A trip to the Succulent Nursery

The woman working in the nursery was friendly. I asked her if I could mispronounce a little Latin for her. She was used to butchered Latin she said. But she didn't think they had any Lampanthrus Oscularia Deltoid.

As directed by the man who been associated with this succulent gardens for years, the man who identified the plant for me, we had driven all the way to Castroville out on Elkhorn Slough Road.

It was hard to believe, given all the succulents we were surrounded by,

that the one

we had come seeking was not to be had. The worker started talking up other alternatives and even suggested we might like to drive yet further north to Santa Cruz where another grower might have Lampanthrus.

Such a patchwork of succulents surrounded us, we certainly weren't going to leave without first enjoying the place. While we wandered amongst the grand variety, the worker decided she should check the computer just to be sure. Her further investigation revealed the plant was now known simply as Oscularia Deltoid. They had flats of four inch pots of just what we were looking for, of course we will have to wait until next year for more blooms. We did also find several other succulents we couldn't resist.

Here's what we brought home.

If you click on the photo you can see the tiny white flowers of the Sedum dasyphyllum major more clearly. The larger pink stalk is Sempervivum arachnoideum or Big Cobwebs plant.

We admired many plants we had either never seen or at least never noticed before. We also found out the names for several plants that we already grow but had not yet identified. It was a nice jaunt for a foggy Saturday. As we traveled back south, the sun was out in Seaside and the beach was sparkling, but further south we reentered the fog and it remained a somber colored afternoon on the cliffs where we live. We worked in the vegetable garden until dinner time. The sun sank without a flare. Throw in a little reading, a little music, and a few loads of laundry and there you have it, a very Saturday kind of day. By definition succulent means : full of juice, full of vitality, fresh. I think we can say it was a succulent Saturday.

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