Spring's Other Colours

I know I did a post only recently about one succulent's lovely colours at this time of year (Senecio jacobensii), but I think the topic is worth another quick visit just because everything in the succulent patch is celebrating spring through color.

Crassula 'Campfire' looks like it was made for the lolly shop.

I love a good "black", especially when it's not
really black but just a very dark shade of another
colour, so dark that in low light it looks black.
Yet in the bright afternoon sunshine Aeonium
'Schwartzkopf' reveals itself to be the product
of a very fine winery specialising in shiraz.

First prize for good, obvious names goes to the
person who decided that this cultivar of
Kalanchoe orygalis should be called 'Copper
Spoons'. This living rust never sleeps.

The marketing people have called Kalanchoe thyrsiflora, with
its big, red-rimmed leaves 'Flapjacks' but that name has never
particularly appealed to me. I prefer lipstick hippos.

Last, and probably least, in this colourful company is this
little green-leafed sedum with the red tips, whose small clusters
of daisy flowers is a cheerful sight this morning. 

As we move into the second year of our new succulent garden, with the plants all liberated from their pots and now living in sandy soil, I can't help but think that this is something that I should have done years ago. You can't undo the past, so I am simply glad that I have now done it, as almost every plant here is much happier. And the language that they speak is color.