Cactus Blog 

Dorstenia crispa var. lancifolia is in the Fig Family (Moraceae).

These grow thick branches – stout might be a better word for them. And these weird square blooms with explosive seeds – to propagate them you need to catch the seeds, or have a bunch of other pots nearby in your greenhouse that can catch them for you.

Now that’s an attractive rare succulent. Native to Somalia, which is not a safe place these days for plants to be native to.

To grow these as a houseplant requires regular water through the hot summer months, when they are full and leafy. A lot less water through the winter months when they go dormant and lose those serrated-edged leaves.

The Washington Post is all over it, having nothing better to cover, I’m sure.

Michelle Obama has Obama-ized the White House with healthful menus, planted bok choy and rhubarb to supply them and ramped up the fashion quotient with metallic strapless dresses and studded belts. Her latest style statement: official flowers in a looser “garden” style by Laura Dowling, the new White House chief floral designer….

“(S)ometimes instead of flowers, we can use vegetables for a centerpiece.”

The humble cactus is even crashing the party. At the May state dinner for Mexican President Felipe Calderón, prickly pear cactus showed up in vermeil wine coolers, and Dowling also tucked a few among the centerpieces.

Now you know. And all of official Washington now knows too, what with the press that the “humble cactus” is getting from the largest newspapers around.

Sesame Street video via Plants are the Strangest People

We will be closed today for the July 4th holiday. Please barbecue safely, and don’t use fireworks because it scares the bejeezees out of Benjamin.

Ugly cactus plants produce an elegantly breathtaking flower.

I take exception to that; not the breathtaking flower part, but the ugly cactus part. Hah!

The night-blooming cereus will bloom several times a summer. Journal photo by Bruce Chapman

Some of the ugliest plants that I cultivate have the most beautiful flowers.

These are cactus in a group known as Selenicereus. They are long and ropy looking; their tangled, vine-like growth is lined with small spines that aid in clinging and climbing their way into tree canopies and over cliff faces.

In addition, there are often stringy aerial roots that add to the general appearance of being frayed rope with spines. They are not the sort of thing you’d bring home to your mother.

Well, sure, you wouldn’t take it home to your mother, but that doesn’t mean I would take it home to my mother, which I wouldn’t, but that’s because she’d kill it.

Read about Hap’s memories of an ancient lichen encrusted gilt gazing globe at Garden Rant.

Here’s a photo of the bowling ball Hap mentions in the post.

Jason has new bling.

Calandrinia grandiflora has always been one of our more popular of the succulents. I don’t really have a good feeling for why this might be. Oh yeah, it’s that flower.

In the past, we’ve taken large branched cuttings from our parent plants and planted them direct into gallons to root out, but they usually get too big and ungainly. That doesn’t stop them from selling out quickly, but UI wasn’t happy with the presentation. So now we have Brian in charge, he’s finally gotten a handle on planting a few smaller cuts into the gallons and they root nicely together and look like a real 1 gallon plant now.

Yay!

Not that it matters, I mean, you know, look at that flower!

Hello Peter,

I hope you and Hap are both doing well and business good. I need some help with an offspring of our large Opuntia which has a white spoor like growth on it. The plant doesn’t seem to be hurt by it at all, but none the less I wanted to know what it is and what to do about it. Let me know if you have any knowledge or advice. As we need some small items I hope we can get up your way soon.

Take care
Ric

Ric,

The Opuntia has a bad infestation of Scale Insects. They are sort of Limpet-like vampires of the pest world. You should be able to get rid of them, but it will take a bit of work. First, spray the branch down with straight rubbing alcohol (or Vodka) and then loosen them with an old paint brush, the alcohol will dissolve the shellack they coat themselves with when they glue down as adults. After doing what you can with the alcohol and paint brush, rinse with a “stern” jet of water from the hose, this will help blast off more them. Follow up with a good spray of Neem Oil at 1-2% solution, you can get this at any good nursery, as it is used on Roses as a natural insecticide and fungicide. Respray with Neem after a week at least three times to break the life-cycle of any hold outs or eggs that survive. Make sure to spray the Neem in the evening and not during the hot sun, as the oil needs time to disperse as to not cause burning of the plant. You should also fertilize that plant and give it an extra drink to boost it’s natural immunities.

Take care,

Hap

Anigozanthos “Yellow Gem”

Glittering in the sun.

They come in a bit orangey, and turn into these dazzlingly bright yellow paws and then fade to orange from whence they came. Long lasting enough to be a perfect cut flower for your patterned ceramic vase on the sideboard. They can be 3 to 4 ft. tall, but I would trim them to about 18″ before putting them on my sideboard. Add a bit of beargrass, maybe some baby eucalyptus leaves… Too bad the Proteas aren’t in bloom right now too, since one big cone flower would go nicely.

I have no idea how to do floral arrangements, so I would ignore that if I were you.

I came home sick today, so not a lot of blogging I think.

I don’t even have an extra picture lying around right now.

Oy!

Rebutia fiebrigii

I found cactus pastilles at the new Nordic House that moved in across the street.

These are the top cactus cakes on google images.

(more…)

Parodia subterranea

Interesting name. I wonder if it got that name because it’s an underground growing cactus, most of the time, or if it got that name becasue it was named for someone named Subterranea. Saucy!

Anderson’s The Cactus Family tells me nothing. Oh well. On to the next question.

I’m not suggesting you purchase this banner image of cactus for your next banner project, for 14 credits from istockphoto, but I am letting you know that it’s available for you, when you do need it. When you do find a use for it, a banner project that just calls out for a cactus theme and you don’t want to create your own graphics and would rather purchase some clipart online.

Yay!

Hi,
I am a subcriber to your newsletter and was refferred to you by a friend. She told me that if I email you a photo of a plant, that you would be able to identify it. Can you please help me identify this cactus and Please tell me what I need to do to make it green and healthy as it has been showing clorosis (yellowing) for sometime now. I rescued it off the street corner as someone was throwing it away. I have repotted it with cactus soil mix about 4 months ago.

Any info, would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.
Steve

Steve,
You have a Cereus peruvianus and as you say, it’s clear that you have “rescued” it. We use slow release organic nutrients (we sell our own mix, too), so if you haven’t fertilized yet, now would be a good time. (If you’ve used something stronger, that can possibly be a cause of the yellowing.) When our cactus look yellow after the winter, we also will add Kelp Meal.
Peter

From the Redding (CA) Record-Searchlight we find out about a lovely backyard garden with succulents, in Redding!

Photo by Andreas Fuhrmann
Succulents are among the many types of plants in the yard. The landscape also is accented with statuary.

Ten years ago Lynn Clay decided to tweak her Redding backyard….

“It started out to be just adding a little of this and a little of that,” she recalled.

Then her gardening instincts kicked in.

“One thing led to another. By the second year I was going forward with a vision of lushness and interest,” she said.

Nice pictures with the article, especially the mosaics. I guess you have to click through to the article to see those photos, as I haven’t been gracious enough to repost them here.

Parodia concinna

The plant is not usually that colorful. It’s a adventitious amount of sun and shade that creates that green/red transition.

Usually solitary stems, hardy below 25 but keep dry, as usual for cacti. It’s not the cold, it’s the combination of cold and wet that will kill a lot of cactus.

Pardee St.
Aeonium subplanum

It’s a log faced planter. I don’t know anything more than that. As usual, I don’t know where Hap found the picture, and I’m sure I prefer not to know.

Enjoy!

Lion cubs in the Santa Monica Mountains.

I love this video!

That looks so easy! I could do that.

4 whippets and a greyhound

People often ask me, what should they plant? In Denver, the Denver Post found the answer to be cactus and succulents. And a big agave is always a good idea for the centerpiece.

Steve Miles says “I tried vegetables. I tried fruit trees, but nothing worked.” He finally found success with succulents. A secret pocket garden of cactus now thrives on the sunny side of his Boulder home. (Cyrus McCrimmon, The Denver Post)

That is a very nice garden. No, wait, that’s not a strong enough word. To the thesaurus! Shall we try stunning? Oooh, I like stupefying.

In Idaho, the Idaho Statesman found the lovely backyard Alligator Cactus garden that we’ve all been looking for.

Joe Jaszewski / Idaho Statesman
The garden of Roger Hankins and Dick Mallea. Within the sparkling combination of shade and water sits Mallea’s alligator cactus desert. Three stepping stones, set in sand, form the body of the alligator (just visible beyond the heron in the photo at top). The cactus came from the ranch where Mallea grew up in Shoshone.

Hap has some cousins who live in Shoshone. It’s a desert out there.

Cylindropuntia prolifera

A shrubby California coastal native cholla grows 3ft. to 8ft. tall and blooms like you wouldn’t believe. Would you?

Converse Memorial Library (Malden, MA)

Mammillaria compacticaulis

This mature specimen is only 1 1/2″ across. But it blooms up a storm. The flowers vary from pale pink to vibrant pink, with a touch of orange occasionally too. They say they will multiply, but it’s a slow process for these little gems.

These are a good Mammillaria for making undersea succulent terrariums. They are tiny scaled and will look a lot like a piece of coral with a giant pink mouth open to catch seahorses.

In the meantime, I’m sure many of you are jumping up and are ready to tell me this is not M. compacticaulis at all, and you may be right! I don’t know. That’s how the seed stock was labeled, but the photos you see online are, shall we say, varied. Amderson’s The Cactus Family has it listed as a synonym for M. matudae but no photo. I matched it up to the published photos in Cacti: The Illustrated Dictionary by Rod Preston-Mafham. So I am going with this name for now. Tentatively. Except of course once I publish this photo under this name on the Cactus Jungle website, everyone else in the world searching for this plant will decide that this is the plant that is matched up with this name. I have the effect on people, you know. Do I have this effect on you?