Succulents/cactus to grow in the ground - Zone 9B?

No question. It is funny. I've had a lot of dogs and they all recognize one of their own breed. Angel won't have any trouble with Zora - she's likely to roll on her back and pretend she's just a puppy. Works for her. Penny is a little more interested in finding out how the new dog works. And if my dogs won't be polite, they can sit in their crates. They're very used to it. Sleep there every night. In fact, they insist on it. I've always treated my children and grandchildren too. Can't find your manners kids? Come back when you have found them (LOL)!!!

Works for me!! LOL Mine have learned to mind their manners too, at least at other people's houses!

Well, Zora's manners aren't what they should be. She's so endearing that before I can correct her from jumping, people have picked her up or she's leapt into a person's chair and is cleaning their ears. I don't want to stop her lovely nature and Cavaliers are so sensitive and tend to generalize. So she's a little bad. If she were a Rottweiler however, she'd have VERY good manners.

At least Zora's lack of manners aren't BAD manners! There's nothing wrong with being licked to death! LOL

Rufus, my little mutt, is a licker too. It was especially helpful when I had Rowdy, my Rottie. Rufus would always clean up Rowdy's drool and the goobers in his eyes. He's still doing that for Faeden (my GSD) and Angel, but they don't have much of a problem.

Zora does that too. And of course with a little round headed dog - Penny does have those problems sometimes. No drool of course. I do happen to love 'Rotties" by the way. But they are a lot of dog and I know that they need to have an alpha dog or they're in trouble. They are really silly dogs. People who don't know that would never guess.

It's nice to hear you know about Rotties being goofy dufuses. Mine sure was. I have a friend in Southern California who has a Rottie he's named "Monster Puppy." LOL He's absolutely huge, but not a bit fat. He must weigh well over 100 lbs. He's just as much of a goofy dufus as Rowdy was, but I don't think anyone would ever want to take a chance of finding out he wasn't!! If Barry ever needs to find him a home, I'm going to take him.

I don't think they necessarily need an alpha DOG, they just need to know their owner is alpha. But with most folks that's not what they want to do even though teaching dogs that you are the ultimate alpha of the pack is the absolute right thing to do.

I used to do Tai Chi at night in a park with a lot of lights. My friend who practiced with me had a Rottie. That poor dog would spend the entire time jumping up with all four feet at a time and land with his muzzle on the concrete trying to get the shadows. Also, I've been around quite a few dog shows. :-)

Back to business for a second. What's the difference between a sedum and a succulent?

See? They are dufuses!!

No difference. A Sedum is a genus which contains succulent plants. They don't like to be planted in a lot of soil even though some of them are quite sprawling. Many of them grow in rock crevices. It's recommended, if you have to put them in pots, to put a smaller pot upside down in the bigger pot to take up a lot of the room so that not very much soil is used.

So ice plant is a sedum but not a succulent? Growing up in S. Cal I've seen enough ice plant for 3 lifetimes. Just had play time with Zora. Penny came to me at 18 months and I don't think that anyone had really spent a lot of time with her. She wasn't crazy about being petted and she didn't know how to play. She's still a little slow at it but sometimes she'll chase Zora. Although I think that her EF slows her down some. She's never had the energy that Zora has and her muscle tone is very tight. Zora is like a sock doll. Not sure there's much in there. But she can really zoom.

Ice plant is a succulent but NOT a sedum. There are several different kinds of succulents commonly known as Ice Plant, from that awful common stuff on the sides of freeways to really nice spreading groundcovers. This is a good example of why it's good to know the Latin name of a plant rather than going by the common name.

Ugly Ice Plant (Carpobrotus edulis
): http://sac.edu/HomePages/nigro_dan/Ice_Plant.jpg

Nice Ice Plants:
Delosperma - http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&lr=lang_en&rls=GGLD%2CGGLD%3A2005-18%2CGGLD%3Aen&q=delosperma
Lampranthus - http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&lr=lang_en&rls=GGLD%2CGGLD%3A2005-18%2CGGLD%3Aen&q=lampranthus

Angel loves to play, especially with Faeden the GSD. They get really crazy sometimes! Rufus has a similar problem to Penny in that he has some problems really knowing how to play. I think his previous owner hit him - if you put your hand down to him he kind of cringes and goes completely still. He also won't come to me when he's in the house except on his terms. Most of the time he's hiding behind the couch if he isn't under the covers. Poor thing!! But no problems with coming if he's outside or at the dog park. I think he feels freer there.

If you put your hand down toward Penny she cringes. If you get under her chin it's OK. She took a long time to convince that it was OK to come. She laid on the very opposite corner of the bed for a long time. I think that something had happened to her tail too. She didn't like me to touch it. If you can imagine trying to groom a long-haired dog that doesn't like to be touched. I think it was possibly broken somehow. If new people pick her up she is apt to cry. I know that she came from a really good home so I don't know if it's the EF causing some of this pain. It's so hard to tell. I wish that she could tell me her story.

Now she picks on me if I don't brush her at night and she curls up right under my arm. If we're in the living room where she isn't allowed on the furniture her bed has to be within 6 inches of my leg or she wanders around like a lost soul. She is quite friendly, but pretty much bowled over by Zora. And she's really great with little kids. Very patient, interested, but very slow to approach. She's quiet and she has everything she needs and more. She even eats trout and duck kibble with canned rabbit and potato food so that she won't get ear infections. She's allergic. Oh, and dog bakery peanut cookies. But she doesn't eat much.

But she is a total 'schedule' nut and if you give her something at the same time twice in a row, she thinks that she should have it every day at that time. And lord help you if you feed her broccoli. She won't stop bugging you for it.



How fun that we've made this a succulent and dog thread!

Well, why not? It's turned into "our" thread, after all!! Not that we wouldn't welcome one and all, should they decide to join us! LOL

It's really odd that we should each have a dog, of completely different breeds, which acts so similar to each other. He also likes broccoli (and cauliflower, carrots, tomatoes, grapes, etc., etc., etc.) and any fresh vegetable or fruit I'M eating. I'm currently feeding him lamb and rice. It's interesting to wonder what's genetic and what's environmental when it comes to behavior, isn't it? Including our own behavior! LOL

I wish Rufus could tell me what happened to him too. But if he could I'd probably go find his previous owners and terminate them. Don't like to be around anyone who doesn't like animals. I think there's something wrong with their character.

Rufus is so funny in the mornings. There's a time, around 7:30 or so, that he's decided I should be up. So he finds something for me to throw for him and brings it to me - again and again and again!! All the time going "Huh, huh, huh, huh"!! And God forbid if I should acknowledge him at all - he goes nuts!! Especially if I look at him and say, "Good morning!" Then he KNOWS it's time to play and eat breakfast!

I have really enjoyed reading this lovely thread of puppies and succlents! I saw Zora and Penny very briefly and thought they were adorable and read about the work you are doing to learn more about the health issue you are dealing with Penny I believe it was. I am a new first time puppy owner (a 6 mo. old tiny toy red poodle, also named Penny) after having cats all my married life and now take notice of dogs everywhere. Never knew how much love and adoration goes on between dog and owner, LOL!
And thanks to both of you for the wonderful succulent links. I am looking to add a few more and have been wanting Aeonium Decorum Sunburst since I spotted in in a a magazine and now spotted it in that link of Daniels' Nursery. I bookmarked that site to check it out further.

Hi, Sue!

So glad you decided to join us! I'm looking forward to meeting doss and her adorable Cavaliers! Tell us all about your poodle, and attach a picture, please. I don't think I've ever seen a red one!

I have quite a few Aeoniums I'm growing for the Berkeley Botanical Garden. After looking at Daniel's, I think I have a couple of varieties of Aeonium decorum, maybe even A. decorum 'Sunburst'. If not, it sure looks the same. Most of them will be for sale at our spring sale, the last Saturday in April.

There are several cactus & succulent nurseries down in the Watsonville/Santa Cruz/Monterey area. Let me know if you're interested and I'll give you their names. You need to make an appointment to go to most of them. Also, there's a cactus & succulent show and sale in San Juan Bautista in a few weeks. I think it's Sept. 17-18.

Marilyn

Hope you like to rise early! Sounds as if you have no choice. And you are right. If you give them an inch - they'll take a mile. But it really only means that they are happy and safe enough to know that they can bug you.

You could always ask our ''Governor' to do the termination for you.

We don't have a lot of good morning bothering since they are both crated at night. But if you stay up too late they but you like crazy. You should be in bed by ten or they are pacing. If you are working at a computer they stand on their back legs and pull on your arm. No work is allowed after 10:00 for sure. Funny puppies.

I keep going out and looking at the succulents as if they should be growing by now. I'm like that with plants. I have some gardening to do within the next few weeks. Roses, and clematis, daylilies, even a few iris left to plant. Should be lovely next spring. Do most of the succulents bloom late in the year? Or do they bloom throughout the summer?

No, I don't have much choice. The only good thing is that after they've had their fun and eaten their breakfast, they're willing to lay down on the couch and take a nap. So if I'm really tired I can go back to sleep then.

The Guvernator ain't touchin' my babies!! LOL :>)

Once again we have a similarity. My dogs don't bug me to go to bed, but Angel does decide when I've been on the computer too long. HEHEHEHE She will jump on the couch and then jump on me and push me away from the computer. Then she attacks me, determined to get her share of love and cuddling right that minute!

I know what you mean about the plants. I tend to watch them too. Then, after a while, I go on to something else, and while I'm not watching them they seem to grow a lot!! Succulents will bloom at different times of the year, but mostly between about April and October. Since you have an assortment, you should usually have something in bloom most of that time. Just wait until next spring!!!

Don't you love our goofy dogs? Mine always sack out immediately after they've been out in the morning. I think that we get them up way too early - at 9:00.

Some of the larger succulents have flowers on them already. I've got new Iris, new daylilies, new clematis and I can't wait until next spring. My yard is going to be VERY happy.

I'm off to look at some party places but I'll be back this afternoon.

D

Remember: WE don't get THEM up - it's the other way around!!! LOL

Your yard is going to become absolutely fabulous!!

Why are you off to look at party places?

I'm off to the Garden for the day - back late afternoon or so.

I am enjoying my pots of mixed succulents, seeing whats growing fast and a few sending up those surprise bloom shoots, fun to see what comes next.

This is Penny taken on her first day here at 8 wks, greeting my granddaughter Natalie.

And right before her first grooming date last month.

And just after. I opted for the teddy bear look instead of the traditional poodle shaved face look. I have so many people stopping asking us what kind of dog she is, nobody seems to recognize her as a poodle with that coloring and cut. She is actually a light red and has some white on her chest.

Sue! What a darling baby! I didn't know you had a Penny too. When you come to teach me to hybridize you should bring Penny along. Or do you have a need for a puppy play date? And of course Natalie is as precious as she can be. She's a real baby doll isn't she?

Natalie will look more like a poodle once she gets her curls back. Although she does have a soft fluffy coat. You might need to use gel :-) Or you could get her a sign that she can wear around her neck. No one knows that Penny's a Cavalier because she's red. People have stopped me at dog shows and asked me what she is. And these are dog people instead of guests. All the red and white ones make it seem as if there aren't anything else. But red is recessive so the least common. Someone asked me once if little black and tan Zora was a Rottie puppy. We sure enjoyed that.

I know something that will make you giggle. I very often work with my laptop in bed and leave a portable phone on the bed. When Penny wants something she's taken to turning on the phone. And she is one bossy dog.

If you haven't had a long-coated dog before, I have a grooming sheet I've put together with products, brushes combs etc. I'll send it to you if you would like. It's been a lot of investment in stuff that just doesn't work to find out stuff that does.

Luckily Pekasky only has to get those IG hairs (well and some others) out of her clothes before she goes to board meetings. I hope that you've got a beige suit. :-)

I'm looking at party places for DH's 60th birthday. There were too many to entertain at home and people are coming from far away so I wanted to feed them dinner. Think that I'll do Scott's Seafood or California Cafe. Scott's has a nice homey room that has lots of space. It should be fun. At first I thought that I'd do it at home but the thought of renting stuff and getting a caterer was over my head right now.

My yard is going to be a collection of things. I could spend a lot less and work a lot less and have fabulous. I am working on small areas now to make them small lovely gardens. Eventually I'll get to it all. The photo is a before of an area that I'm working on. The shed window is cleaned up now and I'm putting one more planting structure at the end to cover up the drainpipe. I've planted pale pink climbing roses, miniature peach/pink roses, a dark purple clematis and a rose colored clematis with bell shaped flowers. Oh, and blue star creeper. It will be fun to see it grow. I'm on to one more bed behind the pool. It's going to get mother fern and hostas. And sluggo by the pound. < :-0 I'm lucky that my garden has good bones. It can handle some chaos.
D

Doss...both Sue and the entire family are in trouble if Natalie looks like a poodle! She is such a cute little girl...why do you think she will look like a poodle???

I think you meant to say when Penny's hair grows in....just giving you a hard time!

Margie

LOL, poor Dorothie!

A note on Penny's coat, she still has her puppy coat and we were told red poodles tend to have a straighter coat than a tradtional curly poodle coat so we'll see. I plan on regular trimmings from a great groomer in Ben Lomand, its an excuse to visit a friend in Scotts Valley and let Penny have a play date with her T-cup black poodle.

I'm mean, aren't I Sue ? I just couldn't resist!!!

You are so so mean margie. How could you possibly think that i would call that darling little girl a puppy? Just because I wrote it like that? I don't have two brain cells to rub together. That's interesting about puppy coats. Isn't Ben Lomand pretty far from Scotts Valley? Or is it on a triangle from your house to Ben Lomand. You really really really love that dog! And the sweet grandchild - no matter what sort of hair she has.

Its only about a 10 min. drive from Scotts Valley to Ben Lomand on Hwy 9
http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?ovi=1&zoom=7&mapdata=p5kqyoo6yZIdCsYwiWu0HNFm2Gl625izOIa9y8rCkwVx%2b5HyHELCo3uqHIwQVYLLV1OwIg0vOtKNAbFdF6utD1%2bn2PON9tszZ958K9iICQXlLCflLzlqL175jTcLArYORD87TnXDtS57hXvm4oSpIpsJeF4iYe59zmjhodNM69z95wPY%2bV1d%2fkzGm9Hyajye7RuyAEbFiDYjK%2bBPXdeZXP1gn0X5NinMsEFj7cWUdLuq5dYdwYWVvD1GAUyfGWC7YpgYRDcdJRMBfceyAH5JpXn%2bB%2bbIfNxrJsSgaaa1596UVsYWypkKhbOYJGmsdvYpXoN19soJmc%2fzLIU3Ru4BehMib0MZ8Bsj6uYh0CVGhEo40saz%2f5Mdf6SMl%2faFYVoDBuMovDzt9JzNezF%2bauG%2bnz3m5J79ekWfZSBZfS5YpE2U%2f%2brCeoqxHkhxJIwwi0eb0McvWHOdbkNjXzWwXquF2DzFo8Jzg6hcSx6PuGvDKsGAxAOzqlXH%2f2C75BZ%2fClZErf55FOGudgDhqzuDLB7VHTPn888220yyk%2bPZQJEx2ZNIQmGbDY0aSeeQD0P8yr7W5DFYx%2fw55Kzjrc2WzNpptZ2OT5SdDwPM%2fyTQRWeAypT3vcOjuR1sNi3ie9RsP0qhcHBsMW%2bHK4DEiZULcfSigv7Tieu5KuxipjGX0BW2nUAOYUPHkTjQ%2fQbEn8X5JPgDcoA6AYqIIu%2bCVfaIIUzrXlPVgfKopkvhtKCWaVnObBgywlHmoqXv%2bkkmogyiMyHzVD453XU4Ggw%3d#map1-link

Thanks Sue - guess I've got my geography messed up. You still really really really love that dog though. I'll stand by my guns.

Their hair color seems almost the same sometimes!

I love all my girls! Spoil them all.

My DD, Natalie's Mom, Leslie.

:-)))

Now don't start editing your post doss...and make me look the fool!!

Heaven forbid. And stop entertaining you? Couldn't have that happen. :-)

Lovely DD - she looks like you Sue. And that puppy is just too cute for words.

You're right, Natilie has Penny hair or Penny has Natalie hair. Cute. Lovely kitchen too.

I've been away all day and finally got to this thread.

Sue: I have one word for that dog of yours: AAAAWWWWW!!!!! What a to-die-for cutie!!! I don't think I've ever seen a poodle this color before, but I've seen them in a few cuts where I did the same thing - asked the owner what kind of dog they were. LOL Just saw the picture of your DD with the puppy. Now I know why you wanted a RED poodle! Between Penny, Natalie and your DD, you have all the reds covered!

doss - You don't know me very well YET. I may go to board meetings, but you'll NEVER find me in a suit, beige or any other color! HEHEHEHEHE So your DH is hitting the big 6-0? That's sooo passe - I did that LAST year!! HAHAHAHAHA (Don't know what's gotten into me tonight - I'm either a riot or a total pain in the neck!!)

The plants you mentioned for those beautiful trellises are going to be fab-you-lus!! You'll have to do more pictures when they're all covered up!

picturelady: You're one funnneeee woman!! Welcome to this thread!! It's obvious all of you already know each other. Thank you for allowing me to be part of this group for now.

In spite of my stating I don't take many photos, here's one of my IG Angel.

Marilyn

Love the stripe down the nose! Didn't know us before Marilyn - well you knew me - and now you know us all. Best thing about DG. Just looked at the puppy again. Sure looks stuffed. And I'm glad that you're allowing yourself the pleasure of puppy breath. Nothing quite like it.

Sorry for the suit assumption Marilyn. Didn't mean to take you quite so seriously. lol What do you wear to board meetings. Shows that I'm a CPA. Bankers, lawyers and Cpas are probably the only people that do wear suits any more.

AAwwwww Marilyn, Angel looks like one smart sweetie!

By the way, Leslie and I have different shades of hair every month. This month she is more dark blond like her daughter. I am red this month LOL.

Well, back to ...wait, what was this thread about? ha ha ha, ok back to succulents. Marilyn, I will be following you posts around to learn more and hope to be back for a visit to Berkeley soon, I brought my parents & in-laws last year before I started collecting a few due to Candy's influence so I would love to go again to look with 'new eyes' plus I started really getting interested in tropicals as well. Always see things differently as tastes change, isn't that always the way?!

ALWAYS the way. Now I had to go buy succulents. You would think that I was bored. Never. I checked the succulents three times today. My DH decided that they needed to be watered though so we have had some educational seminars at my house today. Thanks to you Marilyn, I knew what to say.

By the way, did you ever get around to asking your vet friend about EF? Someone contacted me from Iceland yesterday. Her puppy was having 20 to 30 episodes an hour. It's medicated now and doing better. I do hope that they can find the right combo of drugs that works for it. The internet is an amazing place.

Fell asleep early last night, and have been busy with Garden stuff all day. How is everyone?

I never thought about that picture of Angel looking like she's stuffed, but now I agree with you! It sure does look posed, doesn't it? Sue, she's WAAAY too smart for her own good, and because she's a sighthound she doesn't do anything she doesn't want to do. That gets her into trouble sometimes! LOL

doss, the board meetings I attend are for my cactus & succulent association, so the dress is very casual. At my meeting last weekend, at a director's house, we met on the patio and I wasn't the only one wearing shorts! Also, glad you were able to educate your DH BEFORE he watered!! P.S. Do you REALLY need to check on your babies three times a day? LOL :>)

I haven't gotten to my vet yet. Every time I go by they're really busy. I might have to take Rufus in soon though. He's been having some itchy skin problems, and if I can't get it under control he'll probably need some prednisone. I'll be sure to ask him then. Sorry I've been so remiss!

I really understand what you're saying about tastes changing, Sue. When I started volunteering at the Garden (like your picture!!), I began looking at all cacti and succulents totally differently - as commodities rather than possibly becoming part of my collection. Let's see -- how many plants are in that pot? 6? And it's only $3.49!! That means I get 6 plants for $.58 each, and I can sell them for $3.00! HEHEHEHEHE My invite to doss is hereby extended to you and picturelady!!!

I don't post on the cactus & succulents forum much. There are already plenty of really knowledgeable people there, and I thoroughly enjoy reading their posts. Examples: Happenstance, palmbob, kennedyh, Xenomorf. More importantly, a couple of people on that forum are real know-it-alls and name droppers and I don't need the aggravation of their responses. I'm always tempted to show them up, and I know it won't make a darned bit of difference except to put me in the same category!

Tonight rest - tomorrow the Garden again! Sure be glad when the sale is over and done with!

Yep, all of those dog people thinking that the sighthounds are at the bottom of the intelligence scale. My Afghans and Whippet always could read my mind. They didn't really have an affinity to doing what I wanted them to do, but they always new what it was.

I was afraid to post my photos on the succulent and cactus forum - I'd been reading and I knew I had done some very bad things. Didn't want to be told that either. Maybe I'm a sighthound at heart. I'm no dummy.

I have six miniature roses and two clematis, 7 mother ferns to plant tomorrow and I have to get the beds ready for the LA's. Another thing I've never grown. Oh, and three daylilies. Sue and Margie should be shot at dawn for wrecking peoples pocket books. No I guess I'm a grown up and have to take the responsibility, but they sure are pretty. I think that I have them all ordered until the spring. I'm about out of time.

Spent forever at the hairdressers and have a friend coming tomorrow to take photos of the garden to have for designing her own. That's always fun - brainstorming gardens. The shed will be done as soon as the clematis and roses are put in. Now it's a matter of watching them grow.

And I do think those succulents might disappear if I don't stop looking at them. I have to get my money's worth.

Dorothie

Boy, do you have the sighthound mentality figured out!!! That's just exactly how Angel is! From what I've heard from people at my local IG club and the playdates, that's the way of most sighthounds. The guy who did that stupid intelligence test (an oxymoron?? HEHE) thought that only the dogs who were the most pliable were the most intelligent. I think HE needs to take an intelligence test! LOL

It doesn't seem to matter what discussion groups, forums, chat rooms, whatever, to which one belongs... there's always someone there who has really poor communication skills (translation: mean and nasty). I'm one of those people who can get meaner and nastier right back. But the end result of THAT so-called rational thinking is that everyone thinks I'M just as mean! It's so difficult to sit back and let someone bully someone else around. I'm not nearly so lenient with people when I can deal with them face-to-face.

Sounds like you have your day pretty full tomorrow. But once again, the end result should be gorgeous. Only one question: What's an "LA"? And you KNOW you can't blame Sue and Margie for YOUR transgressions! LOL

Don't worry - the succulents won't disappear!!!

Marilyn

I"m sorry - a LA is a Louisiana Iris. Forgot I wasn't on the iris forum. I'm very excited about yet a new venture.

And yes, I have lived with sight hounds for a very long time. Sometimes I still wish I had a Whippet - and then I think of my poor garden. I love to watch the wheels turn. Cavaliers actually are very communicative. They aren't dogs that just want to do what you want them to do either. But they are dogs that will tell you exactly what they want and insist that you comply. Zora got a bath today. She's so cute when she's wet.

One of my 'cabbage' succulents is turning a funny color on it's outer leaves. (if that's what they call it). The center is fine but the outside ones are clearly burned. Should I move it into more shade or is this normal? It gets half a day of sun.

Just have to bring the subject up again, I know.

And I really can't blame Sue and Marilyn? Shucks, I thought that every time I wrote a check I could say that they did it. We have a saying in our family when something goes wrong. 'First assess blame'. And then we laugh like crazy. :-)