Patio Pots With Prickles and More

 This week, while Tom was doing the hard work of crawling around in the bushes and on the ground. pruning salal and pulling binder weed, I got to stand up and play with pots. 

Some years ago we started collecting more unusual plants, long before succulents became the rage. We have hardy succulents in our garden, but we began collecting tender varieties that have to live in the greenhouse over winter. Then we found other interesting plants to go with them, with names like Echeveria, Aloe, Agave, Haworthia, Crassula, Aeonium. 

Each spring I would refresh some of the pots with things that didn't winter over or got too big, or just looked ratty. Tom made cuttings of many of the rejects to replenish the supply, and we would find a few new treasures in our nursery tours. 

This year it was time to redo almost everything. With some pots I started over, with others I edited severely. We had enough supply of plants that we didn't have to buy much. 

On Thursday, pots planted, I washed them down and Tom helped me move them to the patio and arrange them along with the bigger pots of Cana, grasses and Brugmansia that Tom had already moved out.

Here is how it all looks now, ready for summer on the patio, 

Below, two special pots, the funky shaped hypertufa pot I made in a garden club class, and a cool faux stump pot with bark like texture. 

In the center, holding that sharp toothed maybe aloe is a folded pot I got from my sister Ilene's garden. It was just right for the too big plant I removed from another pot. 

You always have to be aware of the sharp spines on the Agave when you are working here. Ouch!

This old birdbath holds less tender succulents. 

I could just put one kind of plant in each pot but I can't resist creating an arrangement of color and texture in each. 

The Abutilon ( flowering maple). Purple Heart, and purple Wandering Jew also came out of the greenhouse to finish off this pot. 

And here you have it. Flowering annuals just don't do well here on this patio because of lack of enough direct sun, but there is enough heat to keep these guys happy, and they make me happy.