Cactus Blog 

Here’s an article from the Baltimore Sun about green roofs in Maryland that features a green roof in Tacoma, WA. Why couldn’t they send a photographer to get a picture of a local project?

MCT / Janet Jensen

Vivian deZwager sits on the roof of her house, overlooking her green-roof garage in Tacoma, Wash. She planted succulents there and created a design using plants and broken ceramic and terra cotta pieces as mulch….

Ever wonder how hairy the edges of an aeonium leaf are? Well, wonder no more.

Aeonium tabuliforme

It’s been raining recently.

We’re fostering a whippet.

His name is Chase, and he’s a little skittish, but a good boy.

You know, we used to rescue turtles because we have a turtle pond until that got over filled. And crested geckos, until we had so many babies. And tortoises. And a parakeet that came to our pond and wanted to be brought inside cause she was cold and lonely.

And now I guess a whippet, but that’s it. No more. Unless you have some baby chicks, that is, cause we’d definitely take in some baby chicks. And maybe a pygmy goat, but that’s it, just the one. Unless we got a farm up in Sonoma and then maybe 2 or 3 pygmy goats. But that’s it. No more than that. Unless it was well fenced and then we’d have to rescue a big tortoise if someone asked, but only if they asked. But that’s it. No more than that.

Cactus is what’s for dinner.

The chefs came up with some miniature cactus tacos with sour cream and chives and an avocado topping that can be enjoyed cold.

“I like them more raw than cooked because of the texture. They are not crunchy but have a bite to them.

Cactus will be prepared in mini tacos for the coming gala. (Victor Calzada / El Paso Times)

And pairing it with avocado is a natural,” Bowen said of the special tacos.

It’s a Costa Rican Ground Orchid. It’s only like a 1/2″ across, so please don’t step on it, okay?

The Santa Ynez Valley Journal journeys to Los Olivos and checks out the local coffee houses and succulent gardens.

J. Woeste’s succulent garden is packed with whimsical pottery and colorful garden accents. Lucy and Lady, the garden’s mascots, can be found guarding the garden gate.

I wonder where the Santa Ynez Valley and Los Olivos are? Why, let’s map it out, shall we?

It turns out it’s about an hour north of Santa Barbara, near Solvang. Good to know.

It’s Garden Show time in Philadelphia, through this weekend.

You could hop a plane to Rome this very afternoon – $535 round-trip from Philly. Or you could hit the 2009 Philadelphia Flower Show.

I guess that’s true, in a unusual sort of way. But then I would have to fly to  PA and that would cost me, let me see, at least $656. I’d rather fly to Italy, to be honest.

Well, how about the show gardens, how are those?

San Remo. This “Italian Riviera” exhibit by Waldor Orchids of Linwood… shows… palm and olive trees, succulents and… orchids everywhere… “Real Italian flair,” says Waldor co-owner Walt Off.

Well, there’s that. Still, I’d rather be in Italy.

By the way, did I ever tell you that I almost went to college in Philly? It was a very close call and I didn’t decide until the week before school started but I ended up in Ann Arbor, Michigan instead.

When I visited the school, I stayed in the dorm room of a guy who later became President of Dunkin Donuts. True story. Do you believe me?

They seem to be everywhere these days, and that can only mean one thing.

The 28,000-square-foot green roof at Ducks Unlimited in southern Manitoba is modeled after the surrounding Oak Hammock Marsh, with lots of short- and medium-size grasses and flowering plants, all native to the area.

To a duck or goose “it looks like habitat,” said Paula Grieef, a naturalist at the Oak Hammock Marsh Interpretive Centre. “We have ducks nesting on the roof every year, and last year for the first time we had a goose.”

They seem to like the native grasses better than the non-native succulents. Well, I never.

Peperomia hernandiifolia

I like me some peperomias. This large leafed succulent was climbing this tree and was up over 10 ft. high. They can root in the ground or be completely epiphytic, as they vine their way into the clouds.

I like this photo for its evocative shadows.

They like to leave Chicago in winter, which is why they have healthy travel sections in the newspapers.

Washington Slagbaai National Park, on the northern end of Bonaire, is a good place to view cacti and the other flora and fauna of the island. Iguanas and a wide variety of tropical birds like to hang out here.

Cactus and Iguanas, together again. Maybe I should go visit. Do they offer anything else?

Bonaire is not big on museums.

Good to know.

Sunnyside Nursery
March 7, 10:30 a.m. — Living Wreaths: Learn how to plant a wreath ring with hardy succulents for year round interest. $30.

Mr. Bee recommends cactus, don’t you know.

For centuries, Feng Shui practitioners have placed thorny plants such as cactuses in windows to prevent negative psychic energy.

Does Mr. Bee in Maryland have anything else to tell us about cactus? I think he does.

I’ve rearranged our cactus collection… but I neglected to wear my thorn-proof gloves until one of our larger specimens painfully reminded me that I need to do that.

Oh, that Mr. Bee!

Nice Bromeliad. And it’s epiphytic too. But really, look at all that moss crawling up that tree. Must be a rain forest. Tropical even. Hot and moist.

Jen has lost her delicious succulents.

“With living walls, you’re recycling air. In many ways it’s better because, first of all you don’t know the quality of the air outside a building that you’re pumping in with normal heating and ventilation systems. By pulling air through the wall and recycling it you also don’t have to re-heat it or re-cool it.”

And there’s a Green Roof too!

The roof was built with special drains and an added liner, with grasses such as succulents and sedum being planted on top, all to absorb rainwater.

Awesome. Now you have a reason to visit Morristown, NJ.

Video after the break… (more…)

It’s always about the golfing here on the blog, since they don’t play football among the cactus.

HENRIK STENSON: It was a really tough day. Lot of desert visits and picking up cactus. Bit painful at times up the back, especially on the second extra hole. I had to back up into the cactus.

Ouch, indeed. Those golfers really have to be tough these days, especially with the Tiger coming back.

The photos from Costa Rica keep coming, and it turns out I shot a lot of orchids. Maybe I’ll stop doing these posts from our trip every day. Maybe only once a week? They’ll last all year if I do that. Fair warning.

Anyway, this cone of flowers was about a foot tall and I counted the tiny blooms and there were 3,026.

Crabapple at ART TEA LIFE knits some cactus art, or rather tagged a cactus, and meets Ed another cactus artist and surreality ensues.

Haworthia turgida

And so we do finally come to the end of our February haworthia feature, just in time for March. I wonder what genus I’ll feature this month?

These H. turgidas are supposedly highly variable, and so I can only presume that this is one of them. They can vary from 2″ to 4″, from green to brown, from open to closed, and so on. So I do the best I can to come up with these names. Please don’t hate me for my imprecision.

For sansevierias.

Hot dry rooms: Central heating is the kiss of death for many house plants, but heavenly for those that like dry conditions, such as Sansevieria trifasciata.

We want pictures!

OK, here’s one for you, and I didn’t steal it from the Times of London. It’s my own lovely picture.

This one’s called “Hahnii” and I blogged it as recently as back in December, or so. I don’t have anything to add, except to note that in the UK they seem to recommend it for hot dry rooms, and I will tell you right now it also doesn’t need a lot of light, another reason it is favored in the UK.

MANDI WRIGHT/Detroit Free Press

El Rancho restaurant server Rosa Isela Reyna carries Lenten dishes Shrimp a la Veracruzana and Dried Shrimp Cakes with Cactus Strips.

I’m sure it’s delicious, although you couldn’t get me within ten feet of that dish, what with the shrimp cakes part of it.

Dry Stone Garden has placed an Agave medio-picta in a terra cotta egg pot next to a native fescue to nice effect, go ahead and check it out. I’ll wait for you to come back.

I don’t know what that is. I don’t know what that means. Apparently in Oregon they plant pizzas. I don’t know why. It’s a good thing there’s an article to go with this whole concept in the Oregonian. Now if only I would read it, but well, you know me and my laziness. In fact, it seems to have become a rule. An interesting choice of rules for a daily blogger.

The Oregonian
My plant “pizzas” aren’t this appealing after a winter in the greenhouse.

It certainly is a nice picture of a plant pizza. I wonder if the plant pizza movement is related to the green roof movement, since it seems they use a lot of the same plants? Ah well, I’ll never know now.

Haworthia cuspidata

Yay! A haworthia has a common name! This is one of the larger haworthias, not as big as H. aristata, but the rosettes can get over 4″! Oy, that’s a lot of haworthia. This one is also thicker-leafed and less prone to mushiness. That’s my technical term for the day.

(Christina House / For The Times)

A tour of historical gardens

The conservancy’s two-day program, “Gardens That Re-Make Themselves: A Discourse on Regeneration, Sustainability, and Preservation,” will feature lectures by local designers, landscape architects, botanists, architects and historians. Home tours will include several gardens in Pasadena, including this private residence.

I don’t know what they’re talking about. It’s a mystery to me. But it’s pretty, so who am I to argue. Maybe you can figure it out.

Man, this is some lazy blogging from me. I really should figure out what this is about, go down there myself and interview the participants, take my own photos rather than steal the LA Times’, and do some work for you, my patient and understanding readers.

Yes, I should do all that.

We saw a lot of blooming orchids in Costa Rica last month. I have a few thousand more photos to share. Well, maybe not quite that many.

We’re still in the cloud forests of  Monteverde.

Haworthia outeniquensis

That’s quite a name there.

Here, have some poetry:

While walking along the Western Cape
in South Africa attempting escape
a gardener did flee
from the succulents he’d see
cause the plants had a scarier shape

A closeup from last week’s picture of Benjamin at the nursery.