Sorry for everyone's losses this summer. The tall stemmed plants can be pretty devastating since they take up such significant space and are often focal points. In a neighborhood across town from me there used to be two large Aloe marlothii in a front yard and one died last year. I noticed the crown fell out onto the ground as I was driving by. The lone plant that remains appears to have taken a hit this summer as well, but I haven't seen a mess of leaves on the ground like the other one had, so maybe there's hope for it. Time will tell.
Not much else really changed from the last time I posted to this thread. I think the kouebokk. were the last of the big losses for me. I've dug out a few things that never did much anyway and returned a few plants to pots that lost the shade they knew when branches from the tree fell in one of the storms. I will now rant about a tree that I despise: Caesalpinia mexicana is a total garbage tree and I wish sometimes that it would just blow away. If it's not dropping branches, it's dropping flowers, then seeds, then seedpods, then more flowers, then more seeds, then more seed pods and then it drops a bunch of leaves in winter. The seedpods are explosive, so the seeds scatter about the yard, germinating all summer long despite me begging the doves that come by to eat all the seeds they could possibly want and to tell their friends about them. It wouldn't be so bad if it only bloomed once a year, but the near-everblooming nature of this tree and the litter that follows is a war I'll never win. Ugh.
Otherwise, mornings are in the low 60s and upper 50s at times lately. I've brought out my pots of winter-growing bulbs from the garage so they experience the cooling nights and start to wake up. The Ariocarpus have been flowering the last couple days, which means that autumn is definitely here. Some aloe hybrids involving africana, hemmingii and tororoana are flowering or just finishing. Plenty of evening primrose seedlings popping up where I water lately. Looking forward to the winter.
