Canyon Live-forever or Rock Lettuce, Dudleya cymosa, is a great California native for containers. This container is a brick found at the lake and probably used as an anchor along the shore. I found a better use for it and planted a small dudleya in each opening.
It’s lived happily here for two years, but I may want to pry it out to divide it. The brick stands next to a step on the patio and is in part shade. This gets a random hosing off, and no direct water. I thought the pale green paint peeling off the brick looked well with the leaf color. Simple pleasures…
Dudleya is named for the first head of the botany department at Stanford University, Professor William Russell Dudley, which is a good way also to understand how to spell it. The plant on the left was very small when planted, but with lots of neglect as far as watering, it caught up nicely.
Canyon live-forever can be planted in stone or rock walls, like lots of drainage and are attractive to hummingbirds. The flowers are yellow-range and bloom in May. Planted in back are Helichrysum ‘Icicles.’
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