Cactus Blog 

Coming this November to a Cactus Jungle Nursery near you.

Lipson Robotics! You may ask what this has to do, thematically, with cactus. Well, let me tell you, robots and cactus have a long history together in the science journals from the turn of the 18th century, and if you don’t believe me, check it out. Primitive, for sure, but still quite remarkable.

Huernia guttata reticulata

Everyone loves a good carrion flower. These are kinda small, about an inch across, and so are not as violently smelly as some others. But they do have so many pretty colors and shapes, and little hairy parts too. Precious indeed. Click the image to get a closeup of the lovely flower.

It’s cactus costume month here at the jungle, and here we have an entry that would qualify as a great buy, if it were for sale, but it’s not, so you can’t buy it, no matter how long this run-on sentence goes on, running on. That wasn’t too long.

It’s home made by Laura D. (Seattle, WA).

If I were to caption this photo, I would caption it “Jason Eats Breakfast”, but I won’t caption it, so you can’t hold me to that.

Well, it’s finally October, and the cactus costumes come out to play. But what do you do if you want a cactus themed dress-up party, and you don’t have inflatable cactuses (inflatable cacti?) available for inflating up as decoration?

Why, you go to the Inflatable Cactus Page and buy one, for only £5.86 each. Uh oh, I guess that means you need to be in Great Britain.

Nevermind.

People ask us, and now we know the answer to this particular problem. Goes well with red wines, according to the wine-maker.

Agave titonata

Photo by Joy Jennings.

I love this very aggressive succulent, but they hang around the nursery and almost never sell. I wonder why? They’re beautiful, as this stunning photo from Joy Jennings demonstrates quite amazingly.

Hello Kitty and Dog in CACTUS COSTUME Dog Tag Necklace

Wow! What a find! Too bad the item is no longer available since they were only $6 each. Oh well.

Is it October yet? Can I start posting about cactus costumes yet?

This one is a professional mascot costume, which means it’s expensive and probably not what you would want for Halloween.

I’m not particularly clear on who would want a cactus mascot costume, except maybe a cactus store. That’s us! In fact, I’ll bet Keith would love to dress up in this as the store’s mascot, and hang out on San Pablo Ave. waving down potential customers.

Cactus candles for the top of your cake, if you have a cake that is, that you’re decorating with an old west theme that is, for a young boy’s birthday.

Yay!

MSNBC held a photo contest and Stamford, Connecticut’s Bob Stoddard won with this shot that I’ve borrowed off the MSNBC site.

I have a cactus that I have grown since it was tiny in 1990. It is about eight feet tall now but never got any bigger around than its original two inch diameter. picture attached.

I moved it from my office to my house in Tacoma Washington last year with much concerted effort and it didn’t break! But I have to move it again soon. Oddly, for the first time in these 19 years, a little baby cactus sprouted on it about two feet from the top. It has grown to about 6 inches. The cactus part above the new growth isn’t looking very good, as if the new little arm is taking out the nutrients. I am afraid the old cactus won’t survive another move. If not, can I break the new arm off and grow it?

Thank you.
Cathy

Cathy,
You can certainly carefully cut off the new branch. I recommend spraying the cut end with hydrogen peroxide to help it heal. Let it callous over for 1 to 2 weeks, and then plant in fresh, new, dry cactus soil. Don’t water for 2 more weeks.

In general, I would recommend not doing this ’til spring, but if you are moving it soon, you might as well try now.

In addition, it looks like the original plant is under-potted (I think, looking at the photo), and not getting enough light, which is why it never got any bigger around.

Good luck, and send us a picture of the baby in it’s new pot.
Peter

The San Francisco Chronicle is recommending hypertufa for all your succulent needs.

…gardening containers that look like roughly poured cement with a nod to nature.

“It had the look of something … aged, organic and rustic,” she said.

Nice agave.

Thieves Targeting Drought-Resistant Plants on Channel 10 News.

I tried to embed the video, but no luck.

So I see the homeowner still has some Euphorbia leucodendron, Agave angustifolia, Agave parryi, and some aloes. Did I miss anything?

….but only if you consider grubs in your bulbs to be an issue.

Help!!!!!

(We) dug up all our bulbs to sort and replant.  We were having a wonderful time in the cool Felton afternoon.   Lo and behold some of the bulbs are squishy.  Not all and not most but still. Once I squished it and a poopy looking type stuff came out of one of the bulbs followed by a creature.  Once we squeezed the other soft bulbs we saw they all had these grubs in them.

There is not much on the internet about bulbs and grubs.  I’ve never seen this before.  What do we do?  Where are they coming from.  These are all planted in a wine barrel not even in the ground.

Do you have any suggestions?  Obviously we won’t be putting the grubs we find back in the pot.  But how do we prevent this from happening again.

I love that you are there to ask.
Dani

Dani,

In the old days we rolled the bulbs in nasty chemicals that persisted and killed the grubs for a year or two… but those chemicals are now banned with good reason! You can however add some Neem Seed Meal to your planting holes as both a fertilizer and to help keep away the grubs without making your garden a chemical warfare site. You could also spray them with Neem Oil, but that is sort of messy and the crushed seed seems to usually do the job. There are a number of weevils and beetles, as well as gross looking waspy-flies that lay eggs in the soil and the grubs feed on roots and bulbs before pupating and coming up to breed and cause above ground havoc as well. Life is complicated….

Check with your local nursery for a box of Neem Seed Meal (or get it from us next time you are up) and then sprinkle a tablespoon or two around each bulb as replant and it should do the trick.

Hugs,
Hap

The experts in San Luis Obispo have some advice for you.

“Too many people equate succulents with the desert, which in turn equates to no water,” said Wilkinson.

He urges people to consider desert conditions where torrential downpours punctuate long dry spells.

“When you water your plants, soak them, then soak them again, then let them go dry,” he advised….

Wilkinson’s best advice: learn about a plant’s specific needs when you buy it. And don’t be afraid to try something new in the garden.

I can give out advice too, you know, but I can’t force you to follow it. Here try this one:  Planting plants that bloom at different times of year in your garden will create a garden that blooms all year long.

The science of tequila has just taken a big leap forward.

Geneticists working in Central Mexico have mapped the genome of the blue agave, a desert plant used to make tequila…

And how does this help?

Plants in the agave family die after producing a flowering stem, and slowing the progress toward flowering gives the plants a longer productive life… something that could boost tequila production.

So finally, science has come to the rescue of the margarita industry. Actually, if they can get the Agave tequilana to slow it’s bloom cycle, maybe they can get other agaves re-sequenced too, and then we’d have century plants that live for a whole century! I’m sure they’ll get right on that, since the ornamental plant industry has as much power as the liquor industry, I’m sure.

I suppose if you’re asking us to ID a plant, it doesn’t take a lot of words.

Kalamchoe sp?
Samuel

Kalanchoe orgyalis!

Here we have a classic 20th century antique cactus lamp.

The species is Echinocactus grusonii ssp. plasticspinii

The Dealer is the renowned Robert Dickson & Lesley Rendall Antiques

It comes complete with 40 watt fluorescent bulb so that you can fully experience the 20th century glow of this fine specimen.

Special Redfoot Tortoise Edition

Micah underneath the Abutilon palmeri

Micah’s eggs are still incubating, but it’s getting about the time for them to have hatched, so if they don’t hatch soon we assume they weren’t viable. She is still quite young to be laying eggs, so maybe it will be a few more years ’til she has babies. But I’ll keep you posted if anything hatches.

Taken right out of an article, presented without context, here we have today’s Cactus Quote of the Day.

IT’S not every day a leprechaun is spotted with a giant cactus in Ayr town centre.

Now that’s from the Ayrshire Post, but as usual, we at CactusBlog are dismayed at the lack of photo evidence. Do we believe this outrageous claim of cactus and leprechauns? No, I do not. They are toying with our emotions.

Let me get out the google and see what I can find.

Indeed, the google has been kind to me today. But I don’t think they’re in Ayrshire anymore.

Cactus Pinball Machine for Sale

After years of demolition and construction, the dusty corner of Spring and 2nd streets suddenly gave way to a burst of green space…

With palo verde and Australian brush box trees, beds of flax, rosemary and succulents and narrow ribbons of tufted fescue, the park, designed by Melendrez, an L.A.-based landscape and urban design firm, is exactingly modern in design, made to complement the building that rises in its midst.

Why don’t they publish pictures? I don’t understand. Now I’m going to have to do some googling.

This story from back in May has a picture.

Win a succulent book in New Zealand, thru Nov. 10.

Top Chef cooks with cactus.

Cactus Fruit Tasting Tour at 10 a.m. Sept. 30 at Ruth Bancroft Garden.

Kiko gets a hug. Phew, and just in time.

by Stephan Pastis Email Stephan!

Do you think there’ll be 3 more cartoon cactus comics this week? Stay tuned for the further adventures of Kiko the Cartoon Cactus.

Clay Thompson at the Arizona Republic gets the best questions.

Q: I have a friend from China who told me it is a good idea to put a cactus by your computer so it will absorb the radiation from your screen and protect you. She says this is because cactuses live on the desert where they are under a lot of radiation. Is there any truth to this?

A: Why not put a roadrunner by your computer? They live on the desert and probably absorb radiation, too. This cactus-and-computer thing is a new one to me, but apparently, it is a fairly widespread batch of hooey….

For the sake of argument, however, let’s say a cactus really did protect you from radiation flying out your computer screen. Putting the cactus beside your computer wouldn’t help much… you would have to put it right there between you and screen… Wouldn’t you feel a little silly doing that?

That Clay Thompson, he’s such a card. He even has a video.

Reader Wes passes along this video.

Here’s a video of some fellow playing an amplified cactus.

Nice job with the Echinocactus grusonii.

I refuse to link again to the ongoing saga of the pathetic Kiko the Cartoon Cactus, so don’t ask. This is an offense to all fun loving cacti everywhere.