Cactus Blog 

Snappy’s Garden Blog from Wakefield : Yorkshire : United Kingdom has an Echeveria imbricata that has survived the Yorkshire winter! Yay!

And there were some cormarants, spring bulbs, a sister’s birthday and a landlord threat. That’s a full blog post.

Cactus in the desert can have wide spreading shallow roots. But what about in wetter areas like here, this winter?

Cactus Museum has this to say.

Roots: Cactus roots help to gather and preserve water in several ways. In some cacti, shallow, extensive root systems spread laterally away from the plant (e.g. some prickly pear roots spread 10 to 15 feet away). In brief showers which only wet a few inches of soil, the shallow roots help the plant maximize water intake from a large area.

Cactus roots also change characteristics as the water supply fluctuates. After a rainfall, existing dehydrated roots become more water conductive and new rain roots are formed to help soak up water. In times of drought, the rain roots shrivel and fall off and the existing roots dehydrate. The shrinkage of the existing roots creates an air gap that helps to prevent water in the roots from escaping back to the soil. A corky layer on the roots also helps to prevent water loss.

Now that may be true in the desert, but we have found in a densely planted garden where there is water down in the (fast-draining) soil (that you’ve added or amended in your garden), the roots can be deeper. Competition between adjacent plants will cause roots to try deeper than wider, and when they find water down there, which they won’t in the desert but they will in your garden, they’ll want to stay down there.

In fact, we notice that they will go down until they hit the water table in winter, and then they’ll rot off back up to the drier parts of the soil, which also tends to match up with the depth to which you amended your soil to make it faster draining.

This will then cause them to spend the early part of spring growing new roots before they start growing new branches. Every year this cycle repeats, and if you haven’t amended your soil deep enough, then eventually the cactus will fail.

The Lesson: make sure you have amended your soil to be fast draining deep enough that the roots will have plenty of depth to establish and survive the winters. For larger cactus, we recommend at least 2 feet of depth, and don’t crowd them too close to each other either. Give the roots room to grow above the winter water table.

Hi Hap,

Please find below photos of my Ferox we discussed yesterday. 2-3 leaves on the back side are covered with black/grayish stains. Are these something to be worried about?

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

Best,
Faraz

Faraz,

It looks more like sunburn damage… than freeze damage. Is it on the side facing the house?

Hap

Hi Hap,

Actually, that Ferox was recently planted; the markings were on it when I bought it. I just positioned the plant so the bad leaves would not be visible from the front.

Best,
Faraz

Faraz,

It is likely abrasion or sunburn from being turned after shipment, which can happen when the north side leaves get turned to face south, they just do not have much resistance to UV.

Hap

We’re hiring a full time propagation manager. Our craigslist ad is here.

We’ve never hired a manager before. We’re going to have to revise all our prepared questions. Any ideas what questions we should ask of a propagation manager?

Fern at Life on the Balcony took a lot of photos of succulents at the Huntington Gardens near Pasadena.

It’s always a joy to walk the grounds of the Huntington, home of some of the largest succulent specimens seen in captivity, and Life on the Balcony does a good job of capturing that.

Nice Fockea.

Could these heavy rains presage even heavier rains to come?

Discovery News has this story of a team of scientists modeling a, “MONSTER ‘FRANKENSTORM'”,

The recent California storms left the state battered and bruised, but that could just be a taster of things to come.

Nice.

And what has a monster storm looked like in California in the past? Like this one:

Oy, that’s not good. The Great California Flood of 1862,

transformed the Sacramento Valley into an inland sea, covering the tops of telegraph poles with steamboats passing over the farmlands to deliver goods and rescue survivors. The Santa Ana River formed two large lakes – one in the Inland Empire and another in the flood plain of Orange County. Probably the only definite high water mark in Southern California is at the Aqua Mansa, just south of the present city of Colton. Hydrologic studies at Aqua Mansa, document a discharge in 1862, three times the magnitude of anything since.

Of course, driving to Sacramento in winter normally the Sacramento river basin is usually flooded and looks like a lake. Even if that hasn’t happened in the last few drought years, it’s not uncommon. That’s why they don’t build houses on flood plains. Or shouldn’t.

A Franciscan manzanita, thought to had been extinct in the wild, is moved into position from a flatbed truck at the Presidio in San Francisco as a team of workers and park officials watches on Saturday.

Photo: Paul Chinn / The Chronicle

Our favorite beach is being battered by the storm-driven waves. Buildings hang in the balance.

Our sometimes neighbor in Berkeley makes the news again.

When I got in this morning, it was finally sunny out, so I took this picture to prove it. And then by the time I got around to posting it, it started raining again. Damn you rain gods!

From the Isle of Wight County Press Online, we find out that the Ventnor Botanic Garden had trouble with a recent freeze.

A split pipe, by the garden’s main water tank, resulted in a number of succulents becoming encased in ice — a casing which, ultimately, became their tomb.

At the entrance, a couple of the giant barrel cacti have split and the sap inside has turned into a much larger volume of ice forcing a gentle explosion, if there is such a thing….

“We will just have to wait and see what lives and what dies and act accordingly.

“But for the moment, at least for a few days, we have been able to enjoy the beauty of beschorneria, dodonea viscosa purpurea and popsicle set in ice and the beautiful but sadly deadly massed succulent display.”

Hi there, I was told to email you for an ID of this big boy. My awful neighbor tore this beauty out of the ground….is it a ferox, or something else? I don’t see the little red pimples on the backs of the leaves like ferox usually has….

Thanks for any help you can give with it’s ID.

Jay

I am still trying to make up my mind, it is hard to tell scale in the photo, is as big as it looks? It is not Aloe ferox, I have a feeling it might be a hybrid, or perhaps your photo is off color on my computer? If it was bluer looking, I would say it is Aloe speciosa, but being so green and upright it looks more like Aloe cryptapoda, but they do not usually get stems, but stay on the ground. I think I may need to sleep on that one…

Hap

Jason’s fallen asleep on my arm.

Frankie Muniz lost his giant cactus when it fell over. He then posted before and after pictures.

Such are the miracles of the internet that I know of this, and now you know of this.

Triangular manhole covers in Nashua, NH. How unusual.

Staff photo by Don himsel
Manhole covers in Nashua are unique for their triangular shape. The shape never caught on in other cities. Most covers are circles, because they can’t possibly fall through their own hole onto a worker….

Fascinating!

Those brainteasers often say that a circle is the only shape that can’t fall through its own hole, but that’s not true.

In fact, any polygon with an odd number of sides would work…

It must be winter around here, what with all the posts having nothing to do with cactus.

Bay Area Tendrils has an old post up with lots of edible-style green roofs to visit.

I see succulents in there too, sedums amongst them. And summertime sunshine.

Is Aloe edible? Well, here’s a recipe….

Poached Aloe Recipe
2 large aloe leaves peeled and cubed (about 1 lbs)
1 C sugar
Juice of 1 lime

Not a lot of ingredients. I recommend reading the instructions that go with it. It’s a bit complicated for those of us who don’t like to cook anything more complicated that scrambled eggs or baked potatoes. Not that I can’t also cook things that are more complicated, I just choose not to. I’m a big fan of one-pan dinners. Throw it all together and see what comes out.

But then there’s aloe.

I’m not saying it’s not delicious, I’m just saying you’d never get me to try.

And did you know that I have a category for recipes on the right side column? We’ve posted lots of succulent and cactus recipes over the years. And lots of tequila drinks too. Check it out.

Still dealing with the aftermath of the flooding here, so in the meantime, a short trip to Mexico seems like a good idea.

El Charco del Ingenio Botanical, Ecological Preservation Zone. San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico.

New York Times Review
Bird-watchers, outdoorsmen and city slickers will all appreciate the brambly valleys this 167-acre ecological reserve spanning cactus-lined canyons and spring-fed pools. Guests can access easy hiking trails festooned with giant agaves and nopal cactus where egrets and swallows roost and peck at spiny fruits. The greenhouse, which resembles a small airplane hangar, shelters hundreds of rare and endangered plants. It’s the kind of place locals come to take in the natural surrounding beauty, perhaps when things feel a little too Disney.

The flood subsided. We’re back and open again. But it is still raining.

Pelargonium tetragonum – not usually this leafy. Mostly a lot of sticks, with an occasional leaf. But they seem to like this new wetter winter.

So were now closed for the day. Just sayin’.

This is another stormy weather-related post.

The whippets are going stir crazy during this series of winter storms. They go out for very short walks in the rain, and run back inside as quick as they can, but then they’ve had no exercise in a week. So they’re bouncing around. I hope the people downstairs don’t mind.

Whippets at Home. They don’t get to play outside all day at the nursery in the wet cold rainy winter weather.

What the heck, another video today because of the rain. It’s been all over the Senator Stevens Memorial Inter-Tubes today.

And the quote of the day is towards the end of this lovely middle class jewish video,

Cute m-f-ing baby.

Thank you and good night!

I see the next storm has started up right on schedule. Hail, thunder, lightning and wind. Time for cocoa.

Jacques Dutronc – Les cactus – 1967

If I did mention the heavy, record-breaking, unusually strong rains we’ve been getting, then I apologize.

Have a nice pretty flower from sunnier times.

Asclepias curassavica – Scarlet Milkweed

The National Weather Service says we’re in for more rain:

Good thing we’re closed on Tuesdays.

I was thinking of turning this blog into a weather blog. What do you think? Todays forecast: Rain, etc…

What Digby says.

Yes, the Democrats are corrupt and inept. But the other side is batshit insane.

Its a downpour.