For the gardening season, gardeners can choose from many new varieties of cacti and succulents. Here are highlights from some of those new introductions.


Agave Pinguino

Hardy to zone nine, this lovely succulent is only 1½ feet or so tall. Pinguino is very suitable for small gardens. This makes a great accent plant, and would be suitable for beds and borders as well as container gardens.

It has lush, greenish-gray foliage decorated with lines of white. The black spines at the tip of each leaf is very distinctive and prominent. The black and white markings on the leaves are what led to the name for this variety as they appear to form the outline of penguins.


Agave Little Shark

Only hardy to zone nine, Little Shark is less than 1½ feet in height. Being so compact, it is very suitable for small gardens. The plant forms an exquisite symmetrical rosette of perfectly shaped bright green, sword-like leaves. The distinctive thing about the foliage is the large prominent black spine on the tip.

Choose Little Shark for rock gardens and as an accent plant. Since it a compact variety, this would also be suitable for container gardens.


Crassula Jitters

Jitters is a delightful new variety that can be grown as a houseplant and as an outdoor plant for warm climates. It is hardy to zone nine.

This grows to about 1½ feet in height. This compact variety has very unusual foliage that appears twisted and wavy edged. The foliage is greenish-gray, and is often rimmed with a touch of red along the edges.

Jitters can be grown in beds and borders. It also makes a great container plant, especially for dish gardens and mixed plantings.


Queen Kalanchoe

There is a new addition to the Queen Kalanchoe Roseflowers series, called Tiffany. This is a new series of kalanchoes. The blossoms are especially large and full, Tiffany is a special variety. The flowers are very reminiscent of roses. These blooms are bicolored with a mix of pale pink and rose. Most of the rose color is seen towards the centers of the blooms.


Kalanchoe Gremlin

Grown for its very striking foliage, Gremlin is 1½ feet or less tall. It has gorgeous rosettes of wonderful foliage. The lime green serves as the background color, which is richly highlighted with burgundy and a slightly lighter shade of red along the edges. The edges are beautifully scalloped.

This delightful variety is hardy to zone nine. Suitable for growing outdoors in warm climates, it would make a great rock garden plant. This could also be grown as a container plant since it is so compact.