Ruscaceae Sansevieria Needs Sleepy Sun

My cousin introduced me to a new band recently called Sleepy Sun from San Francisco. I checked they're tour date and it happened they were playing last weekend 7/24/10 at Pappy and Harriet's in Pioneer Town near Joshua Tree.

Every time I go to Joshua Tree or Pioneer Town I try to visit the Cactus Mart in Morongo Valley on my way there or back. I might not always get something, but it's fun to look at all the stuff they have there. I boughta beautiful succulent this time that is in the Famly: Ruscaceae; Genus: Sansevieria. I can't find it's exact name. It needs filtered sunlight [Sleepy Sun] or it will burn. I think I have the perfect place to plant it.

After the cactus nursery excursion, later that night we saw Sleepy Sun play. They were in a great line up. Jay Babcock, the editor of Arthur Magazine, is now booking shows at Pappy and Harriet's. He invited the Radar Brothers of Atwater, CA to play that night. They played a great set and their sound was crisp and clear. It looked like their keyboard player was mixing some of their sound when he was playing. I'm not a music writer, so I'll try my best. The Radar Brothers reminded me of a more modern, interesting version of the Stone Roses. There were a lot of pop elements to the music that built up into a layered wall of noise that brought it all to a "fascinating crescendo."

Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound followed and then Sleepy Sun came on. I like what I would call "New Psych" including bands like the Black Angels, so to me Sleepy Sun falls into that category. Their set BLEW ME AWAY. It was one of the better bands that I've seen in a while. I felt like I was totally transported away by their music and that doesn't happen too often when I see newer bands play.

The Traumatic Aeonium Urbicum

As you're going to figure out a lot of the succulents I have are from cuttings that may or or may not have been permitted. I feel like I may have redeemed myself by giving lots of plants away, but who is to say.

I got my first Aeonium Urbicum from a cutting I "took" from my friends Chris's old house in 2008, when he was editing Anavan's Traumatology video.

That's the first cutting on the left. You can see it already started shooting out little babies underneath the main head.

I'd give you technical terms but my books are down in the garage...

ANAVAN "Traumatology" from ANAVAN on Vimeo.

The aeonium urbicum grows low to the ground and forms clusters. Like must succulents and aeonium you can just snap one off the main plant, stick it in the ground and it will take off. If you plant cuttings in early spring they will grow like CRAZY because it's cool enough for them to root right away. Now I have these aeoniums all over the yards.

[top] February 2010

[bottom] Front Garden July 2010, Huge mounds from the cuttings I planted in the spring

It took me a while to get this because I really got into gardening during the summer of 2008. So I learned a lot about plants getting sun burn and taking too long to root because it's hot. The aeonium urbicum will sun burn, so if you plant one in the summer put it in a partially sunny spot. Water planted ones that are in full sun regularly to prevent burning. Like other aeoniums the urbicum will grow a lot of "air roots." These are roots that are on the stems of the plants above the ground that allow the plant to take in extra moisture from the air. So on the note of air I'll leave you with a song I've been really into lately Air by Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera.

Aeonium [arboreum] Pandemonium

Spring 2010 Aeonium about to bloom [left]

In my mind pandemonium means crazy and aeoniums grow like crazy and do some odd unexpected things. The name Aeonium comes from the ancient Greek "aionos" (=immortal). According to Merriam-Webster pandemonium means

Main Entry: Pan·de·mo·ni·um

Pronunciation: \ˌpan-də-ˈmō-nē-əm\

Function: noun

Etymology: New Latin, from Greek pan- + daimōn evil spirit — more at demon

Date: 1667

1 : the capital of Hell in Milton's Paradise Lost 2 : the infernal regions : hell 3 not capitalized : a wild uproar : tumult

Pandemonium is also the name of a recent Pet Shop Boys album. The first Album I ever bought was Pet Shop Boys Introspective, but that's a whole other story. Now, when I think of the word pandemonium I hear Black Sabbath's Paranoid album in my head and when I see aeoniums ... So before I start going on and on about aeoniums let's get the mood ready.

Here's a little background to get started with

Aeonium is a genus of about 35 species of succulent, subtropical plants of the family Crassulaceae.

Most of them are native to the Canary Islands. Some species are found in Madeira, Morocco and in eastern Africa (for example in the Semien Mountains of Ethiopia). The rosette leaves are on a basal stem. Low-growing Aeonium species are A. tabuliforme and A. smithii; large species include A. arboreum, A. valverdense and A. holochrysum. They are related to the genera Sempervivum, Aichryson and Monanthes, which is easy to see from their similar flower and inflorescences. Recently, the genus Greenovia has been placed within Aeonium.

The Tree Aeonium (Aeonium arboreum, Aeonium schwarzkopf or Aeonium korneliuslemsii)

Aeonium arboreum var.atropurpureum

This was the first aeonium I ever got and one of the first succulents that made me obsessed with succulents. A friend gave me a large one with an awesome curved trunk in late 2007 that was purple and a really small one that is very dark purple that almost looks black. I didn't know how fast they grew and how well adaptable they are. During that time I also heard the Monks for the first time and listened to Black Monk Time over and over again for about two months.

It seemed like it took forever, but those first two plants took off. When the tree aeoniums are in season, they branch out. You can just snap off one of the branches and stick it in the ground and it will grow into a new plant. [Give it a little time before you water it so it doesn't rot.] Now I have so many plants from those two.

At one point I thought that I was killing the plants because they go dormant in the summer and winter and drop their leaves.

I didn't know that eventually the aeoniums bloom these huge, unbelievable yellow blooms until one day it happened to the plant with the curved trunk. I didn't know if this aeonium was like certain agaves and yuccas that bloom and then die afterwards. After not finding any information on the subject, I cut the top of the plant off to try and prevent it from dying after blooming. The plant continued to bloom after I cut the whole top of it off and it did die, but it gave me lots of babies before it went.

March 16, 2009 April 20, 2009... The Stump Bloom

In the late winter/ early spring I threw one of the aeonium cuttings in the ground and that one bloomed right away.

I think it may have been a branch off the curved bloomer that died. I think they do die after they bloom because this one looks done. You never know with these guys... Maybe it left seeds when it bloomed.

March 2010

July 2010