winter-blooming aloes go about their business

Returning from a 10-day trip over Thanksgiving, the garden buzzed with energy from emerging aloe flowers.

Seeing the refreshed garden after the weeks of cleanup in October/November was a pretty special homecoming.

Catching the aloes starting their winter bloom cycle is an event I’ve missed in our 3-year absence. It’s reassuring to find that, whatever conditions the aloes endured, they’ve not missed a beat.

Another classic road trip benefit is…bringing home plants. I’ve been reluctant to add much to a garden that has to survive without a caretaker half the year until I find an arrangement that works. So adding in perennials among succulents has been crossed off garden practices for now — other than the existing reseeders like Sonchus palmensis and Geranium palmatum. But our route home took us 5 minutes away from Curious Flora (formerly Annies Annuals). Marty insisted!

Here’s the basic outline of the road trip. Thanksgiving dinner had us in Sebastopol, north of San Francisco, and we decided to add on a quick trip back to the Oregon Coast since we were sort of halfway there already. The only consideration was the state of the road up Interstate 5 at Mount Shasta. Tire chains necessary? Icy conditions? Using Highway 101 as an alternative adds about two hours travel time, but we opted for the optimal road conditions it offers in December. The stunning scenery 101 provides was a benefit we’d forgotten. It had been years since we’d driven up Highway 101, encountering herds of elk while driving through redwoods in Northern California, the spectacular Oregon coast at Bandon, Florence, Yachats — it was an ecstatic drive. We somehow managed to avoid a drop of rain the entire time. I was looking forward to some rain in Tillamook, but it too was dry and frosty, and I stayed housebound with a head cold for nearly the entire visit.

On the return drive south, to cross over from 101 back to Interstate 5 near San Francisco took us right past Curious Flora, formerly Annies Annuals, now reincarnated as a retail nursery, no longer offering mail order. Arriving near closing, there was no time for photos but just enough time to bask in the enduring glow of this incredible nursery. The huge Agave ovatifolia is still there anchoring its nursery bed. The cow had been returned to its rightful place near the entrance. And table after table brimmed with transcendently healthy and alluring nursery stock, with names very familiar to us catalogue junkies (on labels that already reflected the owner change to Curious Flora.) It was a very reassuring visit, with cheerful employees bustling about, all the plants still safely under the care of long-time knowledgeable staff. (Another recent source of plants came from an excellent local nursery now calling it quits, with no happy ending on the horizon. A 3-gallon Beschorneria ‘Flamingo Glow’ and gallons each of Aloe brevifolia and Aloe ‘Always Red,’ all planted yesterday, all three plants for a total of $20 at 75% discount.)

A little pot of recently germinated Dioscorea elephantipes accompanied us on our travels, too fragile to be left behind. From 5-year-old seed from the Denver Botanic Garden, I was astonished to find two seedlings not long after sowing in October. A third seedling germinated in late November, after I inadvertently left the pot out over a cold night in Sebastopol. I wasn’t much of a fan of caudiciforms previously, so let the seeds idle for years. I always thought they were the least attractive plants at succulent shows! Now I appreciate their waterwise longevity, both as plants and seeds! If they survive, these plants will outlast me.

Take care and have a great holiday!