Tucson

I was down in Tucson for a conference and squeezed in a lunch meeting with some old friends. I lived in Oro Valley as a kid and find it relevant to my current interests. You see, when I moved to Tucson, we moved from Colorado, and before that Utah. I'll I'd ever seen was mountains, pine trees, and green. The desert was brown and dead in my mind. (Plus I was 12, is there any more awkward time!) My parents took us to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. I walked out of there a desert rat, a desert lizard. I have loved the desert ever since, and have lived here or been trying to get back to here ever since.

The view of the Catalina mountains from Oro Valley is amazing. This photo doesn't convey the beauty I saw. It's one of my favorite views.

I noticed more barrel cacti down in Oro Valley were blooming. I also realized I don't see many, if any, fishhook barrels in the Phoenix area. (Edit: since writing this, I have seen a few, skinny and ragged, and not blooming. Perhaps a different species or too damn hot)

Blooming barrell.

After my meetings I stopped by a nursery that looked very inviting, Acacia Nursery.  The associate Rob, was extremely helpful. 

Any nursery with a crested saguaro has to be decent right? You have any idea how much a crested saguaro this size cost? Think nice used car. About $10-20 thousand!

Selection was decent, succulents, agaves, aloes. Desert adapted.

They had a nice full grown a. gentryi, "Jaws". I haven't seen the full size until here. I was passively introduced to Jaws by A Growing Obsession. I noticed in the comments, a. gentryi being given as a gift. 

In the office they had these 2 beautiful plants that the employee wasn't sure of their species. So I took this photo to look it up. You probably already know, but I think it is a euphorbia ammak.

The associate there gave me a pup of a partridge breast aloe. Hopefully I can keep it growing. When a nursery gives me a cutting, I'm loyal for life. Thank you!

Of course I had to buy something, but I wasn't sure what. Then I saw it! A. ovatifolia, Whale's Tongue agave. This is the last of the agave species I'm consciously lusting after. It's been hard to find. So now I have it! Just not positive I know where I want to put the beast.

On the way out of town, I luckily a red light. Luckily because I wanted to take a picture of the this bed of a. victoriae-reginaes. Pretty cool to see so many in one place.

Good bye Tucson and Picacho Peak. See you soon.

First post

Inspired by agaves, and 2 blogs out of southern California, A Growing Obsession and Piece of Eden, I wanted to replicate what they do, but focused on here in the Valley of the Sun. The only blog from here I'm aware of, admittedly I'm hardly aware at all, is a great blog AZ Plant Lady.

So, without further ado....this morning after an appointment is Phoenix I stopped by a nursery I haven't been to, but have been meaning to get to, Whitfill Nursery. They had some real treasures I took home with me, an agave gentryi "Jaws", an a. colorata, and my favorite an a. bovicornuta with some striation, light multi-coloring. They had some great selections. In fact, leaving there I thought to myself, "I should start a blog along the lines of the ones I read for Arizona desert plants. So for now the photos are weak, the formatting is rough. But over time, like a plant, it'll look better!

Heading back across town on Glendale I stopped at another new nursery, Desert Gardens Nursery. They had some great specimens, and a few beautiful a. guingola "creme brulee" in 7 gallon pots. As I wandered the agave section I noticed about 10 one gallon pots with pup creme brulees. I asked if he'd be willing to sell, and I picked up a pup for 1/10 of the price of the adult. Very productive day!

 

A. gentryi "jaws".

A. colorata, with a pup.

A. bovicornuta, notice the 2 colors on the back leaf.

A. Guingola, I'm pretty excited I was able to get this so small so I can watch it grow through the years.