If you spend half an hour listening to Debra Lee Baldwin talk about succulents, or simply browse her beautiful new book, you're probably going to start thinking about where you can fit some succulents into your garden.
Baldwin is the author of Designing with Succulents, published by Timber Press last month, and Amazon's top-selling gardening book. She spoke at the San Francisco Flower and Garden Show last month and showed slides of the gardens and plants featured in her book.
A succulent is any plant that has fleshy water-storing leaves, stems, or roots, allowing it to withstand drought. Common examples include jade plant, aloe, agave, cactus, sempervivum (hen and chicks), and sedum. A dazzling selection of succulents is available, ranging from tree size to rock-garden plants, with foliage in all shades of green as well as blue-grays, reds, oranges, purple-blacks, and everything in-between. Flowers are not the main attraction of most succulents.
Not only that, but many succulents have architectural shapes that give gardens a modern feel, especially when used to create geometrical patterns. The sometimes bizarre forms lend whimsy – “the most underrated element of garden design,” said Baldwin – to the garden.
One of the designers featured in the book creates gardens that evoke underwater reefs, with succulents that resemble jellyfish, coral, kelp, sea urchins, starfish, and octopi.
On a terrace below her house, Baldwin replaced a bed of roses with an easy-care bed of succulents that, viewed from the house, looks like an intricately worked tapestry. Their low maintenance makes succulents ideal for steep slopes, and in turn, slopes provide the good drainage that succulents need.
But Baldwin cautioned that ice plant is not a good choice either on slopes, where it may cause erosion from the weight of the foliage, or in fire-prone areas, where the buildup of dead material may feed a fire.
Succulents also do well in containers, either to showcase an individual variety or to create a miniature landscape. Large containers in the garden bring smaller plants closer to eye level.
One of the stunning dish gardens in the book looks like a pond full of water lilies. Other small succulents can be used to create topiaries, wreaths, and – with the right planter – even wall art. Baldwin suggested giving succulents in bonsai pots instead of a floral bouquet.
A local public garden that features succulents (mostly cacti) is the Arizona Garden on the Stanford campus. The botanic gardens in San Francisco and Berkeley are also good places to see nice specimens. To see agaves bigger than a garden shed, as well as wonderful combinations, go to the Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek. But for really outlandish euphorbias, it's worth a special trip to see Lotusland in Santa Barbara.
By the way, if you are planning to replace a lawn with drought-resistant succulents, native plants, or Mediterranean plants, you may be eligible for a rebate. Google the Water Efficient Landscape Rebate Program (WELRP) in Santa Clara County for details.
© 2008 Tanya Kucak