Cactus Blog 

Last year our wreaths were featured in the LA Times, and this year they’re mentioned in the Oakland Tribune and the San Jose Mercury News.

Oakland artist and florist Leslie Piels of Toad’s Potted Plants prefers an edited materials palette as well.

“Too many materials in a wreath looks out-of-date — like ’80s big hair,” Piels says.

She favors natural materials combined with beautiful ribbons. Picture smoky dried lotus blossoms tied up with a celadon ribbon or living wreaths made out of succulent plants. Piels custom designs these wreaths for clients but also suggests Cactus Jungle Nursery and Garden in Berkeley, which uses a variety of succulents and live plants to create wreaths suitable to all occasions and decors.

“You can use these all year round and replenish them as necessary,” says Piels.

[Edited to remove whiny reference to the San Francisco Chronicle at Hap’s request]

When Jason was in Santa Cruz on vacation.

….while Benjamin had his broken foot taken care of.

It’s a patented toy cactus. Motor driven! Made in Japan, back in the 90s, by Takara. What cactus toys didn’t they make?

A large leafed Sansevieria, up to 5 ft.

Sansevieria masoniana

This is another one of the Sansevierias that we are growing, but do not have out for sale yet. I see 2 baby leaves coming out, so I’m hoping for spring. Grow, baby grow!

Apparently this Takara s3 Sabo Cube Cactus Flower Plant Figure Green is a highly sought after collectible from the 90s.

Plants are the Strangest People has been cross pollinating various cross-pollinated plants. Photos are pre-cross-pollination.

Piecemeal Quilts has a christmas-cactus-quilt, piecemeal style.

Indiana Public Media can’t splurge for a photo of a christmas cactus that is in focus. It is red, though.

Lucky Dog’s 2-year-old pink christmas cactus has gone bonkers with blooms this year.

The Desert Steel Company of Wichita, Kansas has a patent on a steel saguaro with annular walls.

I don’t know why.

Sansevieria “Futura Silver Offset”

We grow a few dozen varieties of Sansevierias, but they never come out for sale! We’re evil that way. We do try to bring a few out every year, and here’s one we haven’t been growing ourselves anyway. Maybe next year we’ll grow it.

This is one of the S. trifasciatas and is extraordinarily similar to S. “Moonshine” which we do grow. It should top out at about 30″, and will go green if you treat it like all your other Sansevierias and don’t give it any light.

In Fresno? Why in Fresno?

The U.S. Department of Agriculture keeps an Opuntia collection near Fresno, a genetic library and public lending pool for breeders and growers. Curator Gabriela Romano oversees the 250-plus species and varieties that grow here.

She has tasted all their fruits, and above all others she prefers the elongated, yellow fruits of ficus-indica for eating fresh; dark red varieties of the species are best for rendering into a juice rich in antioxidants.

An article about cute little cactus pots called, The Beauty of Cactus, in the Telegraph starts out by calling them,

angry-looking gherkins in little plastic pots at country fairs

Wha?? That’s not fair. Now I’m angry.

“I haven’t much of an opinion on cactuses,” says Piers, after a sniffy silence, “It has always seemed to me that the more fag butts that are stubbed out on them, the better they grow.”

That is just rude.

waxy coating and bulbous shapes

OK, we get it. You hate cactuses.

cactuses are aesthetically strange but – to anthropomorphise wildly – psychologically fascinating plants: ….cactuses are best admired from afar

Anything else you want to add before close out this sad chapter in your cactus-less life?

Cactus romantics who need a quick fix should visit the arid zone of the Princess of Wales Conservatory at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Lawton Ave.

These can be hard to ID, but i would humbly submit that it might be an Aloe maculata, one of the spotted stemless aloes known as the Soap Aloe. You can zoom in closer if you want to check out my fine ID work and see if you can suggest another name for it.

Nepenthes alata is from Borneo. This is the first of the blooms to open on the long bloom stalk. Maybe I’ll get another photo with a bunch of blooms open, but it’s hard to photograph, so I don’t know how successful I’ll be.

Why, you ask, is it hard to photograph? Because it’s tiny. Less than 1cm. (More than 1mm, though.)

Dear Cactus Blog,

My father won’t let me have a cactus in the front hall. He says it has to be in my own room, but he knows I don’t have good sun in there! My poor little mammillaria will die if I can’t put it in the front hall.

By the way, I’m 32 years old and moved back home last year after losing my job. But this is just like the time he wouldn’t let me have a frog when I was 14.

Frogless and Soon to be Cactus-Less in Pomona

Dear FASTCLIP,

Your dad is going to need your support in the next few years when he loses his job too and is no longer employable, being a 59 year old curmudgeon with no computer skills. Remind him that you will be paying the mortgage at that point, and see if he’ll let you keep the cactus in the front hall now.

Cactus Blog

Mixed succulent pot with mini cyclamen, by Leigh, in front of a terra cotta tile by Deborah Cowan.

Hello Cactus Jungle!

I’m a blog reader from Manila, Philippines, and also a newbie urban gardener and cactus lover! I am just fascinated by these spiky little things, and it’s always fun to look at all the shapes, colors and textures that they come in. While I was walking around our neighborhood garden center, I chanced upon this cactus that’s a perfect half-circle shape!

Could you tell me what it is and is it at all rare? Thank you!

Misty

Misty,
A nice find at your local garden center! What you have there is a Mammillaria geminispina crest. It’s not the most common of the Mammillaria crests. It is a very nice specimen, but I wouldn’t consider it too rare.
Peter

Manettia luteo “Candy Corn” is a vining plant we have as a terrarium plant that adds a really bright touch of color. It seems like it’s hardy outside here, if you want to try it out there, and will get about 3 feet tall if given the chance, which we don’t give it, since we have them in terrariums and such.

Dear Cactus Blog,

I’ve got an Opuntia that is growing too fast, and my husband is worried about our 4 month old baby get stuck with the spines.

I said we should wait until the baby can walk before worrying, but my husband thinks we should get rid of the plant entirely right now. What should we do?

Stuck in the Suburbs

Dear SITS,

Unless your husband is propping the baby up against the cactus while he’s off fixing his evening cocktail, you shouldn’t have to worry about the baby getting stuck at this young age.

As the baby gets older, I would recommend keeping the prickly pear well trimmed back so that there aren’t any wild spiny pads attracting the attentions of your inevitably wandering toddler. In fact, if you cook the freshly cut pads and feed them to your family, it’s a win-win.

Use this recipe for a healthy and happy family life for years to come:

Scrambled Nopales

• 1 or 2 cactus pads
• 8 Eggs
• 1/4 lb. of cheese (your choice)
• salt & pepper to taste

Prepare the cactus pads as described in the preparation section above. Once you have removed the needles, nodules and thoroughly washed the pads, slice into bite-size pieces. Sauté the sliced pads in a small amount of butter for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside. Beat the eggs in a mixing bowl; add shredded cheese and the sautéed cactus pieces. Pour the egg mixture into a skillet and scramble. Serve warm with salt and pepper to taste.

Photographic evidence from KB Design that there are mature succulents throughout the Big Sur area.

Aloes, Agaves, Aeoniums and More!

Hap has the Tillandsia Wreaths finished. Leigh has been helping. These were very popular last year when they were featured in the LA Times.

To follow up this morning’s trolling for Mono Lake Arsenic-eating Microbe search engine traffic, I have another picture I took this summer, of the Mono Lake Lupine.

Lupinus duranii

Clearly this is a classic lupine that grows in extremely harsh conditions, helping to reclaim lost land for the plant kingdom. Mono Lake does indeed have harsh conditions, harsh enough apparently that the microbes there are adapted to eating arsenic. I wonder if this Lupine eats arsenic too? Probably not.

Is it a new type of cactus that eats arsenic? No! It’s a microbe. Wikipedia says that microbes,

…include bacteria, fungi, archaea, and protists; microscopic plants (green algae); and animals such as plankton and the planarian. Some microbiologists also include viruses, but others consider these as non-living.

But I do have pictures of Mono Lake from this summer to share with all of you who do not know what Mono Lake is.

This here is the South Tufa. Click for a larger photo.

This here is a wildflower I found at Mono Lake.

Here we see the classic bloom of the Christmas Cactus, one of the Sclumbergera x orssichiana hybrids.

We have had a number bloom this early, all the same color. Here was the first Christmas Cactus to bloom for us this year.

I’m sure at some point I will have pictures of other colors in bloom too, but in the meantime, this is not only the only color of Christmas Cactus we have blooming, it’s the best color too.

Soekershof is experimenting with rooting various succulents in water for the purpose of shipping rooted cuttings overseas, which must be 100% soil-free.

Looks like the experiment is a success! even if they claim not to be scientists. Who among us could claim to be a scientist, just because we are carefully conducting scientific experiments?

It’s official – the US has granted a patent to a prickly pear cactus hangover remedy.

Now, that doesn’t mean it’s official that it works, or that prickly pear juice straight up will work either, or that anything works. Only that it’s been patented. For instance….

Razor with integral shaving cream dispenser.

And….

Shoelace Containment Device

And my favorite….

The Light Bulb

Now, if I had patented my inventions over the years….

I came up with the small 4″ desktop TV set when I was 8 years old. I dreamed it and woke up all excited and went over to my desk to turn it on, and it wasn’t there. I was very disappointed. I also invented the pop-out car radio, including just the face-plate versions, rather than the original entire radio coming out.

What have you invented? What have you dreamed that has come true?

Cereus c.v. monstrose “Minima” is one of many different monstroses out there of various Cereuses, usually C. peruvianus or the like.

It’s one we like to bring out at holiday time. It seems festive, although it is different than the very popular Fairy Castle Cactus, which is another C. monstrose cultivar.

These are awesome upside-down Tillandsia (pots?) (hangers?) (terrariums?). Mudpuppy on Etsy calls them Pods.