Cactus Blog 

Pachyphytum longifolium

I can’t be sure we have correctly identified this one. If it is right, then it will eventually grow a small trunk.

It’s a Tillandsia. I don’t know what the species is, and I’m sure no one could possibly know. Maybe I could make one up. Lets go with Tillandsia rubrifolia.

The Salina Journal wants you to know that you can grow houseplants in Kansas even though Christmas is over.

Indoor plants can be enjoyed past the holiday season…

The Christmas cactus… has no thorns and blooms during Christmas time with occasional water and fertilizer….

Miller said that it is important for people to read the instructions for their plants.

This is important information that this local paper is sharing with their readers, and now you too know the truth about indoor plants that the big nurseries don’t want you to know.

Aloe longistyla

A very nice medium compact solitary stemless aloe that gets around 10″ across. This guy likes a lot of sun, and can handle extreme drought situations, so you know you like it. It is what we in the horticultural business like to call “useful.” Well, I just made that up.

Epiphyllum species hanging off a tree in Carara National Park, Costa Rica

Tara sends along these photos of a giant tree aloe at her parent’s place in Santa Barbara. They grow orchids.

Single head, orange/yellow flowers – could be A. ferox, but that looks 30ft. tall! No way, man. (By the way, that’s Tara at the bottom of the photo.)

Any guesses as to what the species is?

Join me after the break for another shot. All you have to do is click through…. (more…)

Aloe cryptopoda

The blooms are coming in orange and turning bright yellow as they open. These are just about to open, so you can see the yellow starting to appear.

That title above? That’s not actually the common name for this particular aloe, but I like the word. Kokerbom, or Quiver Tree, is actually this one.

We’re still following the saga of the cactus art car in Austin. Is it art? Nuisance? Only a Judge has the cojones to decide.

More than a year after a judge deemed it junk, an old smashed-up Oldsmobile with cactus growing out of it is still in park outside a local novelty store….

Since November 2007… it was filled with dirt and cactus planted inside. Then, local artists decorated it with scenes reminiscent of San Marcos. But it wasn’t long before a city code officer saw the car and deemed it a public nuisance…

The car was again ruled a nuisance by U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks in March….

The case is now pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans.

It doesn’t look good for the cactus art car. The judges are all philistines, with no taste or respect for the traditions of art. Why, this is practically the test case for the country as to the very definition and future of the world of art in our world, today, and tomorrow, and yesterday too. I hope the judges change their mind and recognize the good thing that is art.

Phlomis fruticosa

A bold grey shrub for a warm, sunny border with beautiful yellow whorls of fall flowers, and apparently into winter as well.

I had to tone down the brightness of the yellow in photoshop. The flowers in real life are too brilliant for the blog.

Auntie R is still 4-wheeling it through the desert and sent along this photo.

We think she should clean her lens, but it is a spectacular Yucca. We’ve tried to grow them in Berkeley, and people keep asking for them at the nursery, but no such luck.

Welcome to My View has a very nice picture of a barrel cactus in full fruit.

Today’s image is another from the San Xavier del Bac Mission just south of Tucson, Arizona. As my friend, Suzanne, and I were leaving the mission from a short visit in early December, I saw this beautiful barrel cactus showing off it’s lovely bright yellow fruit. Behind the barrel cactus, a purple prickly pear cactus was displaying it’s lovely purple pads, making a great background for the green and yellow of the barrel cactus.

Cercis occidentalis – Western Redbud

From rocky soils in the foothills of the Sierras. Bright red seed pods sure do look ripe for the picking. Hap says we still have to wait before gathering the seeds. Something about just the right amount of ripeness.

Now there also appears to be another flower starting, getting ready to open.

And the plant in the background is an Acacia.

Danielle sends along a photo of Benjamin, Amica and Jaxx in full pursuit.

Rare Wild Whippets

It’s hard to photograph whippets in the wild, they get a little blurry, but the camera seems to have captured this fantastic blurry state just so.

Harold’s New Toy

Dad got a new 4-wheeler thing to go exploring in Arizona among the cactus. Do you think he’ll send us some pictures of the pristine desert environment?

Crassula ovata

I generally ignore the lowly Jade Plant. We sell plenty of these puppies, large and small, but who cares? In fact, this is the first picture I’ve even taken of the plant. Anyway, sometimes the flowers are pure white, and sometimes they lean a bit more to the pink. Here’s a pink tinge for you.

Benjamin’s on vacation in Santa Cruz. No pictures today. Come back next week, and we’ll see what we can do.

In the meantime, here’s a Whippet Composite by Mick Cawston for sale on Whippet Prints.

Reader Jaromír Dohnalík has sent along this New Years greeting.

Ceanothus “Tassajara Blue”
Mountain Lilac

Hybrid California Lilac with glossy deep green leaves and blue flowers as you can see. Makes a great hedge plant if you want an 8ft. tall hedge. Most people don’t. So you’d trim it right down to 5ft. and have yourself a happy new year.

Ceanothus griseus “Yankee Point”

Fast growing ground-cover shrub, 2 to 3 ft. tall, with glossy dark green leaves and blue flower clusters winter through spring. Can handle partial shade and as low as 20º F.

Well, that’s the technical info, but what about the feeling? The meaning? The purpose? Well, it’s an interesting photo…

Lyn in Farragut, Tennessee got his Christmas Cactus to bloom on Christmas. And I know this because he writes for the Farragut Press and wrote an entire article about this.

Two years ago, I started letting my Christmas cactus spend its summers outside in a sunny location in front of the garage, giving it sort of a vacation.

Since then, it has grown more lush and, at least this year, bloomed in time for the holidays.

Good deal. Alas, no pictures.

Ceanothus gloriosus “Anchor Bay”

These flowers are a bit more on the purplish side than most of the California Lilacs, which tend to be a bit more on the powdery blue edge, if my eyes don’t deceive me.

The leaves are some of the toughest of the Ceanothus leaves, which makes them great as a deer-resistant plant, along with the “Emily Brown.”

Arctostaphylos rudis “Vandenberg”

This California native with very dense foliage can be used in your garden as  a deep green backdrop. On the other hand, if you prefer, with a minimal amount of pruning it can form a hedge to protect you from your annoying neighbors, naturally growing to about 6 ft. tall. However, the thickly growing leaves will tend to hide the deep red manzanita bark on the twisting branches.

We’re starting to get the small clusters of small white and pink flowers already, and they should last into early spring.

Hardy to 15°F. brrrr……

Gee, I feel like a garden blogger all of a sudden, taking pictures of plants in my garden and describing what they can be used for. Maybe I should talk about the berries next, and which urban and suburban animals will appreciate your providing them with this lovely smorgasbord.

The nursery is now closed for winter break, and not a moment too soon. It’s freezing out there, what with temperatures down into the 50s on some days! And rain too! Brrrr…. I think the real problem is that I have a wonderful warm winter coat and a really rain-resistant rain coat, but there are days when it’s both rainy and cold and then what can I do? I can choose to be warm or I can choose to be dry. Some choice.

Anyway, for the past 5 years we’ve been closed for all of January, and this year we’ve reduced it to only 2 weeks. Bummer. It’s not enough time to catch up on all the work needed to get ready for spring, but the crew will try. We’ll be adding a new bigger Houseplant greenhouse, moving the potting stations to increase our dry-goods sales area, and preparing a spot to bring in organic vegetable starts for spring for the first time.

And I’ll be blogging straight through nonetheless. Maybe not at my furious pace like in the warm summer months, but I’ve still got my camera out and am taking pictures of winter bloomers.

Oh, and we’ll be reopening on January 14, 2009, 9:00am bright and early, and by then I’m sure temperatures will be back up into the 60s.

And it’s after Christmas!

I don’t understand, don’t these plants have calendars at the ready? They can stop blooming now if they want.

Sam and Ian are talking about something or other in the rare plant house, probably mealy bugs on the Jatrophas.

Ian really likes his new safety goggles. A closeup after the break… (more…)

Keith was browsing the internets, no longer called a series of tubes since Senator Stevens lost to Mark Begich, and he found this picture of a giant cactus. Even bigger than that, I’d say. Let’s call it “gigantic.”

It’s a Pachycereus weberi from Oaxaca. Photo by Arturo Anaya from Columnar Cacti.

Did I mention that Hap went to school with Senator-Elect Begich? Oh, the stories he could tell. Or not. But congratulations.

Plants are the Strangest People has a long discourse on the care and feeding and his personal dislike of Adeniums. Lots of good information, notwithstanding the fact that I’m quoted.

Here, have a pretty adenium flower picture:

This has been much blogged, but here’s the green roof on the top of the Academy of Sciences building in Golden Gate Park.

If you look very closely you can see that it’s all California native plants.

Oh, and look over there, I see some Dudleyas! So many succulents. What’s that? It’s a Sedum? It is!

These cell phone pictures aren’t very good. Maybe I should go back to using my camera.