A stop at Doug and Bruce's garden (it was the agave)

The first text from Doug came in on May 6th, he’d noticed his Agave ovatifolia ‘Frosty Blue’ was looking a little odd. Then the bloom spike started to grow, and grow. This photo is from June 27th. I kept meaning to stop by to see it for myself.

Sadly, that didn’t actually happen until the last week in July, and when I texted Doug about stopping by, he told me he and his husband Bruce were out of town, but I should feel free to look around anyway. So I did, and I couldn’t resist snapping photos.

I’ve been by this garden a few times, and wrote about it back in 2021 (here), but things have definitely grown in the 5 years since that post. The front garden…

Purple prickly pear in the hellstrip.

I couldn’t resist getting the Hesperaloe parviflora in the foreground of this shot. It’s growing in both the hellstrip and next to the driveway.

Standing in the driveway now.

That’s a people and dog-friendly agave…

That is the largest Senecio candicans I’ve ever seen. Notice the stepped down platforms (stages?) for the pots, what a nice touch (Bruce is a landscape designer).

The private side of the front garden…

At first glance I thought the plant on the table was a begonia. It most definitely is not. It looks like a Euphorbia milii (crown of thorns) to me.

Maybe a Euphorbia milii hybrid, ‘Sunset Splendor’?

The riser for the agave didn’t catch my eye at first glance…

But then I realized it was a piece of diamond plate metal, like something you’d use in a car repair shop. So cool!

On the opposite side of the driveway (still in the front garden)…

Aloe and a smaller Senecio candicans.

Starting down the walkway to the back garden and the reason I’m there becomes visible. Wowsa…

Great match up of container and plant.

Getting closer…

It’s a thing of beauty, even though of course it means the end of this agave (there might be bulbils, tiny agave babies that form on the bloom stem, or seeds).

Doug had warned me that the bloom was starting to wind down. There were dozens of these “ovaries” that had fallen to the ground and were caught in the plants leaves. 

I suppose these are the ones that were not successfully pollinated?

There was still a lot going on up there.

Looking around the rest of the back garden... (the containers were grouped to make watering easier for the house-sitter)...

Melianthus and Nandina? It’s a great color combination.

Tiny palm (Trachycarpus sp.)

And big big palm (also a Trachycarpus)

Yucca rostrata

And a final shot of the main attraction. Thanks for letting me poke around the garden you guys!

The Bit at the End

Did you notice the fabulous understated metal sculpture in the front garden (13th image)? To my eye it was perfectly placed and looked right at home in Doug and Bruce’s garden. That got me thinking about a story I read on Garden Rant a few weeks back; Right Piece. Right Place: Ornaments in the Garden. What a hot-button topic, I’m surprised there were only 28 comments.

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