When I was still living at home with my parents, I remember my mother loving the succulent known as hens and chicks (Sempervivum spp.). They were often planted along highways.

To be honest, I was not impressed with them. But today, I am very impressed. There are so many interesting succulents now, in a variety of colors, textures, sizes and shapes. And they come from so many different parts of the world. Since my childhood, the world of succulents has grown immensely.

A succulent is a plant that stores water in its leaves. That's why the leaves are so plump and fleshy.

They come from arid parts of the world, such as desert regions of Africa and Central America. And they include a large variety of types.

Succulents are ideal for Napa Valley gardens since we live in a drought-prone area. They look wonderful when planted with an eye to their varied colors and leaf shapes. They look good year-round while most conventional landscapes have moments—maybe weeks—when they are largely dormant and not looking their best.

A succulent garden is not the same as a cactus garden. All cacti are succulents because they store water in their leaves. But not all succulents are cacti.

Wikipedia says that succulents are “plants that are more than normally thickened and fleshy.” Their fleshy parts help them retain water in arid conditions. The name comes from the Latin word sucus, meaning "juice" or "sap." The water content of some succulent organs can reach 90 percent.

While some succulents can survive short periods of cold weather, most do not tolerate frost well. If you have potted succulents, move them to sheltered locations when frost threatens. If they're in the ground, cover them with tarps or blankets. If they are frostbitten, you may be able to save them by removing the damaged parts.

We had a terrible frost one year and it killed many of my succulents, probably because the soil was dry. I learned a lesson. Make sure your soil is damp when severe frost is predicted.

Propagating succulents is easy. They are eager to grow and can be propagated from leaf cuttings or stem cuttings.

When taking a leaf cutting, select a healthy leaf and cut it back to the stem. Choose a large pan, such as an oil-change pan with drainage holes drilled in it and fill it with a fast-draining soil mix. Succulents do not need a nutrient-rich soil, but they do require excellent drainage.

Let the cut leaves air-dry until they form a callus on the bottom, about 24 hours. Then either lay them on the soil or, as I do, place them upright so you can fit more in the pan.

For a stem cutting, cut a 3- to 4-inch piece with a healthy growing tip, cutting just above a leaf. Remove the lower leaves on the stem, leaving a cluster at the top. Let air-dry until a callus forms, 24 to 48 hours, then insert the stem into the soil. Some people like to dip the cut stem into rooting hormone to promote growth.

I have read that stem cuttings produce roots faster than leaf cuttings. I have seen a few long stems in my own succulent collection form roots along the stem while still attached to the plant.

If you are taking cuttings in hot weather, be sure to keep them in a shady place so they do not get sunburned. In the fall and winter, I propagate my cuttings in a passive-solar hothouse which is warmer than the outdoors. These baby plants require more water than mature plants so monitor often and keep the soil damp.

By either propagation method, it takes a few months for roots to form and for tip growth to resume. With a leaf cutting, eventually the original leaf will drop, and the new growth will take over. Once your cutting has roots, you can transfer the succulent to a growing pot.

Rather than dig up a plant that may or may not have roots, I gently tug on the stem and see what happens. Rooted cuttings will not move. If it does move, I wait a few weeks before giving another gentle tug. Not every cutting will root successfully so don't be discouraged.

The biggest pest problem I've encountered with most succulents is snails and slugs. I hand-pick them and also use snail bait to slow them down. My right foot has also been known to get involved.

My succulents are also blooming. The blooms are different for each species, and it is interesting to see them in their full glory. If you want to learn more about these amazing plants, you can find many books on succulents online or at your local bookstore or library.

Library Talk: Join UC Master Gardeners of Napa County and the Napa Library for “Discover the Las Flores Learning Garden” on Thursday, January 4, from 7 pm to 8 pm via Zoom. Did you know that Napa has an amazing learning garden where you and your family can see examples of dry gardens, native plants, and pollinator plants? Learn how Master Gardeners transformed part of Las Flores Community Center Park into an array of botanical teaching gardens. 

Register Here  to receive the Zoom link.

Workshop: Join UC Master Gardeners of Napa County for “Winter Rose Garden Care & Pruning,” on Saturday, January 6, from 10 am to noon via Zoom. Prepare your roses for the upcoming growing season with this review of pruning techniques and best pruning tools. Learn how to help your roses cope with climate change and how to choose the right rose for the right place. Attendees will be invited to join a hands-on pruning workshop at Napa's Fuller Park rose garden on Thursday, January 11, from 10 am to noon, to practice what they learned. Register to receive the Zoom link.

Help Desk: The Master Gardener Help Desk is available to answer your garden questions on Mondays and Fridays from 10 am until 1 pm at the University of California Cooperative Extension Office, 1710 Soscol Avenue, Suite 4, Napa. Or send your questions to mastergardeners@countyofnapa.org. Include your name, address, phone number and a brief description.

Sometimes I think I should write a book called Gardening for Geezers. For those of us of a certain age, the idea of creeping about on all fours, even equipped with kneepads, is not a felicitous prospect. Some of us even need canes or wheelchairs. This is one of the reasons that raised garden beds are popular now.

There are other reasons to consider gardening in raised beds. You can position them where they get the desired shade or sun exposure. You can tailor the soil to the crop. You can avoid compacting the soil because you aren't walking on it, and you can treat the beds as a landscape feature.

Raised beds extend your growing season because the soil warms up faster in spring. They also protect your plants as pets and children aren't likely to run around in them.

I know some people who bought a house with a paved backyard. To call that yard austere was an understatement, but they didn't have the wherewithal to pull up the concrete. Instead, they installed 2-foot-deep wooden rectangles, filled them with compost from the garbage company and created an attractive garden that supplies them with vegetables year-round. They also avoided the digging that can be so hard on aging backs.

Raised beds come in many types of material. Galvanized metal horse troughs are particularly popular now. (You will need to drill drainage holes.)  I have one raised bed that is 30 years old and made from salvaged railroad ties.

I have seen raised-bed garden borders made from recycled rubber. I also have a raised bed on legs made of cedar. My husband and I constructed it from a kit. Lesson learned: Repurposed materials are easier for me.

Whether you make it yourself or buy it, your raised bed can be anywhere from six inches to three feet deep. If it is only accessible from one side, keep it under three feet wide. A bed wider than four feet is hard to manage without walking all over it, which defeats the purpose of a raised bed. The depth of the bed also matters. Tomatoes need more soil depth than shallow-rooted lettuces.

Think about how you will use the raised bed and then pick the right place for it. Tomatoes and peppers will need lots of sun, while a lettuce crop will need less. If you intend to grow lettuces in summer, you might need to shield them with fabric row covers.

After your bed is installed, you need to fill it. First, remove any weeds. If you live in an area where gophers are a problem, line the bottom with half-inch wire mesh. Next, put down a layer of cut-up yard waste if you have it. Don't worry, it will decay. Then add compost, aged manure, and soil. Use a garden fork to mix everything. Mound the soil into rows about 2 feet apart.

Keep your soil healthy by rotating crops and occasionally growing nitrogen-fixing cover crops, such as fava beans. You can harvest the beans and dig the leafy material into the soil to nourish it. To keep the soil friable and easy to work, add more compost in spring and fall. Sheet composting is a good way to revive soil and eliminate weeds. You can find information about sheet composting online.

After three years, you should solarize your soil. To do so, simply cover the soil with plastic sheeting for four to six weeks in summer. The trapped heat will raise the soil temperature enough to kill weed seeds and pathogens.

Drip irrigation is best for raised beds, but hand watering works, too. Some people prefer hand watering because it forces them to pay close attention to what is happening in their garden.

Napa Valley's climate is ideal for growing leafy winter vegetables such as spinach, lettuce, broccoli, chard, and kale. If you are a planner and not a suddenly-struck-with-inspiration gardener like me, you will have sown seeds for these crops weeks ago and have your seedlings ready. If not, buy them from a local nursery, as they will have varieties suited to our climate.

Last year the U.C. Master Gardeners of Napa County conducted lettuce trials; Master Gardener Donna Woodward wrote a column about it. Little Gem lettuce was a particular success and easy to grow. As Donna noted, lettuce prefers cooler weather; many varieties tend to bolt in summer's heat. However, with shade cloth and sufficient water, you can grow lettuce year-round.

You can plant lettuce from mid-January to October. Of course, it will grow faster in the summer. Spinach, leeks, kale, and chard can be planted in winter unless it is unusually cold. Wait until March to plant broccoli and cauliflower. Ideal planting times can vary with the weather.

Snails are the main garden pest for these cool-season crops. Use an iron phosphate snail repellent that isn't toxic to animals or children.

Lettuce and other greens taste so much better fresh from the garden, and a raised bed makes the work much easier for many of us.

If you have any questions about gardening, type “UC Master Gardeners Napa Healthy Garden Tips” into your favorite search engine. Very likely, you will turn up the answers.

Library Talk: Join UC Master Gardeners of Napa County and the Napa Library for “Discover the Las Flores Learning Garden” on Thursday, January 4, from 7 pm to 8 pm via Zoom. Did you know that Napa has an amazing learning garden where you and your family can see examples of dry gardens, native plants, and pollinator plants? Learn how Master Gardeners transformed part of Las Flores Community Center Park into an array of botanical teaching gardens. 

Register Here  to receive the Zoom link.

Workshop: Join UC Master Gardeners of Napa County for “Winter Rose Garden Care & Pruning,” on Saturday, January 6, from 10 am to noon via Zoom. Prepare your roses for the upcoming growing season with this review of pruning techniques and best pruning tools. Learn how to help your roses cope with climate change and how to choose the right rose for the right place. Attendees will be invited to join a hands-on pruning workshop at Napa's Fuller Park rose garden on Thursday, January 11, from 10 am to noon, to practice what they learned. Register to receive the Zoom link.

Help Desk: The Master Gardener Help Desk is available to answer your garden questions on Mondays and Fridays from 10 am until 1 pm at the University of California Cooperative Extension Office, 1710 Soscol Avenue, Suite 4, Napa. Or send your questions to mastergardeners@countyofnapa.org. Include your name, address, phone number and a brief description.

I always love the bulb catalogs that drop through my mail slot at the end of every summer. I once overbought and then procrastinated on planting them. This was when I lived in Humboldt County.

One Presidents' Day—that is in February—I remembered that I had a burlap bag on my side porch with twelve dozen naturalizing daffodil bulbs that I should have planted in October. After a day of frenzied digging and applying bone meal to each bulb's nesting place, I was done. Then I worried they wouldn't come up.

They appeared in March, just as if I had planted them at the right time. This was because the northern California climate is ideal for bulbs. In fact, you can plant most bulbs any time between October and February.

My bulbs survived the side porch for four months because it wasn't too hot, and they were daffodils. Tulips and hyacinths require prechilling in your refrigerator before planting.

Because these were bulbs for naturalizing, meaning they would spread, I tossed them around in the front yard and planted them where they fell. I dug holes twice the size of the bulbs, sprinkled in some bone meal, placed the bulbs, and covered them up. I did this 144 times.

The yard had some dappled sun and shade, which was perfect. Because the neighbor's ducks regularly invaded my yard, I never had any problems with snails. I had a beautiful show of daffodils.

That was 45 years ago. I drove past my old house a few years back and was happy to see that the daffodils had indeed survived and spread in drifts of yellow and white, all over the yard.

“Bulb” is a term we use to refer to embryonic plants, such as daffodils, narcissus, and lilies. The bulb is encased in a thin papery skin and contains everything it needs for growth. Tubers, tuberous roots, rhizomes, and corms are often called bulbs, but they are bulb-like plants.

Bulbs should be planted at a depth that is twice their height; tubers, tuberous roots, rhizomes, and corms are planted just below the surface. Cyclamen and anemone are tubers, or potato-like structures that are underground stems that will grow above-ground stems. Dahlias are tuberous roots that will put forth stems.

Bearded iris is the most common rhizome. It is planted horizontally and will sprout with upright stems. Crocus and gladiolus grow from a corm, a stem that forms a bud on top that produces flowers. New corms develop on top of the old one, which shrivels away.

Speaking of shriveling, when daffodils fade you can cut off the flower, but let the green leaves wither away. I used to see patches of daffodils with the fading leaves wound like a skein of yarn, with another leaf securing them. This looks adorable but is unnecessary.

Bulbs are planted with bone meal because it contains phosphorus that nourishes the soil. The problem with bone meal is that it attracts carnivores—in my case, a small dog that was so enchanted with the bone meal in my tiger lily bed she rolled in it and tried to eat it. I had to put a screen over the bulbs until the aroma faded.

You can use an organic fertilizer and compost to help your soil instead. Bone meal comes from slaughterhouses, and some people don't like to use it for that reason. If your soil has a pH above 7, use an acidic fertilizer—the type formulated for azaleas—to raise your soil's acidity and lower the pH. These days I use lots of compost, aged chicken manure and organic fertilizer.

Bulbs generally don't have predators. The exception is the tulip, a favorite of gophers. I don't have any gophers in my downtown yard—just rats, raccoons, and possums—but they are a plague in Napa County. UC Master Gardeners can advise you on how to deal with gophers.

I have seen bulb plantings that are layered, with daffodils first, then tulips, lilies and finally iris, which are barely covered by soil. They bloom in succession, and the planting bed is generally full of flowers in spring and summer.

One late-blooming bulb is the Naked Lady (Amaryllis belladonna), a native. It is pale pink and fragrant, and I see it all over coastal northern California as well as Napa County. It is dormant in winter and puts forth green leaves in spring. The leaves shrivel in the summer but never fear—in late summer or early fall, the pink blooms will appear on reddish stems. These flowers are particularly attractive to native bees.

Planting bulbs is so easy (unless you need to plant twelve dozen in a hurry, as I did). The displays they put forth lift one's spirits. I particularly enjoy my tiger lilies (Lilium lancifolium), which remind me of the talking flowers in Lewis Carroll's Looking-Glass Land.

Library Talk: Join UC Master Gardeners of Napa County and the Napa Library for “Discover the Las Flores Learning Garden” on Thursday, January 4, from 7 pm to 8 pm via Zoom. Did you know that Napa has an amazing learning garden where you and your family can see examples of dry gardens, native plants, and pollinator? Learn how Master Gardeners transformed part of Las Flores Community Center Park into an array of botanical teaching gardens. 

Register Here  to receive the Zoom link.

Workshop: Join UC Master Gardeners of Napa County for “Winter Rose Garden Care & Pruning,” on Saturday, January 6, from 10 am to noon via Zoom. Prepare your roses for the upcoming growing season with this review of pruning techniques and best pruning tools. Learn how to help your roses cope with climate change and how to choose the right rose for the right place. Attendees will be invited to join a hands-on pruning workshop at Napa's Fuller Park rose garden on Thursday, January 11, from 10 am to noon, to practice what they learned. Register to receive the Zoom link.

Help Desk: The Master Gardener Help Desk is available to answer your garden questions on Mondays and Fridays from 10 am until 1 pm at the University of California Cooperative Extension Office, 1710 Soscol Avenue, Suite 4, Napa. Or send your questions to mastergardeners@countyofnapa.org. Include your name, address, phone number and a brief description.

My daughter gave me a wonderful, scented geranium (Pelargonium graveolens) for Mother's Day several years ago. It flourishes on my side porch, and I repot it regularly. I like it so much that I have rooted sprigs of that plant and given them as gifts. These new plants are clones of the parent geranium, genetically identical to it.

I do my homestyle cloning the lazy way. I snip off a leafy stem, stick it in a jar of water and wait for roots to appear. I try to remember to change the water every other day. The small glass milk bottles from Straus Family Creamery are perfect for rooting cuttings. The narrow neck of the vessel supports the stem, and the wide bottom magnifies whatever is happening below the water.

The sprig should be between 4 and 6 inches long. I pull the flowers and most of the leaves off, retaining enough leaves to conduct photosynthesis but not so many that they will sap energy and carbohydrates that should be producing roots.

Before I put the cutting in water or plant it, I make a couple of tiny nicks with a clean razor blade just below the node of the cutting. This is the part of the stem that bulges slightly and produces leaves. By nicking it, I am making it easier for the stem to produce roots. It requires a steady hand, so don't do it when you are distracted.

However, there are other ways to propagate favorite plants.

You can find cloning devices for the home gardener at garden shops or online. They aren't terribly expensive, and they typically have space for 24 clones. Another advantage is that they recirculate the water. However, they need a designated space near an electrical outlet, so I make do with windowsills, counters and an array of jars and flowerpots.

Another cloning method is to fill a 6-inch pot with soilless planting mix and poke a deep hole in it with a chopstick or pencil. Then dip your cutting in rooting hormone (available at nurseries), insert the cutting in the hole and press the potting medium around the stem. Water the plant and place a small plastic bag over it to keep the plant hydrated. Keep the bag loose; you don't want condensation to form.

Put the cutting where it will get gentle sunlight. Direct southern exposure all day would be too hot. The cutting should be rooted in a couple of weeks.

A soilless mix is recommended for propagation because it is free of pathogens that might kill the cutting before it roots. You can buy a mix at a nursery or create your own from two parts coir, one part vermiculite and one part perlite.

Cloning plants works because all plants have a meristem, a type of tissue that contains cells that can turn into different plant parts. You can also reproduce many plants from seed, but it's fun to take a cutting from a plant with sentimental value and pass it on.

You can take cuttings from herbaceous plants such as gardenias, dahlias, and pelargoniums at any time of year. My geranium cuttings have been in jars of water for two weeks and are starting to grow roots. These roots are tender, so I won't do the chopstick trick when I plant them. Instead, I will spread the roots gently and cover them carefully with soil.

Geraniums and pelargoniums can be propagated all year long in Napa Valley. Both originated in South Africa but are hardy in our climate. I have a couple in the ground that are four feet tall. Bees love them.

You can use the leaves of scented geraniums (which have a stronger scent than the flowers) in cookery. Add a few rose geranium or apple geranium leaves to an apple pie or pound cake or freeze them in ice cubes for cold drinks.

In a future column, I will describe how to root and graft other types of plants. Rooting your own plants is economical and satisfyingly self-sufficient.

Library Talk: Join UC Master Gardeners of Napa County and the Napa Library for “Discover the Las Flores Learning Garden” on Thursday, January 4, from 7 pm to 8 pm via Zoom. Did you know that Napa has an amazing learning garden where you and your family can see examples of dry gardens, native plants, and pollinator plants? Learn how Master Gardeners transformed part of Las Flores Community Center Park into an array of botanical teaching gardens. 

Register Here  to receive the Zoom link.Workshop: Join UC Master Gardeners of Napa County for “Winter Rose Garden Care & Pruning,” on Saturday, January 6, from 10 am to noon via Zoom. Prepare your roses for the upcoming growing season with this review of pruning techniques and best pruning tools. Learn how to help your roses cope with climate change and how to choose the right rose for the right place. Attendees will be invited to join a hands-on pruning workshop at Napa's Fuller Park rose garden on Thursday, January 11, from 10 am to noon, to practice what they learned. Register to receive the Zoom link.

Help Desk: The Master Gardener Help Desk is available to answer your garden questions on Mondays and Fridays from 10 am until 1 pm at the University of California Cooperative Extension Office, 1710 Soscol Avenue, Suite 4, Napa. Or send your questions to mastergardeners@countyofnapa.org. Include your name, address, phone number and a brief description.