Artisan's Blog

Succulents are popular houseplants, but not all of them thrive indoors. On social media, one often sees sad, etiolated cacti, stretched into unnatural shapes due to lack of light. While some succulents, like Aeonium, grow like weeds outdoors here in California, I find they languish indoors. Beginners may opt for common big-box store succulents, such as Aloe vera, Kalanchoe Mother of Millions, and jade plants, but there is a deep and captivating world of more interesting succulents that make great houseplants. One such plant is Euphorbia francoisii, a succulent native to Madagascar. Here are a few reasons why it makes...

Madagascar is known for its rich biodiversity and is home to a variety of unique succulent plants, including several species of Euphorbia. Many succulent euphorbs in Madagascar are threatened by habitat loss, overgrazing, and collection for the horticultural trade. Madagascar Euphorbs are part of the Euphorbia family, which is one of the largest and most diverse plant families in the world. The Euphorbia most people are familiar with is poinsettia, a popular ornamental plant that is native to Mexico and used as decoration during the holidays. I recently had lunch with an old friend who asked "What's up with the genus Euphorbia anyway?...

In this article I will discuss my observations of leaf traits in Haworthia splendens and progress on H. splendens hybrids from my breeding program.

Early in 2022 I was shopping for trees for my backyard at a local garden store. While perusing the succulent section I saw an aloe plant with a gnarly flower gall. These galls, sometimes called Aloe cancer are caused by Aceria aloinis, more commonly known as aloe mite. These mites belong to the Eriophyid family of mites. I've seen mealie bugs, scale, spider mites but I have never seen an aloe mite. Since they are now capable of infecting Haworthia plants, which I grow, I felt I should see what they look like for myself. I returned to the garden center the following...