O Garden, My Garden!: Back! (With blooming succulents!)

Okay, yes, that was the hiatus of hiati... And here's what's happened with me since we last met:

I (way over-)studied for the Emergency Medicine Boards. Because that's what I do best... get totally freaked out and study my butt off.
I passed the Boards! Next up, oral boards which will happen in April or November (tbd). It is quite possible that I will neglect all else again in the freaking-out period leading up to that test, which will be my last for 10 years. :)
I've started all of my new jobs and gotten (mostly) adjusted.
My lovely sister-in-law moved out to LA from Virginia -- woohoo!
And most of my garden has died.

The top three bullet points are what caused me to neglect almost everything I enjoy doing for pretty much the entirety of the fall season, with the result of the last bullet point. Perhaps I need to work on work-life balance a bit.

BUT we're back! And slightly neglected or not, there are lovely things happening in the garden.

Thank goodness for succulents! Perhaps it's a Californian mark on my garden that I'm planting more and more of these easy and wonderful plants, but they're such easy care.

That birdhouse was an addition by my husband. Very cute, is it not?

And now they're all blooming!

Gorgeous echeveria

As far as why they are blooming now... Some general succulent informational sources will tell you that the keys to making your succulent bloom are:

Temperature fluctuations -- specifically, cool weather followed by warm summer weather which is when blooms come.
Sufficient water
Sufficient food
Increased light with, for instance, the longer days of summer

Now, it has been kind of weird weather here in LA. While a couple weeks ago, it got quite chilly, more recently, we've had close to 80 degree weather. It also rained earlier this week. So maybe those factors have helped.

But there are also quite a few succulents that specifically bloom in the winter (here is quite a nice list) and I appear to have collected a few of these in my garden as well.

String of pearls

Regardless of the reason, I love it.

I had to give this plant a haircut yesterday

I am interested to find out what will happen to my Aeonium plant which is apparently "monocarpic," meaning it only blooms once and then dies. I am assuming that only the blooming portion will die, but who knows.