Yuma Garden Update

Early last fall our neighbor "Crazy Cat Lady" yowled through the fence at me and asked if I would like a tray of succulents and cacti that a friend had dropped off.  She claimed that she hates these sort of plants.  I have an abundance of these plants but mine are all large plants that winter in the greenhouse and then we set them all out together up next to the house in the driveway.  We call it the Yuma Garden as the largest Golden Barrel Cacti was collected on a visit to my parents who winter in Yuma Arizona.

Just like the City of Yuma this side of the house is all concrete and blazing hot in the summer.  So just to quiet her so she would go back to her scratching post and leave me alone, I told CCL that I would be happy to take the plants and they would make a great addition to the Yuma Garden next summer.  They all looked to be different species of Aloe and Echeveria so I took the whole lot and dumped them in a back corner of the greenhouse and forgot about them.  Most had very little soil left in the pots so after a month in the corner I dug them out and as I replenished soil I checked out health and condition of each plant.  I was quite surprised to find a three inch pot containing an equally small specimen of  "Crassula dubia".

At first glance I thought it was just as small Crassula ovata which is the common Jade Tree of which I have a large one that was a gift from my twin brother many years ago.

Jade Tree - Crassula ovata

Same family but dubia has the fuzzy leaves were ovata is smooth and shiny.  Dubia also is more compact, growing in a tight mound and sends up a flower spike instead of covering itself with little flowers in the spring like our big Jade does.
There was actually a nice variety of plants in the container that I originally tossed unceremoniously into the corner of the greenhouse, they should all perk up well once they start getting a little TLC.

Aloe

this pot of Crassula nudicaulis was nearly dead but is coming back nicely, I will use it as ground cover in one of the Yuma Garden pots

Nice little salad bowl echeveria

This is a Blue Agave that I started from seed

Whilst MeMa and I were at the Garden and Patio Show this odd little gem followed us home....
Abutilon 'Red Tiger'