Prickly Panorama

Just about everyone has grown a few cactuses or succulents on a windowsill. Patrick Anderson grew some when he was in high school, then had to give them up until he and Les Olson retired to Fallbrook in north San Diego County.

There he turned a hillside into a garden of astounding succulent plants.

Exotic succulents are signature plants in Southern California gardens. Such gardens are possible only in a few other truly Mediterranean or desert climates.

Some of the greatest collections are here, such as the one at the Huntington Botanical Garden in San Marino, where Anderson has volunteered as a plant propagator and at the annual plant sales. Many of the succulents in his garden got their start at the Huntington.

His garden is “my own interpretation of the Huntington’s desert garden,” Anderson said, and although he grows many other kinds of plants--from roses to wisteria--it is the succulents that fascinate him.

“I love their form and shape,” he said, “and for the last few years I’ve spent practically every waking hour up on the hill.”

The “hill” occupies about one-third of an acre on this two-acre semirural property. It has a startling view of Mt. Palomar in one direction and the Sleeping Indian--a Fallbrook geologic landmark--in the other.

The succulent garden is above the house and most frosts, which tend to settle in low-lying areas. Few of these succulent plants can stand any frost. The hill is where the previous owner had planted ‘Mexican’ limes, which are the least frost tolerant of all citrus.

When Anderson, a former human resources director, and Olson, a retired Superior Court judge, made it their home in 1990, Anderson began building gardens, removing citrus trees as he went.

When he got to the hill, he had all the limes removed at once, brought in 20 cubic yards of gritty, decomposed granite and tons of gravel for the paths. (“I lost count of the gravel after 25 truckloads.”)

For those unaware of the distinction, all cactuses are succulents, but not all succulents are cactuses. Succulents are found in many arid countries and are simply plants with thickened succulent tissue, while cactuses are their own family, the Cactaceae, native only to the Americas.

“When I started the garden, I eschewed thorns so I swore that I would plant no true cacti,” Anderson said. “Later, I had to eat my words.” The garden is now peppered with cactuses.

Other kinds of succulents still predominate, like the giant Furcraea Macdougalii from Oaxaca, Mexico, or the many species of South African aloes.

Winter is a good time to see a succulent garden. (Meaning, it’s a good time to visit the Huntington in San Marino; Anderson’s is a private garden.)

Despite their association with summer, many succulents bloom in the cooler, wetter seasons.

“Winter is the garden’s glory time,” Anderson said.

In January and February, it is the aloes that are the most spectacular, their fat green or reddish rosettes of leaves topped by tall spikes of flaming orange, red or yellow tubular flowers. There are 300 kinds of aloes in the garden.

Many of the plants are extremely rare. Some plants that he bought at the Huntington’s annual May plant sale are ones he reintroduced to the garden’s collection after the Huntington lost its plants to hard freezes or other garden tragedies. Some are so rare they are extinct in the wild.

Most of these succulent plants need a quick-draining soil and--luckily--”I am blessed with no clay,” Anderson said.

The soil is naturally silty with little organic matter. To this he added quantities of gritty, decomposed granite to further speed drainage.

Next he put in the gravel paths that wind through the garden. Gravel is Anderson’s favorite paving material.

“I like that water can pass through it, that things can grow in it and that it’s easy to weed,” he said. “I even like the crunch underfoot.”

“The garden wasn’t planned,” he said. Nonetheless, the paths wander artfully.

The garden was conceived as a series of vignettes discovered as you wander along the paths. A grand pavilion crowns the top of the hill. A massive tile-topped aerie, it’s the one thing in the garden that was designed on paper. Broad steps lead up to it, the perfect place for pots of succulents.

But it is the succulents that keep stealing the show.

On one, lluaudia procera, the dark rows of spines spiral around the plant, like stripes on a barber pole. A huge Agave bovicornuta (in Latin, cow horn) almost blocks the path in one spot. Anderson started it from a 4-inch pot three years ago.

“This agave was not supposed to get this big,” he said, a gardener’s familiar lament.

After the many aloes, the agaves are probably most numerous in Anderson’s garden. If you think there is just one agave--the century plant--think again. There are more than 300 distinctly different species. Anderson has 52 types in his garden.

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One of the reasons he likes these drought-tough succulents is that he’s not “a high-maintenance gardener. I expect things to pretty much take care of themselves. Les calls this a Darwinian garden.”

And yet, Anderson says, “I don’t really want the plants to look like they would in the wild,” where they are often stressed or even shriveled by drought, so they get watered.

He uses a big yellow oscillating sprinkler--like the kind used on lawns--to irrigate the garden once a month in summer. He lets it run for about an hour and a half in one spot and then moves it to another. The sprinkler sprays gently, so there is no erosion of the hillside.

“It’s a nice simulation of rain,” Anderson said.

Little water and gritty soil, lots of sun and no frost let Anderson grow an amazing variety of succulent plants, but this is not a collection only. First and foremost, he says, it’s a garden to stroll in and enjoy. It just happens to be a garden of striking succulent plants.

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Garden at a Glance

Gardener: Patrick Anderson

Location: Frost-free hilltop in Fallbrook (Sunset Zone 23).

Land: Semirural 2-acre parcel.

Soil: Silty loam amended with decomposed granite.

Watering: Oscillating, hose-end sprinkler.

Fertilizing: No fertilizer needed.

Labor: Homeowner does it all, with help one day a week.

Favorite plants:

* Aloe cameronii--scarlet foliage in summer, scarlet flowers in winter.

* Aeonium ‘Zwartkop’--purple-

black foliage.

* Erythrina sykesii--red flowers at Christmas on a leafless tree.