The offset will continue to grow larger as the year progresses. If the Sempervivum are in hot sun, they will tend to shrivel and the rosettes will often close up until the fall weather cools. I propagate the sempervivum rosettes year around, but take care in the hotter months to shade them for root growth.
Snails and Earwigs are active pests for the next several months. As for the Earwigs, hunt them down and get rid of them. As for the snails, there are some pretty good recipes and summer is a perfect time for a crisp white wine, Sauvignon Blanc, and Escargot. (Here's a recipe we found!)
A number of the Sedum will be blooming now. they are a bit like vegetables that bolt. Many seem to exhaust themselves by shooting up heavy blooms and they become quite spindly. After they finish blooming, pruning to encourage lower branching can be helpful. some varieties will wait until fall to grow back out. They sure are pretty now:
Many of the succulents will be easier to keep looking lush if they are protected from hot summer sun, particularly if they are in containers. Placing containers in the afternoon shade by moving them under eaves, or a tree that's not too messy, can be a good way to do this. A well placed patio umbrella also works. Hope you are all enjoying a fine summer!
Posted June 9, 2011
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One of my goals when creating our nursery in Castroville was to build an inventory that gives me lots of flexibility when designing and installing succulent landscapes and container gardens. Availability of material is critical to the realization of any landscape project. Whether creating my own design, or working with a professional who needs material for their own project, availability of desired varieties in sizes and numbers necessary, is critical to any project’s success.
The nursery industry has developed over the years as an efficient backup to the retail nurseries and landscape professionals who use plants in their inventories and projects. Succulents have not been available in the supply chain in sufficient variety or volume, nor has there been a demand until recently, to make landscaping with succulents practical. One of the goals at Succulent Gardens has been to build an inventory that would satisfy the needs of both variety and volume.
San Francisco Flower & Garden Show
The “Cube” I designed for the 2010 San Francisco Flower & Garden Show (with Organic Mechanics of San Francisco) used 20,000 plants, all in liner size.
Villa Mundo
A Los Gatos landscape designed by Jarrod Baumann and installed under the inscrutable eye of Jim Everett, used about 2,000 Echeveria elegans below the serpentine wall, mature Aloe saponaria/striata hybrids in 5-gallon cans (in bud) above another wall, and numerous Agave weberi, nova, and franziosinii from 15-gallon sizes up to 10-foot wide specimens.
Neither of these projects would have been possible without the supply, and the supply would not have been available just a few years ago. Today designers and contractors can hand-pick every succulent for their project at our nursery, or have them delivered to the site. You design it, we’ll supply it!
Posted February 21, 2011
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