The weather has warmed up nicely and all the birds in the garden announced that winter is at an end! The Weavers started building nests and the Red-billed Wood Hoopoos lured their two babies out of their nest in my old Peach tree and took them off to greener pastures. I do hope they'll be back to spend more time in my garden...
Red-billed Wood Hoopoo (Phoeniculus purpureus)
I've been lax checking on my succulents (the few I have left in the garden after giving everything away, thinking that we were moving to the coast), firstly because I was really ill with pneumonia at the end of May and then with Chronic Bronchitis virtually the whole of June and July and secondly because of the cold, but now that I've recovered and with the warmer weather I ventured into the succulent garden to assess the winter damage.
To my surprise I found that everything had survived and, in fact, the succulent area has been over-taken by the Crassula imperialis (or possibly muscosa...?) and are none the worse for wear after the cold. I now have thousands of little plants and could probably fill a thousand pots and still have plenty left! A new business opportunity, perhaps...? lol!
There are a few Echinopsis cacti somewhere under all that Crassula
imperialis - need to get them out and transplanted before they make any
flowers, which would have trouble showing up through all this!
With such an abundance of Crassula, I took the chance of filling a pot with some of it as well as some (rather leggy) Echeverias to put in a sunny spot on the patio.
Aloe ferox seeds randomly dispersed by birds or the wind ended up
growing tightly together next to my garden path, making it impassable!
This position is in dappled shade and gets quite a lot of water, I think
that aided in the germination process. Need to transplant some of these
babies now. And check out all the Crassula also covering the pathway!
Chores for the next couple of days will consist of transplanting some of the "unwanted" aloes to sunny spots and spreading some of that lovely Crassula to other parts of the garden so that I can have my pathway back!
I discovered a pot Echinopsis cactus (makes pink flowers) with new pups somewhere under some red Hot Pokers. Want
to try and separate the pups today.... The other succulents in the pot
(Crassula and Kalanchoe) were put in the pot either by birds or the wind!
For my friends in the Northern Hemisphere now heading into cold weather, I hope your winter is mild and that all your succulents thrive!
