Naming your succulents is a pretty good idea
Two recent experiences have focused my attention on the identification of plants, particularly succulent plants.
Two recent experiences have focused my attention on the identification of plants, particularly succulent plants.
One event was a recent Cactus & Succulent Society of America webinar in which Elizabeth Sarnes discussed her visits to a region of Argentina. After viewing the webinar, I commented how such reports by plant-hunting travelers contribute to our gardening world by introducing us to new plants in exotic environments that are not very different from our own.
More recently, I attended a virtual garden tour presented by the Monterey Bay Area Cactus & Succulent Society, during which Roger Lane, one of the Society’s members, presented photos of plants in his home garden and commented on their sources, ages and characteristics. He has been growing succulent plants for some 40 years and has developed a remarkable collection of both familiar and (for me) unfamiliar plants, many of which are quite mature.
Both sessions left me impressed how these avid collectors of cacti and succulents could easily name numerous plants that were unknown to me, despite years of growing related plants in my own garden.
They could demonstrate such expertise because of several factors, including plant information provided by guides in exotic lands, growers at cactus and succulent shows, and proficient growers who are members of local plant societies. They might also pursue formal studies in botany, horticulture, or plant taxonomy, or self-directed reading of books in these fields.
Also important in the development of this expertise are good memories and record-keeping.
Home gardeners who grow and enjoy a variety of plants can be most successful when they know the botanical names of their plants. Those names are the gateways to full information about a plant’s characteristics and growing needs, beyond the terse phrases on commercial plant labels.
In this context, we consider ways to identify the plants in your own garden.
To learn how to identify cactus and succulents, link to ”3 Ways to Identify Your Succulents” (tinyurl. com/x8wp6jh8). This article cites
Facebook groups, websites, and a cactus & succulent forum, but doesn’t mention one of my favorites: National Gardening Association’s Plant I.D. Forum (tinyurl. com/2ujbwms), which responds to inquiries about all kinds of plants
For help in identifying other plants in your garden, search the internet for “how to identify ” to discover the available resources.
Several national garden societies maintain websites with databases of plants of their particular interest. Examples include the American Iris Society’s free Iris Encyclopedia, organized by the many groups of irises (wiki. irises.org/), and the American Rose Society’s subscription Modern Rose database, home to more than 37,000 registered roses (modernroses.rose.org/).
Advance your gardening knowledge
For a brief introduction to the names of succulent plants, video the video, “Tricky Names” video athttps://tinyurl.com/48477998. Annie Schreck provides an informal introduction to botanical Latin and /plant taxonomy (you might want to view this fastpaced talk more than once). She also points to lots of succulent plant info at mountaincrestgardens.com, the “the ultimate succulent store”. This an information-age gardening resource that shares knowledge without you having to buy anything.
The Cactus & Succulent Society of America will present a webinar on Epiphytic Cacti at 10 a.m. March 6. This is an interesting topic that could be of interest even to experienced gardeners of succulent plants. For preparatory information, visit this website: worldofsucculents. com/what-are-epiphytic-cacti/. For information on the CSSA webinar, mark the date and see next week’s column.
The San Francisco Succulent & Cactus Society has announced these upcoming webcasts:
March 16: Rob Nixon “Succulents of the US Mexico Border.” April 20: Yucca — Brian Kemble. For more information, browse to https://sfsucculent.org/
Tom Karwin is past president of Friends of the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum, Monterey Bay Area Cactus & Succulent Society, and Monterey Bay
Iris Society, and a Lifetime UC Master Gardener (Certified 19992009). He can be reached at gardening@karwin.com