Succulents,and rather a lot of them.
Succulents and cacti, mostly. What I grow, what I have learned, the resources I keep going back to… and the catalogue I built to keep track of it all.
How this started
In September 2018, I was gifted a Graptoveria ‘Fred Ives.’ I kept it indoors in a tiny apartment with almost no natural light, and it got extremely leggy. That single question, why is this plant doing that? opened a door I haven’t closed since.
So I started researching. Succulents, it turns out, come in hundreds of shapes, colors and sizes, and I wanted to try all of them. I killed a lot of Echeverias by overwatering before I understood that a plant storing water in its leaves is telling you something about how often it wants more. Others I lost to not enough light.
I also learned propagation… how to coax an entire new plant out of one fallen leaf, which still feels like a magic trick. I photographed everything. Then came popsicle-stick numbering, organised photo folders and spreadsheets, because I wanted to know exactly what I had.
By the time the collection moved from a shared office to my own house (real space, real sun) it had outgrown anything a row in a spreadsheet could hold.
The collection today
230specimens
143species
167places
Counted from the catalogue in August 2026. The point is the scale of the thing, not the precision … by the time you read this, it is probably a little more.
Plants with Fun Origin Stories
Agave albopilosa
A February birthday gift to myself in 2019. I bought it at Flora Grubb knowing exactly nothing about rare plants, thinking it was beautiful, and spending more than I’d ever spent on a single specimen. It’s the only plant from that entire haul that survived. It’s thriving now.
Opuntia santa-rita
This one came to me as a tiny three-paddle plant around 2019. Now it’s roughly two feet tall. It’s been through everything with me: moves, the collection loss, the revival. Watching it grow has been like watching myself come back to life.
Ferocactus glaucescens
The coffee cactus
A coworker was watering this round, ball-like cactus with his coffee. I rescued it in 2019, completely unsure it would survive. Recently, I noticed new growth. It’s one of the more resilient and funny stories in the garden.
From the journal
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Ninety-Two Cups
Read more →: Ninety-Two CupsHow a wall of $0.99 IKEA cups followed me from my parents’ fence to my carport, and finally got some color.
Resources I actually use
Books
Succulents and Sunshine taught me the fundamentals when I knew nothing. Debra Lee Baldwin’s books deepened that foundation. Both are worth owning if you want to move past “water it sometimes” into actual understanding.
- Designing with SucculentsDebra Lee Baldwin
- Succulent Container GardensDebra Lee Baldwin
- Succulents SimplifiedDebra Lee Baldwin
- Essential Succulents: The Beginner’s GuideKen Shelf
- The Little Book of Cacti and Other SucculentsEmma Sibley
Nurseries
Ruth Bancroft Garden for interesting and unusual specimens… and their clearance rack, where I’ve found incredible plants at 50% off. Flora Grubb for the rare and the architectural… the Agave albopilosa above came from there. Sloat for selection and knowledgeable staff. Mountain Crest Gardens for succulents by mail, and for plant pages worth reading before you buy. Lowe’s and Ace for bulk and common plants. Most retailers source from overlapping nurseries anyway, so pick based on what you need: specialty or price.
Identification
As of now, I use my app as the entry point for the identification workflow, with an API for Pl@ntNet and Claude. I use Google Images to search and get pointed in the general direction. From there, I use reputable websites for Nursery, Botanical Gardens, or other well-known and recognized experts for Botany.