The Succulents are in Bloom

Don’t you just love the word ‘Succulent’? It’s so juicy and delicious!

My earliest memory of succulent plants is of a monstrous pre-historic jade plant which lurked in the upstairs hall window of an elderly family friend. Over the years, I have learned to appreciate succulents, and am delighted that they are again in fashion. Today’s succulents have gone modern, recognized for their versatile, decorative and sustainable qualities.

On California’s Central Coast succulents are in bloom.

Amid clumps of low growing succulents, these lush giant yellow flowering spears stand sentinel at the entrance to the old Homestead Inn in Carmel.

Window boxes and pots of assorted succulents abound.

These greet visitors to Tancredi and Morgen, a charming shop in Carmel Valley.

Succulent heaven may be the sale held by the Monterey Bay Cactus and Succulent Society in San Juan Bautista, CA. The next one is April 24th and 25th.

Denise Fasanello, a New York florist who blogs as Little Pheasant, has enthusiastically embraced the use of succulents in her 'delectable' designs. (Thank you Denise for the use of these two lovely images!)

Imagine boutonnieres for the bridegroom and groomsmen fashioned from succulents!

(Photograph by Lance Iversen/The Chronicale)

Bay area Organic Mechanics have long been proponents of the use of succulents in their award-winning garden installations. For this year’s San Francisco Flower and Garden Show they created “The Living Room” a 12’ X 12’ cube whose exterior walls were covered with 19,000 aeoniums, sedums and other succulents in 20 inch flats. These were sourced from Robin Stockwell’s Succulent Gardens Castroville, CA.

In Australia, designer Daniela Moore has magnified the basic forms of the leaves, stems and branches of various members of the succulent family, and adapted these into motifs for her popular silk-screened textiles available at Tree in Flinders.

If there was a Tulip mania in 17th century Holland; and a Victorian fern craze in the 19th century, then we must be in the midst of a Succulent mania now.

Succulently yours,
Marjorie

A Flinders Sojourn

Here are some Highlights and Personalities from our six-year Flinders’ walkabout

• Each day’s visit to the Flinders General Store, where there would always be a warm greeting and some local gossip;
  
• Julie’s Café and her famous multi-berry muffins;
  
• Textile artist Bernadette Gooden;
  
• The fun clutter of Mostly Deco antiques;
  
• Garden designer Fen Brady’s inspirational outdoor office/studio;
  
• working as shop-girl at Fordholm Antiques;
  
• The shop Tree - quirky and imaginative home of the screen-print creations from Succulent Designs;
  
• The best chicken salad sandwiches ever from Kate and Victor’s Aloha Café;
  
• Pier Provedore, the stylish creation of Ina Low and co, the new kid-on-the-block, which quickly became the home-base cafe for all “the girls”;
  
• Afternoon treks to the village’s picturesque Post Office, where, John the Postmaster and his delightful sidekicks, could be depended upon to inject some humor into the day;
  
• Linley walking her sweet dog Lily;
  
• Sue’s Australian native garden;
  
• Beach rambles and walks to the lookout with Heather;
  
• Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays - Op Shop days, stopping by with a G’day for the crew, and checking out what was new or old;
  
• The once-a-year church fete, when the entire village would turn-out in a setting that was pure Agatha Christie;
  
• Pricing books or the “trash and treasure” items for the above event, with lots of giggles, lots of trash, and few treasures;
  
• Pomme in Mornington, style beacon & home to The Parrott Collection, my design products;
  
• The Studio Christmas Show, hosted by artists Flick and Leisa (Somers General Store);
  
• Experiencing the vibrant food & wine culture of Australia;
  
• Flinders Yacht Club social gatherings: “Bollywood” and “Tapas” evenings, the Commodore’s cocktail party, dancing the night away to local bands, and New Year’s eves lighting sparklers and watching the moon rise over Philip Island;

Our fun-loving Aussie mates taught us Northerners so much about friendship and hospitality, especially how to relax and to follow the “no worries mate” principle. There seemed to be no bad cooks in town, or for that matter in Australia. Many generous invitations came our way, especially during holidays. (A special thank you to Roz and Bill who loaned us their Flinders holiday home during our final weeks in Australia).

How was it possible that we were now saying good-bye to paradise?