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Friday, March 6, 2009

Philadelphia Flower Show 2009 - III

 

Today I will show you a variety of succulents. I really like succulents. They are plants with specially adapted leaves to hoard water so that they can survive in dry climates. That makes us think of hot desserts, but many succulents grow in cold climates. I have a number that are winter hardy in my rock garden. Of course, in a flower show they can be mixed with no attention to what might really grow together.



The above picture is another of those porches in competition with each other. It was very different from the others, almost stark, with a planter full of succulents on each of the black pillars.


Succulents bloom like most other plants, and produce seeds. As you can see, the blossoms can be spectacular. They are usually propagated by simply breaking off parts of the plant rather than by planting the seeds. This is Kalanchoe delagoensis, sometimes called Chandelier Plant. It is native to Madagascar.


Here is Euphorbia lactea. It seems bizarre even for a succulent. It is native to Asia, particularly India. It actually comes in several colors. This one won a blue ribbon. One of the few advantages of living in a city like Philadelphia is that there is enough interest to support an entire organization of cactus and succulent lovers.



I took a pile of pictures of these kinds of plants. I'll just show one more today. This is a planter of a mixture of succulents. You can see that it only won a yellow ribbon, but I liked it a whole lot. You may think that I'm cheating on the premise of this blog to be sharing things from several days ago, but I have to honestly say that I'm still being carried along on the strength of the experiences at the flower show.



See Philadelphia Flower Show II
See Philadelphia Flower Show I
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4 comments:

Lin said...

Your flower show photos are incredible!!! Thanks for sharing your adventure.

Rick (Ratty) said...

I'm glad you've been showing the flowers. I do like looking at flowers, especially some of these stranger types, but I never have the urge to learn much more about them. This way makes that easy for me. At the same time, it does remind me to try to identify some of the ordinary flowers I see on a hike. And it's not cheating to show older stuff as long as it gave you joy today.

Sharkbytes said...

Hi Lin- Glad you like them. The show was surely incredible. Well worth the price. I took a ton of pix, and came home wishing that I had taken even more.

Ratty- I'm a plant junkie! As soon as the wildflowers and the garden start to pop you will be seeing lots of plant pix here.

betchai said...

i love succulents, and yes, that euphorbia lactea looks bizarre, so unique, love its form entirely. thanks for sharing to us where they are native at.