And you encounter many interesting ways in which nature works in your garden. Below are a couple of examples, one tongue in cheek!

Stapelia
With its star-shaped flowers, the Stapelia is an attractive garden addition during summer and autumn when it blossoms. However, it’s important to know a bit about this succulent before planting.

Nature’s way of luring flies to pollinate its flowers is to make them give off the aroma of rotting meat! When I first arrived to work on the island I planted some Stapelia in a maceta (urn) on the strength of the unusual tropical type flower.

The maceta was near a terrace used for eating al fresco and, on my next visit to the villa, my client told me in no uncertain terms about the swarm of bluebottles buzzing around the table when he had friends over for a BBQ. Ooops! That’s why it’s vital to do your homework. Still, it’s a striking plant to use away from sitting areas, maybe amongst the likes of Venus fly traps so you can watch nature at war with itself!

Echinocactus Grusonii (Golden barrel cactus)
This chubby cactus is commonly known in Spain as Silla de Suegra – the Mother-in-Law’s Seat. “Take the weight of your feet, my dear mother-in-law, and sit thee down on this pouf,” then stand back and enjoy! I told you nature was clever.

This is a slow growing hemispherical cactus. Its spined green stem has 30 ribs and a woolly crown bearing a ring of straw coloured flowers in summer on stems 38cm wide. The cactus can reach up to 2m wide…so you’ll only have to find alternative furniture arrangements for the most hefty of mothers-in-law!

Involuntary Involucratus!
In November’s magazine I spoke of the Agave Attentua – one of my favourite succulents. Its sword-shaped leaves are soft and fleshy; perfect for ‘softening’ hard edges of gardens, particularly in borders where a cluster helps round off corners.

Eagle-eyed gardeners will have noticed that we accidentally illustrated it with an image of the evergreen tuft Cyperus Involucratus. Not wanting to deny the Agave its five minutes of fame, here’s the correct photo demonstrating an arrangement I created around a pond – in fact, the water funnel is also a hollowed out Agave trunk.