Planting my hypertufa containers

Earlier I wrote about the adventures of making hypertufa containers and promised to continue the story when I planted them. Well, it's time. Once the pots are fully cured, you're advised to soak them in water to help leach out any excess alkalinity and "free lime" in the Portland cement (one of the ingredients of the hypertufa mixture). So, I soaked.

My extremely shallow rectangle container was the first to be planted. Originally I'd intended to do a crevice-style planting in this container, one where most of the soil would be held between relatively tall, thin rocks, rather than in the container itself. However, the dark hypertufa balls we made from left-over material, and a few pots of Jovibarba allionii I'd picked up from Little Prince, had me thinking about going in a different direction.

Like this...

A common name for Jovibarba is "rollers", because their small offsets come loose and roll to their new location, where they take root. I thought the combination of the bright green rollers and the dark hypertufa balls was a fun one. I'd also had collected a few light-grey, round river rocks, but didn't end up using them.

Here's what I ended up with. The hypertufa balls and the Jovibarba mounded up on shallow soil

It makes me happy.

For the next container I had a very small Asplenium ceterach, a Myriopteris wootonii, and an abused (but loved) Cassiope lycopodioides.

Rocks figured into the plan, although once again the roundish river rocks were not used.

The thin rocks went in diagonally, with the Asplenium ceterach in the corner.

This hard to find fern came to me from a man named Fred, he gave me a pair. After two years one them is actually looking healthy in the ground (photo below). The second (the one that just went into the container) was not. I hope it will like life in the hypertufa better.

Myriopteris wootonii went in the middle. Myriopteris wootonii "is one of several, super cute, dwarf dryland desert ferns from the western US...in this case, from Colorado south to Texas and west to California. The tiny, grey evergreen leaves of beaded lip fern form a tight colony 4" tall x 2' wide...with age. Myriopteris wootonii is a superb, highly-coveted rock garden fern, as long as the soil is well drained, and the site gets a few hours of sun. In brutally hot summer climates, more shade than sun is recommended." (source)

And at the far end a few tiny tendrils of Cassiope lycopodioides, which wasn't happy where it was (in a large mixed container planting) so I thought maybe it would be happy here. We shall see.

I decided to hold off planting the third hypertufa pot until spring, so for now it makes a nice base to this planted pot.

Where will these containers live? Along the sidewalk, in the front garden. Currently the Jovibarba planter is under a metal cage. The squirrels are on frantic overdrive tucking away anything and everything that might feed them over the winter. In the process they're wreaking havoc on the garden. I didn't want my carefully planted flat of orbs to be tossed hither and yon. Thus it's protected for now.

Oh look, it's Wednesday and Addam, those two just had to get in their annual moment of fame, since they were ignored in my Halloween post... 

Truth be told they're gone now (it's November after all), but since I took this photo before the witching hour there they were. The fern filled hypertufa container is tucked behind the trio of agaves and Addam's front leg. Better to stay out of the way of both the squirrels, and any hungry rabbits that pass by. It's a wild wild world out there.

The Bit at the End

It's an annual tradition that Martha shares images of her staff wrapping the green hedges and ornamental planters around her farm in burlap for the winter, but this is the first year I remember seeing bonsai wrapped. Honestly I wonder how much it really protects the roots and containers, but if Martha wants it, of course Martha gets it. See that post here, the last photo includes what appear to be hypertufa planters. I wonder if Marth made them herself?

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It's nearly Halloween...

This postcard appeared on the mantel one evening. Andrew had picked it up on a trip to Powell's. Spooky, right?

It alone was going to be my post for Halloween, then I moved it to the bathroom shelf and added a few things.

Halloween was a fun excuse to put together an autumn vase arrangement, or two.

Fertile fronds of Blechnum spicant (dried), the left behinds of Crocosmia blooms, Disporum longistylum ‘Night Heron’ stems, and the seed heads of Pachystegia insignis.

It's the Pachystegia insignis bits that inspired these arrangements.

This guy is an annual Halloween addition, one of our vintage paper decorations. I'm not one of those people who goes all out for the season. It's low key and largely nature based around here. 

But let's return to that postcard photo. What do you suppose brought these woman together? Some of them have a slight smile. Some look much more mysterious, spooky even. One or two look like they might be casting a spell on whoever it was taking the photo...

The Bit at the End

Are you familiar with the term, civil twilight? I'd never heard of it until a random Google search turned it up, while looking for something else. Civil twilight is defined astronomically as the period when the center of the sun is between 0° and 6° below the horizon (source), it's called that because the sky is still bright enough for people to conduct most “daytime” outdoor activities. Scientific American defines the three types of twilight here, and that's where I learned that civil twilight is followed by nautical twilight, and then astronomical twilight. BTW, Saturday night turn your clocks back an hour (unless you live in Arizona or parts of Canada). Will we ever stop this crazy time travel thing?

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Five (glorious, sunny and warm) days in the desert

I've just returned from a trip to Phoenix, Arizona, to visit my brother and his family. Somehow eight years had gone by since I'd been to Phoenix, ten since I'd visited the Desert Botanical Garden (DBG), which is where this story begins... 

When I started planning my trip I went to the DBG website to see what days they were open, and that's when I saw notice of their plant sale. Believe it or not I remembered seeing them setting up the sale on my last visit and wished I could have attended, this time I was sure to be there on the right day(s). I'll share some pictures from the sale in a future post, but I thought I'd start with our haul. There's my brother Darin carting over his Leucostele terscheckii (Argentinian saguaro).

And here's our whole haul as we were loading it up. You can probably guess which one is mine (more on that at the end of this post).

This blog rarely includes people photos, let alone photos with me in them. But since Darin is a frequent selfie taker there are going to be a couple in this post. Here we are entering the DBG, with the Chihuly "Desert Towers" behind us.

When I mentioned my desire to visit the garden (and the plant sale) I warned Darin that he'd better plan on finding a comfortable spot in the shade to relax, as my garden visits can be rather intense, since I want to see every square inch. 

He was a good sport though, up for seeing it all. However, as we were trekking around in the sun (85F) we passed a group that looked a little tortured. I love collecting overheard quotes and was sure to write this one down... "I’ll tell you what, you better be glad Rachel didn’t come with us or we’d be walking every damn square inch of this f^&%!* place." Poor Darin, I was his Rachel.

The DBG was celebrating the season with pumpkins and gourds. This autumn "tree" was set up as a selfie station.

Pumpkin and gourd filled gabions

As we walked up to this autumnal garland draped across the sign I thought there's no way...

And I was right. That Tillandsia xerographica is not real. Can you imagine a Tillandsia sitting on a cement wall in full Arizona sun? Not a happy ending.

One more shot from the DBG today, but you can be sure there are more to come.

The first nursery we stopped at during my visit was Berridge Nursery. To my eyes October at a nursery in the desert looks a lot like spring in the PNW; vegetable starts, bedding plants, the offerings looked like Portland Nursery in May. The only photo I took was of their potting bench, available for customers to use. I had to wonder what the story was behind the lonely opuntia pad tucked in there.

We also stopped at Dig It Gardens. There will be a future post, but since this vignette looked rather Halloween-ish (bowling balls instead of pumpkins), I thought I'd include it here.

A Little Free (Saguaro) Library!

Love the tile work.

It's not every Little Free Library that has a ginormous Pachycereus schottii var. monstrosus (totem pole cactus) next to it. 

Okay I guess this isn't actually a selfie, my sister-in-law Nellie took this photo of Darin and I at the Jewel of the Creek Preserve—where there were hundreds of Saguaro and Cylindropuntia bigelovii (teddy bear cactus) growing. I was trying to look like I was hugging the teddy bear but I should have stood closer.

A grocery store stop provided this surprise. I've seen cactus pads (nopales) for sale many times, but this is the first I remember seeing Opuntia fruit (tunas) on offer.

We also squeezed in a visit Boyce Thompson Arboretum, where I was thrilled to see the Opuntia I spotted in 2018 still growing in this tree, a Tipuana tipu.

Here's my 2018 photo (from this post)...

It's grown quite a bit.

There will be many future posts with photos from this trip, but for now I'll end with my small haul...

Myrtillocactus geometrizans Crested 'Elite' from the Desert Botanic Garden plant sale. There were SO MANY things I wanted to bring home from the sale, but I've always loved this crested cactus and as a bonus I could fit it in my carry-on. 

We stopped at Desert Foothills Gardens Nursery, in Cave Creek, on our way back from the Jewel of the Creek Preserve—that's where I spotted these Agave victoriae-reginae 'Golden Princess' for just $5.

I'll take two, thank you very much. One of them had variegation leaning towards yellow and the other was a little on the green side.

The final three agave pups came from my brother's garden.

This spot is where, over the years, he's planted pups harvested from agaves in the main garden, it's where we dug mine. 

Unfortunately I don't know for sure what they are, but I couldn't resist the detailed bud imprints on these first two...

The third came from this handsome fellow. No marginal teeth, but still a strong pattern from the overlapping leaves.

Maybe an Agave weberi?

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All material © 2009-2026 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.