Cactus Blog 

It’s a tale  as old as the stars, and it was “inspired” by a cactus.

James told me that he worked in town as a bus-driver, and on his nights off would occasionally head off into the dark deserts of Nevada where he would hang-out, look at the stars, and ingest more than a liberal helping of Lophophora williamsii – or Peyote… (a)lso known as the Mescal Button or the Divine Cactus…

he had been relaxing on a small outcrop of rock late at night when, after the Peyote had well and truly kicked in, he was amazed – yet curiously calm, too – to see closing in from the distance a huge, shadowy entity flying perilously low in the night sky….

As the aerial thing got closer and closer, James could see that it was nothing less than a… giant, bat-winged, bird-like animal… that was black in color and appeared both wet and shiny.

Click through to find out if James saw a military aircraft, a UFO, or a living pterodactyl. Or something even more mysterious…

There’s so much recent news of the looting of the American taxpayer by the banking, insurance and financial companies. Geithner’s lack of action to AIG’s bonuses could be the precipitating cause of some serious pushback. But anyway, this little article in the NYTimes really gets right to the heart of the ongoing screwing of the American public by those responsible for crashing the system.

“A 29-year-old man who works for a large investment management firm and was at Bagatelle’s brunch (racking up four- and five-figure tabs) one recent Saturday and at Merkato 55’s the next, put it another way:

“If you’d asked me in October, I’d say it’d be a different situation, and I don’t think I’d be here. Then the government gave us $10 billion.”

via Dailykos

Back in Costa Rica, we were trundling along looking up in the trees for more jungle cacti, maybe an Epiphyllum or two, some lovely orchids in bloom and all, and then boom, what did we see?

Solanum quitoense

I can’t be sure of the ID, but this fruiting plant in the nightshade family with broad fuzzy purple leaves is one of our favorites at the nursery. Technically it’s no succulent, of course, but it is drought tolerant and we’ve planted it alongside our turtle pond too.

Ceanothus “Blue Jeans”

I caught this one just before the buds opened. This is an unusual ceanothus, what with the very small glossy dark green leaves. Deer resistant, it grows to 6 ft. tall! Interesting. Quite the lavender color, or I suppose it may be called lilac, but I think it’s more lavender.

Wikipedia thinks it might be a light mauve, even. But definitely more lavender than lilac.

From the Financial Times we have this lovely profile of a collector gone mad.

Otto Jakob, jeweller

I collect rare succulents from Madagascar. Ones with strange, alien bodies that remind me of the sculptures of Louise Bourgeois….

The most valuable item is my Georg Baselitz portrait. He’d been my tutor at art school…

Personally, I think anyone reading FT these days has gone mad.

In Syracuse NY, they go off topic and make strange pronouncements about succulents.

Dear Carol: What can be used to make dried flowers less fragile to handle? S.H., Elbridge.

Dear S.H.: …Some plants dry well and others don’t. Flowers that dry well… tend to be papery in texture while still growing…

Flowers that don’t dry well include succulents, such as sedums.

Well, La Dee Da.

Arctostaphylos pajaroensis “Warren Roberts”

A nice dense medium height shrub with summer leaves in the steel blue color range. I like the various A. pajaroensis cultivars.

Good news out of Sun City Arizona!

MOLLIE J. HOPPES/DAILY NEWS-SUN
After driving his car to lawn bowling,Bobbie Billing noticed a hummingbird nest on the decorative cactus he had placed on his car’s antenna. He looked in the nest and saw three little mouths.

MOLLIE J. HOPPES/DAILY NEWS-SUN
Billing will wait until the chicks leave the nest before driving his car.

The great thing about blogging articles with illustrations is that the photo description is often enough information, that I don’t even have to read the article! Man, this job is easy. If only it paid.

More than just green roofs these days there are green walls. Some are decorative while others are more functional for filtering air and reducing heating and cooling costs.

(images via: Archinect)

This outdoor installation, created by ten young architecture and design firms for a newly converted loft building in Boston, transforms a blank brick wall into a lush, green environment. Sedum panels were sewn onto a mesh substrate and fastened to cables for a modern, artistic effect. The prototype is meant to illustrate how Boston’s scattered brick surfaces could become opportunities for zero-footprint public art.

Arctostaphylos edmundsii

A great and very bloomful groundcover manzanita. Compact grower, works well on hillsides. But really, it’s about the profusion of pink-flushed flowers, I always say.

Special Potato Skin Action Edition

Benjamin likes potato skins.

First he smells it to make sure we really are giving him a potato skin. He can hardly believe its true.

See the rest after the break… (more…)

Hello-

Attached are several pictures of my indoor cacti that have been going downhill for the last couple of months. Basically it appears that some of them are rotting from the inside and others seem to have some kind of spider on them and there is a sticky substance on them.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Ronnie

Ronnie,
The cactus is dead, or almost. The succulents are infested with mealy bugs, and etiolated due to insufficient sunlight. Given the level of infestation, the plants need to be unpotted, treated, cuttings taken and repotted into fresh soil.

With what needs to be done, I recommend you bring it by the nursery so we can take a look and see what’s salvagable, and we can also do the treatments and repotting for you if you like.
Peter

We are at the cutting edge of international cactus and garden show calendar information. For instance, the Nutmeggers are back in the news:

Please mark your calendars for the Connecticut Cactus & Succulent Society’s 26th annual show and sale, being held in Waterbury, Connecticut, USA on Saturday, April 4th through Sunday, April 5th. Admission and parking are always free!

All the details.

I won’t be there, since it’s still freezing in CT in April. But if you go, you know, and you were to take some pictures, you know, you could like send them to us, and I might, you know, publish them right here on this here little cactus blog, you know.

Arctostaphylos “Austin Griffiths”

Known for it’s large green leaves and compact, twisted form with sculptural branching. Gets to about 8 ft. tall, and pretty fast too for a manzanita.

Hello,

I am a plumeria grower and a friend sent me some unknown cuttings last season that have grown very well in my rock garden at home. I have attempted to id this plant with a few friends at different botanical gardens with no luck. They suggested asking a few professional growers in Cal. if it could be id by those with more local knowledge. Any help would be appreciated, I have given several cuttings to friends in my area now so many of us are at a loss! I have attached a picture. My friend has told me in late spring in Cal it forms a stalk with a bloom head of multiple purple flowers. Any help would be greatly appreciated so I can give this plant a name.

Thanks!!!!

Robert
Aloha Nursery

Robert,

It looks like you have a very happy Calandrinia grandiflora. It should send up amazing purple, poppy like blooms all summer long. I find they bloom best if ignored and under watered. They are native to Chile and Peru. Though they must come from lowlands, since they do get knocked back with a heavy frost here in Berkeley. I think they could handle more cold if they were drier, but our winters are usually wet.

Take care,
Hap

This orchid was way high up in the trees. I tried my best to use my superzoom lens, but without a tripod this is the best I was able to get. Not bad. But then the other shots were all way out of focus, so this was the only one that even came close.

Plus we were running from a pack of cotamundis at the same time.

Leucadendron galpinii

South African shrub, related to the protea. Kind of a remarkable twisting of the grey-green leaves. But the ivory cones are also astonishing. Stay tuned.

And they get to 6 ft. tall, if you can believe it.

They can teach us a thing or two about drought tolerant landscaping in Riverside, CA.

Special to The Press-Enterprise
“I think in 10 years the change to the California landscape in our cities and suburbs will be so dramatic, you can’t even imagine,” said Buck Hemenway, who, with is wife, Yvonne, turned their yard into a drought-tolerant demonstration garden.

Did you know that Riverside is the 14th largest metro area in the US? Interesting.

Before:

Hello,

I’m writing with a care question about my potted Echinocereus grandiflora I bought at Cactus Jungle about a year or 18 months ago:

It has developed scaly, brownish yellow areas near the base and midsection of the main plant and on a few of the larger offshoots. Any idea what this affliction is? Can it be reversed??

Please help! I don’t want this guy to die.

I live in SF and currently water the plant thoroughly once-twice a month in spring/summer and maybe two times total from september-march. I put it outside in the summer when its hot but otherwise it sits in my sunniest window area (only 6-7 hours of non-quite-direct sun though). Should any of that change?

Also want to say that I have been extremely happy with this plant, and all the others I’ve purchased at CJ, as well as all the in-person advice at the store in Berkeley. Thanks!

Look forward to hearing from you,
Matt

Matt,

It is a fungal infection. You should treat with a fungicide as soon as possible. We would treat it with the product MildewCure followed by Neem Oil few days later. Re-treating after seven days. Hopefully that will stop the infection. The plant will carry scars, however once it is healed the pups will eventually grow large enough to hide the worst of it.

Good luck,
Hap

And just to add: When bringing a plant outdoors after the winter, even if it’s been in a sunny window, you need to harden the plant off or it will sunburn. That means taking a week or two bringing it out into progressively more sun until it’s been accustomed to the UV.

Sempervivum “Sanford”

We have a whole bunch of new and very colorful sempervivums we’re growing. We’ve really gotten better at growing the parent stock – we now use a square deep tray with very good bottom drainage instead of the traditional 1 gallon cans. For these guys it’s all about the root run. I suppose I shouldn’t be sharing with you our trade secrets. Well, please don’t pass it along to anyone else, okay? shhhh…..

Let’s see, we have economic problems and global warming problems, and so on. So what can you do? McClatchy newspapers asks the question and has a suggestion for your upcoming wedding.

“The ‘green’ people tend to say, ‘You shouldn’t have a wedding at all….’ “

Wait, that’s not what a major news organization is actually recommending is it?

“…But it’s all about making smarter, better choices.”

Of course. Any specifics relevant to this blog?

“My biggest thing is local, local, local….”

Very good. We support that.

Use  succulent… centerpieces, not lowly philodendrons, that you or your guests can keep.

Bingo! Nobody wants philodendrons as a wedding centerpiece, that’s for sure.

You know, we do succulent centerpieces for a few weddings each year at the nursery and they look good. I also can recommend trees, and troughs filled with grasses, as stunning wedding displays. And people always appreciate cacti at bar mitzvahs, if you were doing any upcoming planning. I’m just saying…

This is a really large terrestrial bromeliad we came upon in the Costa Rican jungle. About 10ft. across. I think this was near the Arenal volcano when we took a side trail to find a bombax that we never found. I wonder how long that outcropping will last.

On a recent Sunday, five of us hiked the Metacomet Trail from New Britain Avenue in Plainville to Route 6 in Farmington, a trek of more than 4 miles….

This section of trail includes great views in all directions from a vantage point called Pinnacle Rock. You’ll also pass a former Nike missile installation, communications towers, a massive rock cave known as Will Warren’s Den and other features. Just off the trail and looming above New Britain Avenue is a colony of Connecticut’s only native cactus, the prickly pear cactus.

Well, what about the pictures? And species name? I’m assuming it’s Opuntia fragilis, but then I’ve never been to CT so how would I know?

Hah! Of course I’ve been to CT. Some of my best friends are Nutmeggers, as they like to call themselves.

Billbergia nutans

These are a great terrestrial bromeliad, elegantly arching green leaves and these amazing flower clusters on long pink stems that stay open for weeks, at least. They are an early bloomer for gardeners who like to have blooms at all times of the year. That’s you, I’m sure.

Finally, A short video on how to prepare a nopal recipe. This is actually a very difficult skill to master, and this video is amazingly clear, so pay attention.

It’s from the Kitchen Caravan. How delicious.

Hello,

Please take a look at my Euphorbia trigona and give me an advise.

I am concern with spots, overall unhealthy look, slow growth and size of a current planter.
Thank you.
Sincerely, Natalie

Natalie,
Your Euphorbia is under-potted, and is showing signs of what look to me like both frost damage and possibly some sunburn. Overall the plant looks pretty good, but repotting to a bigger terra cotta pot and out of the plastic around the end of March, but not before, should help. Also, we recommend having it indoor in the winter, and out of full sun.
Let us know if you have any other questions
Peter

Peperomia palmana

In the wet mountain forests we found this blooming plant growing as a terrestrial herb and also growing along large trunks as an epiphyte.

Beautiful thick herbaceous leaves and stunning bloom spikes that if you were to look closely you would see are covered in tiny flowers.

Kalanchoe fedtschenkoi