Patrick Anderson’s Exceptional Succulent Garden

Fabulous Fallbrook Garden of Patrick Anderson (c) Debra Lee Baldwin)

I chose classical music for the video because Patrick, in addition to being a succulent expert, is an opera singer.  In my YouTube video, “Patrick Anderson’s Succulent Garden,” I take you on a tour of the residential garden that launched my love of succulents. You’ll see it as it looks now, 25 years after I…

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Why You Need the Second Edition of Designing with Succulents

Above: A handsome reporter with perfect teeth, wearing royal blue, makes a perfect backdrop for orange aloes. Seriously, what a sweet man, and an ace interviewer too. Watch how he put me at ease, kept the pace brisk, and anticipated what viewers would want to know.   When publisher Timber Press proposed a celebratory 10th…

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Circular Succulent Garden

Ball fountain surrounded by a circular garden of colorful succulents

When I first saw fitness coach Amy Van Liew’s circular garden and spherical fountain, I envisioned how it might look replanted with colorful succulents. A great fountain and garden bed deserve to be seen, especially when in the middle of a magnificent home’s entryway. In the spring, when I took this photo of Amy, the flowers in the…

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Why You Must Read “The Bold Dry Garden”

Ruth Bancroft was both gardener and collector. Her legacy is a botanic garden destined to long outlive her.  As she researched her book, The Bold Dry Garden, it dawned on Sunset’s garden editor Johanna Silver that plant collectors are not necessarily gardeners, and vice-versa. The subject of the book, Ruth Bancroft, was both gardener and collector—as is…

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Make a Succulent Mug Gift Bouquet

Make a succulent mug gift bouquet the next time you need a little something for a friend or hostess. This transcends the traditional flower-stand bouquet and has utility long afterwards. 

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A Dozen Reasons to Love Cacti

Cactus backlit (c) Debra Lee Baldwin

Why do I love cacti? It’s a natural progression: As we gain appreciation for the lines, textures and shapes of succulents, we arrive at those that exhibit elegant simplicity—never mind that they have spines (in fact, sometimes because they do). Here are a dozen reasons.

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Use Crushed-Rock Top Dressing to Enhance Your Succulent Designs

  Do consider using crushed-rock top dressing to enhance your succulent designs. In the ground or in pots, your succulent compositions will look and perform better if bare soil doesn’t show. Top dressing lends a finished look, and plants benefit from the way it disperses water. In the open garden, soil exposed to sunlight is…

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Debra’s DIY Quick, Easy, Colorful Succulent Container Garden

To make my my quick, easy and colorful succulent container garden, you’ll need a 12-inch container, “cactus mix” potting soil, a piece of window screen to cover the hole (optional), one large echeveria (like ‘Afterglow’) to go in the center, several nursery pots of Graptosedum ‘California Sunset’ (or similar), and a fine-leaved sedum for tucking…

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How Not To Kill Succulents

How to Kill Succulents

Above: In my popular YouTube playlist all about Succulent Basics, I explain… what you need to know what to avoid doing how to keep your succulents healthy, happy and looking their best. How to Kill Succulents according to a New Yorker Whatever we’re cheerfully crazy about on the West Coast is dismissed by somber-clothed subway…

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Rick’s Aloe and Butterfly Garden

  The current population of monarch butterflies is a mere 4% of what it formerly was. These once ubiquitous butterflies are on the brink of extinction. Anyone with even a small garden, in any part of the US, can help reverse this sad trend. I knew that Rick Bjorklund’s garden in San Diego would delight me with…

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Holiday Decorating with Succulents

Above: Using succulent cuttings from my garden, I create a wreath suitable for an entry, garden wall or gate. Such wreaths also work well as table centerpieces (laid flat) and make great hostess gifts. Quick & clever decorating ideas This time of year, the succulent elves bundle up, go into the garden, and transform it into…

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