Cactus Blog

Manzanita Berries

blog@cactusjungle.com (cactusblog) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 12:37:00 -0700

Arctostaphylos pajaroensis Paradise
This is one of my favorite manzanitas. Great leave color and texture, beautiful bloom sprays, and delicious berries (for the birds).

This specimen was photographed at the UC Berkeley Botanic Garden.

Hummingbird Blooms

blog@cactusjungle.com (cactusblog) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 12:26:00 -0700

Cleistocactus azerensis
The hummingbirds love these cacti. Our specimen plants have literally billions of blooms on them right now, and all summer long. I counted. First they bloom on the south side of the plant, all up and down. Then the blooms migrate around to the west and east sides, with a few on the north side popping by late summer.

The hummingbirds are territorial, so we see the same pair every day, checking for new buds here when they're not finishing off the last of the Aloe striatas, which are just dripping with nectar.

California Morning Glory

blog@cactusjungle.com (cactusblog) — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 07:57:00 -0700

Calystegia macrostegia
Great twining vine, works well climbing on fences locally. Will bloom for much of the year, and will go dormant in the summer if you let it go dry. It's a Coastal favorite, though it also comes from some of the srubbier chaparral areas of California.

Site Broken

blog@cactusjungle.com (cactusblog) — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 06:53:41 -0700

Well, that wasn't pleasant. The site was down for the last day. Is it back yet?

Holiday Linking

blog@cactusjungle.com (cactusblog) — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 14:57:00 -0700

Happy Passover

More Blooms, For Crying Out Loud

blog@cactusjungle.com (cactusblog) — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 09:40:00 -0700

Trichodiadema densum
It's been hot at the nursery, and these mesemb blooms opened up very quickly and started fading just as fast.

But really, aren't you getting tired of all the new bloom photos? My eyes are getting overwhelmed from all the colors. So many colors....

It reminds me of my fraternity days when we had other means at our disposal to see all those pretty colors... So many colors....

Anyway, this mesemb is hardy in the ground in the Bay Area, won't spread too fast, forms a nice low mound and gets covered in these pretty purple flowers in the spring. There. Now you know.

Green Flower

blog@cactusjungle.com (cactusblog) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 15:30:00 -0700

Echinocereus viridiflorus
It means green flower, and yet it looks more yellow to me.

These are a very florific cactus, with dozens of blooms at a time, and reblooming into the summer.

The small barrels, when not covered in flowers are reddish in hue, almost striped even, like the sepals.

Wild Nature Part II

blog@cactusjungle.com (cactusblog) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 07:14:55 -0700

Previously in our saga, the Venus Fly Trap caught a slug. And it was good. Apparently very good. Delicious even, because the slug seems to have died and become dessicated and mostly consumed by the plant.

It's not as disgusting as the previous photo, but it's entertaining in its own right.

Just try not to look closely. Examine how much more there is for the plant to consume....

If you like, I can post a bigger version of this, even more closeup. Or would that just be piling on?

[update: Link to our Carnivorous Plant Care instructions]

Art Opening Tonight

blog@cactusjungle.com (cactusblog) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 06:36:00 -0700

Harriet Love - New Pottery
Opening tonight, April 18, 4-6pm at the nursery.
Cactus Jungle Nursery and Garden
1509 4th Street, Berkeley

Please come and share our wine and cheese and crackers, 'cause if you don't we'll be very sad, and we'll eat too much and drink too much, and then maybe we'll have fun anyway. But really, you know, you should come.

Enough Already About Home Depot!

blog@cactusjungle.com (cactusblog) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 16:31:00 -0700

It's probably enough already about Home Depot, what with all the insults being thrown around here. So on to the Cactus. The Providence Journal has some article or other about Broadway star Mandy Patinkin and his Cactus Farm in Rhode Island, or something like that.

Its the same with the desert gardens that frame so many homes there. Theyre striking, a creative minimalist mix of rocks and cactus. But thats the problem to a New Englanders eye. Theyre not lush. Just as the Southwest isnt. Ive grown to like lush....

I like the green, forested New England scenery more than desert cactus, even though it means seeing it covered with snow in winter....

mpatinkin@projo.com

Well, I guess that wasn't the topic of the article at all. I'm just a little distracted, what with this whole Home Depot theme I've attached to these posts all day long. What if they sue me? Will I take down these posts? Will I step up the insults? Will I start a new site called homedepotplantssuck.com? Only time will tell...

Did I Mention Home Depot?

blog@cactusjungle.com (cactusblog) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 14:21:00 -0700

I think I mentioned earlier that today is Pick on Home Depot Day here at the Cactus Blog. I don't know why. It's not like I have anything particular to say about them. Well, I do, but it's probably not printable in a family blog. (Which is why it's good this is not a family blog.) But first, we have these lovely terrestrial bromeliad blooms making big news in the Liverpool Daily News, which I believe is in England.

The puya alpestris is on the verge of blooming into pollen dripping blue/green flowers.

A member of the cactus family, the spiky puya 1.5 metres tall, is expected to burst into colour by the weekend.

Visitors to Ness Botanic Gardens will be lucky enough to see its spectacular metallic teal-blue flowers.

Odd that they would say it's in the cactus family, when of course it's in the bromeliad family. I know the news will call any spikey plant a cactus, which one could see as a colloqiual reference, but actually using a botanical reference seems a bit too much of an error.

Anyway, we were talking about Home Depot. Here's one thing they do wrong: they overwater the cactus so that you have to buy them within a day or two of them arriving or they're already half dead. We get people at the nursery bringing in the cactus they bought at Home Depot, and they're half-dead. So you know, you're rescuing the plants you buy from Home Depot, so you better be ready for the extra work. And it's just like buying a puppy from a mall pet store - you're rescuing the poor thing, but then they just fill in behind with another poorly bred dog, thus encouraging bad practices down the line. You should find yourself a reputable breeder, whether you're buying dogs or plants.

That whole paragraph really went off the rails. I find it entertaining when I write in a run-on sentence kind of way. I hope you do too.

It's Pick-on-Home-Depot Day

blog@cactusjungle.com (cactusblog) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 12:16:00 -0700

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reviews a new book on succulents:

"Tough Plants for Every Climate: Hardy Succulents," by Gwen Moore Kelaidis, photography by Saxon Holt. Storey Press, $19.95.

There are groups of plants, such as conifers and the underused succulents featured in this book, that more gardeners should use. Gwen Moore Kelaidis, a longtime member of the American Rock Garden Society and a garden designer in her own right, certainly is familiar with these lovely plants, and she hopes to tempt gardeners into growing a few with this new book....

Ms. Kelaidis, who resides in Denver, certainly knows her stuff and brings a fine introduction to these diverse plants to print.

I haven't read it, but I do know that nobody at Home Depot has read it either, because they're illiterate there, and they wear funny clothes, and they don't like healthy plants either. Yes, that's right, they prefer sickly plants at Home Depot, because that way they know that I'm really just writing satirically and not even a little bit trying to libel them, even though they really do prefer ugly plants at Home Depot. And they eat cheetos too.

You won't find that at Home Depot

blog@cactusjungle.com (cactusblog) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 10:09:00 -0700

The Orange County Register recommends Agaves for your garden.

AGAVE ATTENUATA: The soft succulent is easy to propagate.

Photo: CHAS METIVIER, FOR THE REGISTER

Did I mention that you can get agaves at all your quality local nurseries? And places like Home Depot almost never have any good ones? Those guys are just sad. Now that's a real specimen plant that you just won't find at a place like Lowe's either.

Home Depot vs. Local Nurseries

blog@cactusjungle.com (cactusblog) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 08:09:17 -0700

The Houston Chronicle recommends planting succulents and then go ahead, line it up on your railing, because its easy.

Short on garden space? There's no need to give up plants....

Succulents are the easiest container subjects. And they're great fun.

Yeah, whatever. Just keep buying those plants from your local independent garden center, or I'll be very upset with you. Home Depot is the devil. There, I've said it. Now what are you going to do?

And don't think I say this just because I own an independent garden center myself. Of course, I think of it more as a small local specialty nursery, but Home Depot has been the devil long before I ever started gardening. And they smell bad too.

Link of the Day

blog@cactusjungle.com (cactusblog) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 16:37:00 -0700

A Geologist finds some interest in exploring not just old rocks, but the so-called "living stones" too, i.e. Lithops! Christie at the Cape has photos.