To me this in one of the most intriguing xeric plants/trees that grows here in the Southwest US/Mexico. Here are some pictures:
Here is a splendid specimen at Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, AZ
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The DBG has another even larger Boojum Tree, but every time I am there the light is wrong to get a good picture and there is only access to the one side of the tree.
Boojum Tree at the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum
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Another Boojum Tree at the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum
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And another Boojum Tree at the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum
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Starting very very small, and at its growth rate maybe it will look a little like the others a few decades (or more) from now
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Given the prices nurseries and botanical gardens ask for decent sized specimens starting small is my only option...
Very nice though, I am hoping mine will get to that size in that time span too! They are notoriously slow growers, hence the pretty large amounts of money being asked for most decently sized (3-6 feet) plants. I see them every year at the DBG plant sale and some other plant sales in the area, and every time I feel the urge, but so far have been able to restrain myself.
A friend recently sold his house where he had planted two when he moved in, which had grown to be about 4-5 ft tall. And he left them, despite me badgering him to dig them up and as reward for my help getting one! Now 6 months later he regrets not taking me up on that.
Such is life, as long as the new owners of the house know what they have in those plants they will be OK.
I am gathering my Fouquieria splendens pictures for another thread.
Interesting what is rare where.. pretty common here in California... can get them even at non-specialty nurseries sometimes. Big ones are not rare, either, but really expensive as you can imagine. My friend ended up digging up a 4 footer out of someone's yard (didn't know what they had) and it is doing well, too... supposed to be a bit touchy to dig up and move, but no problems this time. Got his for free.
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I have one up in Acton and so far the winter (down to 22F) has not made it unhappy... in a pot... but may plant it out now that I see it seems fine. Had mine 10 years... about 1 foot tall now. Have 3 other species of Fouquieria and so far all seem OK with this harsh climate.
Here the rare one that everyone wants is F fasciculata... has a nice fat base and makes a great potted bonsai. Even small ones of this species are very costly.
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I have a young plant on my property which has 'happily' gone through three winters, all with at least 1-2 days down in the high teens. So I would say this plant has a cold tolerance below 20F, though I could not say how much below... none of my freezes were associated with severe, 24 hour sub 20F temps... all warmed up in the day to the high 20s.
A few years ago,UC Berkeley took one they had in the greenhouse of about 5' and planted it outdoors,on a incline with much gravel. The very first winter was just wet enough so by spring it had rotted half of the base. Last I saw it,they had put stakes around it.
The Baja plant needs more dryness I gather then the two big common Pachypodiums,that can be grown here outdoors. Nothing to make soucal jealous,but they do ok.
Came across a Boojum tree at Shady Way Gardens this weekend that was too nice to pass up for the price, and rather than keep it in a pot, I put it in the ground right away:
Nice little plant! I find these really interesting but it's definitely the kind of plant only a plant-lover could love...rather ugly, from a "normal" person's point of view. Or at least, from my wife's point of view. I've excitedly pointed them out as the AZ-SO desert museum and DBG, and received an "ew" in return, even for the 50+ footer that the DBG has! I have one planted in the ground that's about the size of a thumb and nestled against a rock and an astrophytum...she doesn't know it's there
I will admit they don't have quite the universal appeal of a similarly-sized Aloe or Yucca, but the same can be said of lots of other things we grow too!
I just remember the first time I saw the big one in the DBG - thinking this must be some exotic Madagascan plant only to learn it is from quite close by... I have been fascinated ever since. We'll see how this one does.
Erm, is that C. bigelovii in your yard -- and ON PURPOSE?!
Agave
"American aloe plant," 1797, from Greek Agaue, proper name in mythology (mother of Pentheus), from agauos "noble," perhaps from agasthai "wonder at".
"Some talk the talk, others walk the walk, but I stalk the stalk"
Yep, it is one of three chollas in my front yard. Also have C. molesta and C. spinosior.
Got C. imbricata, C. molesta, C. fulgida, C. fulgida mammillita (monstrose), The red teddy bear cholla hybrid, C. leptocaulis, C. versicolor, C. ramosissima nudum, C. acanthocarpa, and several more C. bigelovii hanging around in the back yard either in pots or in the ground. Some of it because it is just about the only thing aside from Prickly Pears that will grow in front of my west facing wall of death, but I also do like them...
Got a crazy cochineal infestation in my C. fugida mammillatia monstrose this summer thought, but it is not touching anything else... really weird, might actually loose it...
C. molesta is actually a pretty cool cholla, but almost as bad as bigelovii. I also like mamillata. I predict you'll get rid of your bigelovii one day, all the while muttering some very colorful expletives. Depending on the space available in front of your wall of death, I have a recommendation you may not have considered -- Yucca. Y. faxoniana, Y. filifera, or other similar stock should shake off that heat like it's nothing. I have Y. faxoniana in full sun growing directly in front of a light beige SW facing wall. That spot was a plant graveyard before the Yucca.
Agave
"American aloe plant," 1797, from Greek Agaue, proper name in mythology (mother of Pentheus), from agauos "noble," perhaps from agasthai "wonder at".
"Some talk the talk, others walk the walk, but I stalk the stalk"
Ron, thanks for that tip - I will have to look into that. I have a couple of really young yuccas in pots but that is about it. I am trying a couple of Agaves there, but not with a whole lot of success... Sobria ssp. frailensis (one of the pups I got from you a while back) just survived the summer there, so that may be a keeper. Prickly pears love it, especially basilaris and microdasys... what also is doing fine is Euphorbia resinifera (morrocan mound).
My bad experience with Cholla, was a jumping cholla that 'jumped' onto my upper arm... not in my yard out in the desert ... it felt like the spines were actively digging into my arm. I tried to knock it off with a stick, and of course iso falling away it flipped 180 to get stuck in my lower arm... I ended up digging spines of out my arm for months after... Did not deter me though.
...and bigelovii is worse. Use caution with your choice of yuccas, plenty of 'em would fry like bacon in a spot like that. It has to be that certain type of yucca, like the two I suggested above. Y. treculeana is another I believe would take the heat.
Agave
"American aloe plant," 1797, from Greek Agaue, proper name in mythology (mother of Pentheus), from agauos "noble," perhaps from agasthai "wonder at".
"Some talk the talk, others walk the walk, but I stalk the stalk"
Mine is only about 18 inches tall but it survived a wet Texas winter that included an icy/wet dip down to 18*F. I put a sheet of foam over the top of its branches followed by a “planket” that night. No damage whatsoever. From what I’ve read the Baja wet season is during the winter, which is when they typically grow their leaves.
You never know until you try category. For years after seeing the Berkeley plant go out so quickly I never gave Boojums much thought as outdoors landscape plants. But,small ones at a good price as I posted was tempting. What surprised me was how early in spring it leafed out..weeks or more before the Pachy's.
I should just plant it.. to heck with pot growth.
I'm thinning the pot ranch and this is one for the do or die. Some or most of the potted btw,are hardy and why am I wasting water on them in pots?...so them first!
My little one dropped leaf in late May, but leaved out again a few weeks into the active monsoon season (so in mid August) after we'd had a few good soakings.
They have a whole bunch of them at Boyce Thompson Arboretum and that is at high enough elevation that it can get in the low 20s if not lower on cold nights in winter. Most of those are too big to protect, but usually when it gets that cold it is not super wet, so that certainly helps. They are planted in really fast draining soils, most but not all of them on slopes that also helps the water drain away faster.
Where the Agave went down? A good spot for the Boojum,soon. Its in leaf and looking great right now. If they are taking teen's for Geoff in the high desert..Our lows with good drainage should be plenty good enough.
