Top Ten Succulents of 2010
This category contains some of the rarest of plants, some of the most common of plants, and some others too. It must hold a lot in those ten spots! Cactus are prohibited from competing in this category.
And the envelopes please. Coming in at Number ten…
10. Haworthia limifolia – when these are solid with lots of spiraling leaves they look fantastic, practically the best, but too often they lose more leaves than is attractively best for them, so number 10 it is.
9. Crassula muscosa is one of the most popular plants in the nursery, and yet it has never before won a top ten award.
8. Dorstenia crispa ssp. lancifolia is the first rare plant to make this list, and it comes in at a solid 8.
7. Dudleya hassei is the first California Native to make the list, and those chalky fingers are the reason why.
6. Tillandsia caput-medusae x brachycaulos – Airplants were very big this year at the nursery, and so these epiphytic bromeliads get to occupy one place on the list and it’s number 6. Congratulations!
5. Agave lechuguilla is a great agave that would score higher but our plants are too small at this time. Maybe it will score a higher honor next year when we bring out the 5ga. plants. Nice teeth, awesome stripe – this is going to grow into your favorite agave.
4. Our favorite new echeveria cultivar at the nursery this year was a red tipped one. Echeveria “Violet Queen” is the echeveria for me.
3. Graptopetalum pentandrum turned out to be a slightly difficult plant, but chalky, purple, and flattened is better than nothing.
2. Aeonium “Garnet” is the most amazing of the new Aeoniums we had for you this year. In fact, it’s better than the new ones we have ready for you for 2011. But be forewarned, we are growing a new hybrid that will be ready in 2012 that will blow your socks off.
And the Number One Succulent for all of 2010, here and elsewhere, and throughout the Universe, is…
1. Whitesloanea crassa – a rare, although not particularly slow growing, stapeliad with small beetle-pollinated flowers. Don’t water in winter!
