Inspiration

Three weeks ago, I toured private San Antonio gardens as part of the Garden Conservancy's Open Days event. I didn't blog about it because my husband took the good camera on a rock climbing trip, and all I had was my camera phone. (Lame.)

I wish I could show you sweeping, picturesque views of the grounds, but my photos were just simple "reminder" shots of individual plants, groupings or design elements that I thought I could adapt for my yard. My best pictures were of potted arrangements.


I wouldn't have even bothered to take the images off my phone and share them with you, but this this picture has sparked a story.


When I passed by this pot, I immediately thought of our root-bound aloe vera. It has moved with us from home to home but has never gotten any attention. We keep it because a few years ago, it started sending up a yearly flower spike. It's not a fabulously beautiful flower, but it's nice and the bloom is a bit of a novelty for us.

Ghost plant cutting with droplet, echeveria on the right.

I also happen to have two echeveria plants and a ghost plant that I started from cuttings. I didn't have a plan when I brought them home so they were destined for the same fate as the aloe. But the Garden Days arrangement sparked a new idea.

Tah-dah!


I opted to keep my largest aloe (the bloomer) and use the ghost plant instead of the echeveria. I'm very pleased with how it came out. I like the matching fleshy textures of the two plants. I decided the ghost plant's analogous pointy leaves looked better than the echeveria's contrasting round leaves. I also like how the saturation of the colors is the same, but the hues themselves are complements. All this from one pot of inspiration. :)