Cactus Blog 

Apparently, cactus cigarettes is what’s next out of China.

I’ll post a picture of the package when they get a package for me to post.

From Kew, comes this very hard to understand video (the accent, that is). Or you can click here for the photos.

By Pheasant Phoenix.

I have a friend who does stained glass windows in Alaska, but his are more abstract.

Well that’s interesting! Or not. Let’s add a poll!

Sunset Magazine wants you to know how to propagate your christmas and thansgiving cactuses.

Click through for all their secrets, but it boils down to:

-Take a cutting

-Plant it

And then you can go ahead and Wait for flowers!

Stictocardia macalusoi

…can lead to some bamboo culms falling over, across the turtle pond. Hap then cut it into pieces, without falling into the pond. And removed the dead tree-fern fronds.

Euphorbia milii “Salmon Dome”

From the SF Weekly (is that still publishing?) we find out that succulents are a top target for thieves.

Area residents in both Bernal and the Excelsior recently reported thefts — or cuttings — had been made of their succulent plants…

But why succulents? Are they particularly hardy? Particularly easy to repot and resell? Particularly easy to transport? Particularly hard to kill?

“Yes to nearly all of those,” answers Jake Sigg…

So keep your eyes on your plants, San Francisco. And, would-be succulent thieves — the cops are on to your game.

I recommend a bike lock.

This one is only $219.95, but nobody will steal your Echeveria or Graptopetalum with that hefty deterrent.

A little bit of heat yesterday, some early sun, and the Rebutias decided to pop out a few more flowers.

Usually I shrink the files down a lot before I post them, and then you can’t enlarge them much or at all. Until now. This one should enlarge pretty big. Let me know if you see any aphids.

They’re back! Nothing like a good succulent wreath to brighten up a chill November day. Not that there’s a chill around here – 80s yesterday, mid 70s today. Kind of muggy though.

Every year I photograph the large (15″) wreaths, but this year I also took a picture of the smaller (10″) wreaths. I don’t know why I waited til this year. Very mysterious.

Small:

And you’ll have to click through to see the larger one. I’m devious that way. (more…)

So here’s the weird thing, we were on StreetView on the first day it went up 3 1/2 years ago. I blogged it at the time, and you can check the dates to see that blog entry was the first week of StreetView.

Now the google photographers are coming by today to take inside photos. We’re going to be in the first group to go live with this new feature! Anything else google wants us to test for them?

on Lake Merritt.

We’ve been contacted by the artists to participate in this project, and we hope to be able to contribute for the big giant floating succulent terrarium.

Here’s a very nice write-up of the project.

In the Bay Area, you don’t have to go far to find beautiful plants near sparkling waters. But, two Oakland artists have a more creative vision. They hope to showcase plants on water – with a giant terrarium that will float atop Lake Merritt.

The “Wonderarium,” a 3,000-pound, 8-foot acrylic sphere, is the dream of Yvette Molina, 38, and Sarah Filley, 39. They plan to construct it, fill it with an exotic array of brightly colored plants, light it with LED lights, and mount it on a floating platform. The target date for completion is in 2012, and the artists believe their project will appear to hover magically above the lake….

To encourage and build children’s interest in the project, the pair taught a carnivorous terrarium-building workshop at the UC Botanical Gardens, participated in the East Bay Mini Maker fair on Oct. 24, and are now brainstorming ideas for classroom visits, planned for the fall of 2011. Meanwhile, for the child in everyone, they created the carnival-like “mobile plant ambassador + succulent circus,” an ice-cream cart with a 24-inch Wonderarium prototype affixed to the front…. From the cart, they pass out succulents in ice cream cups, hoping to garner support for the Wonderarium.

I don’t have any snark to add to this at all. I guess I’m just not up to the full extent of all the responsibilities of my blogging duties. Oh, the humanity.

No, wait! That was some Grade B Snark! Certainly not my A-List best, but close enough for you, my loyal readers, right?!? Thank you and good night.

…is in bloom.  I’m sure there will be many more of these, in many different colors, coming ’til around christmas.

Schlumbergera orssichiana

Othonna capensis is an African ice plant but not in the ice-plant family (Mesembryanthemaceae). It’s in the daisy family (Asteraceae). And it’s got some nice new growth here at the beginning of winter. In fact, it’s starting to take off.

Where do you go to see aloes in habitat? South Africa of course. And how about this, there’s an aloe park and it’s called Matlala Aloe Park in the Limpopo Province, South Africa.

It seems to have a private game reserve, so it appears to be a place for a safari adventure, fishing or maybe hunting too.

Oddly, I can’t find any pictures of any aloes. Maybe the word Aloe means fishing or camping or something. Who knows.

Here, have this aloe picture to tide you over.

Aloe aristata

Agave geminiflora is big and soft and not so dangerous as other agaves, and it will get a 12ft. bloom stalk when ready.

Des Moines!

A green roof on the Des Moines public library; National Resource Conservation Service

Seattle.

Seattle’s Ballard Public Library has a green roof by American Hydrotech. // © American Hydrotech/Green Roofs for Healthy Cities

It’s the Milwaukee Public Library, and a bunch of progress photos for you to enjoy that come from these websites.

More photos after the break… (more…)

Parodia rutilans

Besides a few late blooming Cereus and Cleistocactus, the cacti are all done for the year. Here we see the result – spent blooms. With any luck those will follow up with some seed-filled fruit. We did have bees around all summer, so there should be some seed coming. Or we could have manually pollinated the flowers ourselves, but it didn’t happen so we are at the mercy of the bees.

Thank you, bees.

Did you say you have a hangover this morning? Have you tried cactus?

Discovery Sliced Cactus, £1.29 per jar

How it works: Extracts of prickly pear cactus have been shown by one U.S. study to alleviate the symptoms of hangovers, though it’s not clear why.

Tester’s verdict: Eimear O’Hagan, 26, from Belfast, says: “Waking with a dry mouth and a sore head, I ate a few pickled cactus slices and went back to sleep.

“They were OK if you like pickled food, but had no impact on the hangover. I had acid reflux later on.”

Expert’s verdict: “Extract of cactus is rich in antioxidants that can neutralise damage caused by free radical cells. Better taken before drinking not afterwards, so the body’s defences are primed.”

Is there any science behind this prickly theory? Why thank you for asking, in fact, yes there is.

A study published in the June 28th, 2004 issue of The Archives of Internal Medicine found that people who took a dietary supplement containing extracts of a species of prickly pear cactus before consuming alcohol, had reduced symptoms of alcohol hangover compared to individuals who drank but took placebo.

So there you go. You have to take it ahead of time, but it works! And it appears that an extract works better than a pickled cactus. Sorry I forgot to tell you about this yesterday before you got drunk.

Science!

You can’t buy this costume, but you can rent it from Angel’s Fancy Dress in London.

I have to warn you though, that they consider this costume to be both a cactus costume and a pickle costume, so you might have to tell people what you are when wearing it.

From Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand, the local newspaper finds that an agave in bloom is a sweet mystery for the residents.

There’s a strange presence in Haumoana that has curious onlookers stumped.

Outside Paula Novak’s art gallery a 5m stem protrudes from a plant… 60cm in diameter and began its growth spurt about six months ago. The unusual plant is subject to speculation from visiting garden groups, locals and visitors, many of whom liken it to a giant asparagus….

They believed it was a form of century plant, which produced a spike that reached heights up to 8m before flowering.

Locals were watching with interest in the hope of witnessing the rare flowering…

Anyone who can shed light on the plant could contact him at the gallery on 875 0061.

So I’m sure you all can help these people out with the information they need. They kindly printed a phone number if you wanted to call them in Haumoana and fill them in on the life cycle of the agave.

But wait! Don’t call New Zealand just yet! First, let me tell you a little something about this Haumoana:

The Kingdom of Haumoana is a coastal settlement just south of the Tukituki River outlet in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand… 10 kilometres east of Hastings;

it incorporates a school, a Church, a General Store, a takeaway shop, a garage, a hall and a Fire Station. The village has developed as a bach settlement and the surrounding area has historically been used for sheep and cattle grazing…

It’s a scary succulent-filled skull, from Notcot.com.

Click through for more angles of this luscious Haworthia planted in a crystal skull shot glass.

But the last group of Moscow’s dogs is by far the most amazing. They are the beggars, for obvious reasons. In these packs, the alpha isn’t the best hunter or strongest, it’s the smartest. The most impressive beggars, however, get their own title: ‘metro dogs’. They rely on scraps of food from the daily commuters who travel the public transportation system. To do so, the dogs have learned to navigate the subway. They know stops by name, and integrate a number of specific stations into their territories.

Science!

From the French, it’s a Whippet Bench