Tactile Stimulants

Touchingly diverse group

Looking at the plants I bought at the Green Faire in the Saturday afternoon sunlight, I was struck by how the light accentuated their textures, highlighting their diversity. As we saw in the previous post, succulents come in a truly remarkable array of shapes, sizes, colors and textures. Just looking at this small group one can see, and almost feel, their ruffly, smooth, prickly, nubby, sharp and bumpy, surfaces and details. I’m going to use these plants for a new grouping at the pagan temple and I think they’ll add some new visual interest there. Here’s what they are …

From top, clockwise: agave bovicornuta is adorned with super-sharp, dark brown spines edging smooth, scoop-like leaves — I’ll approach this one carefully. Next, euphorbia squarrosa is multi-armed, with small prickles and tiny, tawny blooms lining each stem. I’m not sure how big this will get but I would love to see this really cascading out of the large cast iron urns I bought a week ago. At bottom, the tight, tiny clusters of a euphorbia look as textural as they actually feel; it will make a cool, mounded shape in a low, wide container. Lastly, an echeveria runyonii, cresting, also goes by the name ‘topsy-turvy’. Its smooth ruffled leaves feel cool to the touch, matching their icy blue-gray coloring. Once I’ve placed these new specimens into the temple’s scheme I’ll post pictures; I can’t wait to see how they’ll look!