I took a quick trip to L.A. a few weeks ago and was surprised to find a yard sale in Beverly Hills where a man was selling gobs of stuff he was pulling from his garden or things he had neglected. (Shouldn’t he have had a gardener?) But the shockers were the price tags. These Aloe nobilis came overflowing (and all nearly dead) in a huge, black plastic nursery container… for $3!! Thankfully I had my Jeep and some singles in my pocket. I dragged them to the Jeep and hauled them back to Oakland where I cleaned them up and then—yeah—neglected them. I put them here temporarily in the planter at the base of a lupine. Now I like them there. Maybe they should stay?

One of the things that caught my eye most when I first saw this aloe at the Dry Garden was it’s deep, red colored tentacles. I took it home and stuck it in the ground immediately. I really wanted that red focal point in my yard. Little did I know at the time, but have learned since, that many succulents change colors depending on how stressed they are. Stressing can come from direct, all day sunlight or a deprivation of water. As you can see in the “After” shot, mine looks like it’s been at the spa for the last few months; it’s turned bright green. My guess is that with all the new plantings around it, it was sipping on some of their spa water.

Okay, Missy. Time to dry you out and get me back my red this Fall.

In preparation to replace the filth-bag Angel’s Trumpet that I finally dug out of my garden yesterday (I’d been working on removing that thing for an entire week), I’ve been taking pictures of everything I like (these are random photos from the past week).

I’m not sure what to replace it with. It needs to be sculptural, frost hardy, grow to at least 10ft tall and work with all the cactus and succulents I currently have planted. (It’s purpose will be to create a screen over the living room window.) I’d love to hear (or even see) your ideas…