Cactus Blog 

This seems to be the local African name for one of the tree aloes, possibly Aloe littoralis. From Botswana, we find that thieves have stolen the last trees from habitat.

As we approached Mmanoko from our assignment, we saw a Mazda van packed with cactus trees (mokgwapha), prompting us act. We followed the van for a while, taking pictures as we went, until we decided that BDF headquarters in Mogoditshane was safe enough to flag the van down. Mara and I asked the people in the van if they had a licence to commit such a rape of the environment and the destination of the cargo.

And lo and behold, the three men in the cactus van could not utter a word of Setswana. Not even “Dumela!” We proceeded to do our enquiry in English….

The point is that felling 100 trees of the species is no less harm than mowing down a pride of lions without permission. For the right eco-balance, species of both flora and fauna are crying out for conservation.

We get lots of questions around here, some with photos, some with shocking photos. This question first came to us over the phone, and so I asked for a photo…

Please tell me what u think this disease is!
Jody.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Here’s the photo…

And the answer is…

Jody,
That’s scale. A lot of scale, on your Pachycereus marginatus. The plant might be able to be saved, but it will be permanently scarred. Spray it down with rubbing alcohol to kill the buggers and break through their shells and then carefully wipe them all away with a soft paint brush. Then spray the cactus down with neem oil and drench the soil with neem, and reapply a few more times. In March you should repot it into clean soil, and spray the roots completely too with the neem.

Good luck
Peter

We still have a few more orchids left, just in time for that last minute Valentine. And by that I don’t mean if you forgot to get a gift for your Valentine, like I have (my excuse is I’ve been sick the last week), but if you don’t yet have a Valentine, but expect to get one tonight, if you know what I mean. No? Well, let me spell it out for you, in pictures:

Oncidium “Tsiku Marguerite”

Look, I know you’re sick of the Coreopsis gigantea bloom photos I’ve been featuring for the past month, as more and more of the blooms open up, but here’s a closeup.

What’s so special about this closeup? Nothing, except it’s a really good demonstration that this is in the Sunflower, or Aster (Asteraceae) family.

See, these big-headed flowers are actually inflorescences made up of many tiny little flowers all put together into one big giant head, just like a giant sunflower head. Click the photo and dive right in and you’ll see what I mean.

You can’t really tell on this photo, but the petals along the outside are also actually single petals from little blooms along the outside edge. It’s pretty amazing in person, but then you can check it out on your own sunflowers this summer and it looks the same!

It’s a little bit of summer right here in the middle of the California winter, such as it is.

Jason!

Just in time for Valentine’s Day we’re finally bringing out some new Sarracenias.

And the Pinguiculas are blooming too.

Now you know? You do! You do know!

Here we are delivering this amazing Aloe speciosa specimen to Rockridge.

I can’t believe how pretty a plant this is. And the bloom stalk has been going for a couple months. Here it is looking like a snake head back in December. Same plant!

And now the blooms were just about to open when a customer bought the plant! Fortunately they needed it delivered of course, and that gave me just enough time to catch the blooms in the act of opening. And what a show it is!

The orange buds turn white before they open!

And then just before we delivered it, as more of the buds were opening, I got this shot. Thank god it’s been sunny.

We often get questions about plants that are doing fine. People in our neck of the woods often buy the plants from us looking perfect and expect that it will stay that way forever. Here’s a case of a plant that is fine.

I’m attaching a picture of my pregnant onion that I bought from you in December. The ends of the leaves just started turning brown and it’s working its way up the leaf. It is still giving birth and is growing a very long bloom stock. What can I do to stop it from turning brown? I’ve been keeping it outside in full sun and just letting the rain water it.

Thanks,
Mark

Now, just because the plant is fine, doesn’t mean the choice of posing your Ornithogalum caudatum on an ottoman in front of a black leather recliner is fine. Just sayin’. My actual response:

Mark,
The plant looks basically fine. It’s probably just not enough water, since we’ve had very little rain recently. You can trim the leaves back to the green without harming the plant. Also, it’s putting energy into the bloom stalk right now, and not into new leaves, so you won’t see much new leaf growth for a couple months.
Peter

Euphorbia anoplia

I’m not feeling well today, so I don’t have much to say about this plant with the aggresive common name.

Here, have a close up of the tiny inflorescence.

What does it mean that a particular succulent is poisonous? Let’s talk about Euphorbias…

Do you know what is used in leather polishes and for waterproofing certain products, mixed with rubber it is used for insulation, used in sealing wax, metal lacquers, paint removers and lithographic colors?

It is the milky sap from a Euphorbia. … (O)ne drop of latex material on your skin from one of these plants can cause a rash, the severity of which depends on how an individual reacts to it…

I know several people who have had problems with Euphorbias… All have described the horrible pain in their eyes from brushing with a gloved hand or wiping their face with a shirtsleeve that was coated with sap.

So, poisonous as in painful, but not deadly. Not that I would ingest it, mind you. Euphorbia sap, especially from the common houseplant Euphorbia tirucalli, is a common enough irritant that there’s a known antidote – the tiny leaves of the miniature Aeonium lindleyi. Yes! If you have a lot of Euphorbias around the house, and especially if you have kids too who like to touch your plants, then I recommend have a nice little Aeonium lindleyi around the house. All the Euphorbia growers do.

We also recommend some of the shrubbier Euphorbias as deer-resistant and we like the Euphorbia myrsinites as a gopher-resistant plant and then any of the Euphorbias makes a good cat deterrent too, if you don’t mind them crying a little. It’s bad enough they’ll learn to stay away, but not so bad as to cause permanent damage. Generally.

So it has come to my attention that my comment spam filter has regrettably filtered out some legit comments. So, here’s the secret to not becoming comment spam: Make your comments longer than one word. Yay!

Here have a photo from 2005:

Pachycereus marginatus, Mexican Fencepost

The special time for orchids is fast approaching, for all those who don’t mind the pressure to make just the right special purchase for Valentine’s Day.

It’s an unidentified Miltonia. The best kind! I just had one stay in bloom for 2 1/2 months.

Hi Hap and Peter and gang,

Here is one of our client’s Aeonium ‘Schwartzkop’ in bloom. Wondering how to prune this once it is finished blooming. Looks like nearly every floret is blooming. Please advise.

Thanks,
David

David,
Oh dear! Cut the branches with flowers off as soon as they start to open, and enjoy them in a vase. Letting them go to bloom on the plant will kill the whole plant. Oy!
Peter

Hi Peter,
Oy veh is right!!! So if we cut off the blooming branches, there will be nothing left? If this is a Black Swan moment, perhaps we simply replace? Please advise Professor Peter!

David

David,
It looked to me like you had a few branches that were not going to bloom, but if close to the whole plant is blooming, then enjoy the show and replace the plant when it is done. You can also take cuttings of the 2 or 3 non-blooming branches and reroot them individually.
Peter

Hi, I’m from Mexico and I wanted to share with you two interesting photos of Pachycereus Weberi from Oaxaca: (1) at the side of the road and (2) from a plantation of pitaya (that is, a fruit of a kind of cactus). This guys are all over around in that land. The specimens in the photo (1) are about 16.4 feet or 5 meters high, and they are considered medium tall. The other specimen (2) is about one third taller of the others, that should be about almost 7 meters tall (22.97 feet), as you can see is as tall than the tree at its side and is considered a big and old “pachy”. I hope you like them.
Alejandro V.

Photo 1
Photo 2:

Thanks, Alex! Those are some impressive cacti.

Hey Peter,

In that odd way of synchronicity that the world sometimes has, I picked this plant up at the grocery just a few hours before I came and read your post on Rhipsalis pilocarpa. Is this the same plant? I suspect it is related, if not actually a R. pilocarpa.

I neglected to put something in the photo for scale, but that is a three inch pot it’s in.

I am in Phoenix, and if this is a cloud forest dweller, I am going to have to do something special to meet it’s needs. Any suggestions?

Thanks for all your great posts and information,
Jennifer

Jennifer-
The plant is probably Rhipsalis cassutha which is a much more common plant. It’s also a jungle cactus, and would need to be in shade, or indoors, in Phoenix. They also make good terrarium plants, or moist vivariums for forest lizards.

Water every week, and more often in your summer heat.
Peter

Miltonidium “Rosy Sunset”

By Orchid Season at the nursery, I mean it’s coming up on Valentine’s Day of course. And by Miltonidium, I mean this is a hybrid between a Miltonia and a Cymbidium.

The 7ft. Cereus monstrose is cresting.

5th Street, Berkeley

It’s an Aloe arborescens in full bloom behind the fence. I wonder what else is behind that fence. Should I peek?

These Coreopsis giganteas are crazy with flowers. Compare to last weeks post!

I purchased an Himalayan red bamboo plant from you a few year ago for Brentwood, CA. The plant has thrived and grown well. It planted in sandy soil and is mostly shaded. It has encountered a spell of cold weather and the leaves have lost its green color and the plant appears to be smaller or withering. This just occurred, last year the plant kept its color and appeared to be fine.

What can I do to restore the plants green or healthier condition?

I’ve attached a photo, any advice will help.

Thank you very much,
Ken

Ken,
The plants look like they took a bit of winter frost damage, nothing too bad. They look pretty good, actually, and should be able to come out of it this spring without any real problem.

I recommend a dose of Kelp Meal or Liquid Seaweed at this time, and follow up with a high nitrogen organic plant food (We sell Bio-Turf at the nursery) in mid-March. Bamboo are heavy feeders, so we do recommend fertilizing 2-4 times per year.
Peter

Leucadendron “Safari Goldstrike” had red leaves in summer, and then the tops leaves got all crowded together and then they opened up and look what was inside – a green cone flower with yellow sepals and tiny yellow blooms popping off the cone. Spectacular show!

On Etsy, from Leah Sheely of The Ranch Design Group, we find these gorgeous clay canisters. Local, and very reasonably priced, I would add, if I were selling them myself, which I’m not, so I’ll just post a photo and leave it at that.

It’s that exciting time of year when I update the blog roll! Yay! I added some garden blogs, some gardens, and I also cleared out some dead links. So go ahead and click on the links to your right with abandon!

I’ll also link to some of their posts as we go in the weeks ahead.

And if I missed any blogs I should be linking to, including yours, let me know in comments, please, OK?

I just can’t get enough of this plant.

Echeveria “Flying Cloud”

Click to see the closeup. Just look at those sepals!

It’s taken a couple weeks, but the Aloe thraskii blooms are now fully open. Here they were a few weeks ago. And a few weeks before that. Such progress!

That’s a lot of color.

One of the Garden Rant writers is spying on her hyacinths. Why would she do that? I’d want to put the spycam on something you were less sure would actually bloom, just to see if they were blooming in the middle of the night when you weren’t looking. Any suggestions?

They have a lovely selection of cactus and other succulents.

Erythrorhipsalis pilocarpa (Cactaceae) Collection: Shafer, Brazil, Rio de Janeiro; flowering plant.
Artist: Eaton, Mary Emily – Date unknown – watercolor

© Smithsonian Institution Department of Botany
Plate Number: 1847
Publication: The Cactaceae Vol. 4 Pl 21, Fig 5
Client: Britton, N.L. and Rose, J.N. – Size: 11×14

This one came with an old name. The new name is Rhipsalis pilocarpa. Here’s a contemporary photo from rhipsalis.com. That must be a super close up illustration for it to match the photos of the plant we can find on the web, since the stems are only 1cm, and the plant is pendant, like all the other epiphytic rhipsalises.