It came from beyond

Well not from beyond..but from a nursery in Holland.
The beast in question is Agave Bracteosa or as it's known freely, the Squid Agave.

After losing a small specimen from a friend, to the  english wet and cold winter I bought a larger plant from a dutch nursery. When it arrived it was plainly obvious that it had been grown under grow lights  which it perfectly understandable. In time it will acclimatize and regain it's compact form, but there is a strange charm to it's elongated leaves.

Little things continued

cotinus coggygria, fresh growth

Sorry another backlit picture of Ensete maurelii..couldn't resist.

Well that's it ..........for now!!

Noticing the little things

Normally its the big and blousy that catch your eye, but if you take time to look a little a closer, then a different world open's up for you.

Like the fiery colours of a Nemesia

Sedeveria Letizia

Echeveria Lipstick

Close up inside a so they say a hardy Gerbera

An albino garden spider on a marigold

Euphorbia mellifera Canary spurge, sticky sweet honey scent

Echeveria Pulidonis flowering

Aloe Plicatilis, the Fan Aloe

I've had this a number of years but with the dry bed completed it now has a temporary home in one of the gabions. The bed generally has a blue theme in terms of plants with a blueish hue and I think the Fan Aloe is looking particularly good.

  

A pile of rubble ,chippings and rocks...and some spikies

I have a friend called Chris who has an amazing Xeric Bed and some..but like me his first attempt was done with simply a pile of rubble, some gravel and rocks . I've been lucky enough to pick his brains for how to build up in layers to give the plants the best of conditions.

And here is the bed nearly a year on with happy plants and if I could do it again I'd of made it BIGGER! Much bigger !

as summer comes and the Delosperma's  and Californian Poppies start to flower I'll post  more pictures and the stars of the bed.