Cactus Blog 

Posting will be slow through this weekend while I am recovering from sinus surgery. I’m a little dizzy, not that today should be different than any other day.

Anyway, have a butterfly plant:

Asclepias curassavica

Queens has generally lagged behind Manhattan in high-profile, high-rise green development for a variety of reasons- from lack of developer interest to its comparatively low-density. However, the borough’s origins as a manufacturing base for the rest of New York have left behind numerous low-rise former warehouses and factories with flat roof profiles.

I had wondered when Queens would get into the green building act.

Project Name: Queens Botanical Garden Visitor and Administration Center
Year: 2007
Owner: Queens Botanical Garden
Location: Flushing, NY, USA
Building Type: Park
Greenroof Type: Extensive
Greenroof System: Single Source Provider
Roof Size: 8000 sq.ft.
Roof Slope: 8%
Access: Accessible, Open to Public

Finally, arborboy reviews the roof and provides some pictures too. (more…)

Hap built a succulent labyrinth up in Napa, above Lake Berryessa.

I’ll put together more pictures and info later, but here’s a nice photo of the plant layout on the freshly laid pattern to start.

Seth looks pretty busy out there.

Pencil and Leaf has a nice roundup of solanums, including some spiny pictures of porcupine tomatos and naranjillos.

Golden Barrel Cactus: Enhancing The Desert Landscape Of Your Home

I like that. It doesn’t make me want to read the article that goes with it, but I enjoy the headline still.

Aunt Rachel visits Vicksburg, AZ and doesn’t run into favorite son John McCain, but does stop long enough to take this picture:

I don’t know if that’s for a restaurant or a nursery or a carriage shop, but I like it.

Here we have a lovely photo from the Velvet Garden in LA.

They do good work with succulents. Very tasteful. In fact, I used to live in LA, and I can say that they are more tasteful with succulents than anyone else I know in LA. That’s kind of an odd thing for me to say. Maybe I should rethink publishing this entry.

Chuck B’s flickr stream has a nice big green Coreopsis gigantea that looks almost big enough to bloom.

Russell says of his gardening taste: “I like to cut stems off flowers and just float the heads. Dahlias are particularly spectacular that way. I don’t particularly like long stems exept in French tulips. Succulents in concrete or ceramic planters are also a favorite. They require the lowest maintenance of any flower, and, if you forget to water them for two weeks, they are still alive and beautiful — they thrive on neglect.”
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Today we have a very polite correspondent sending in a question:

Dear Client support,

I was wondering if potted echeveria cuttings in zone 6, that were taken late in the season, could continue to be watered and provided fertilizer without extended hours of supplemental lighting during the winter. Though I realize shorter daylengths might normally initiate dormancy, I wasn’t sure if overwintered cuttings with under-developed root systems were capable of surviving the water and nutrient deprivation required.

My thanks for your time and efforts in the matter.

Sincerely,

Joe

Joe,

Echeveria do go dormant in the winter so unless you are providing extra full spectrum light to keep them actively growing, it is best to cut back on food and water and let them sleep through winter. Even with little or no roots they will do better with limited water for the winter. If you want to push them you can put them under full spectrum lights for 16-18 hours a day until they are better established and then wean them off the light and let them go dormant. However you really don’t need to, as long as they are getting some light and a bit of water every month they should do fine.

When I gardened in Alaska all my Echeveria were pulled from the garden in the fall, somewhat brutally tossed in to wire baskets, mostly bare root and “stored for winter” in a south facing window. They were misted occasionally, but never watered. In early spring I would pot them up, let them settle in to dry soil for a week or two and then give them their first real drink in months. They soon perked up and took off and were ready to go back outside as soon as the snow melted. While I wouldn’t necessarily recommend growing them that way anymore it does show how hardy they are and how they can survive long periods of dormancy and drought.

Good luck,

Hap

Well, I never knew that. You learn something new occasionally. Next time you’re up in Alaska you can wow the natives with this new knowledge.

Drosera adelae

Here we have a fine example of a sundew from Australia. It’s practically nature’s flypaper. Sticky and attractive to flies, it digests the insects right out in the open for all to see.

I especially like the new fronds unfurling.

And those are bloom stalks, but the flowers were too tiny for me to catch on film.

This story out of Tucson was just too juicy, and cactilicious to ignore, even on a Saturday.

Vandalism was reported at 7:15 a.m. in the 0-100 block of East Calle Tierra Sandia. A resident told police someone vandalized his inflatable ghost and his neighbor’s cactus. He said he found the cactus in his front yard. He told police someone splattered ketchup on the ghost and slit it.

I wish they had published pictures.

From Texas, a state famous for its cactus, even if not as famous as Arizona and its saguaros, the local paper printed an article from the AP about how prickly pear cactus grow anywhere, not just Texas, and even in Italy. Who knew? Well, Italy has naturalized a number of food crops, like the tomato, and the prickly pear cactus, and the pasta tree.

This undated photo shows a prickly pear cactus in Italy. Prickly pear cactus is edible and attractive, and worth growing where you want something offbeat or unique in the landscape, no matter where you live. (AP Photo/Lee Reich)

That looks like a very productive plant with lots of bright red fruit hanging down for the picking.

Is this enough of a hearty article for you today? Am I done blogging for the day? Saturday is usually a quiet day here at the blog, but not always. What do you think, should I keep blogging today or is this it?

Garden Wise Guy has an eye for the Euphorbia-Agave combo photo.

Fast pups at the beach

catalinkel sends along this picture and wants to know if this is the same Cereus v. monstrose as the smaller ones we are selling at the nursery, and the answer is: Yes!

Of course, monstroses all vary and unless they’re both cuttings from the same parent plant, then they’re not exactly the same. But whose counting?

But that sure is a giant one, with lots of fruit production. I wonder if they’re delicious?  Cactus apples, like regular apples, have lots of crabapples.

Gators in the Garden has planted a lot of graptopetalums and graptoverias too, and has the pictures to prove it.

I don’t know what to make of this. It costs $9.99 and completes our Canadian theme for the day.

Arsa Canadian Flaxseed with Cactus
Price $9.99
17.63 oz.
In Stock ships in 3 business days.

Description
* Herbal Supplement.
* With Omega 3, 6 and 9.
* Exportation product.
* Made in Mexico.

This is very exciting news. You can now get your Mexican cactus complete with Canadian flaxseed in one convenient pill. I think we can thank NAFTA for this most exciting new product, now on shelves everywhere. I wonder if you can make nopales con huevos with flaxseed with this product?

From Montreal, they travel to Los Angeles and sample some of the exotic local foods, like,

(No)pales con huevos, cactus with eggs. (Cactus, a common vegetable, is available at the local markets.)… (at) Barragan’s (1538 W. Sunset Blvd.), a Mexican restaurant started in 1961.

Do you think they’re delicious? I suspect that they are. But then the travelers were from Canada, which seems to be a theme today, so I would take their recommendations with a grain of salt, and a dose of hot pepper.

In Canada, someone has set up a cactus cam on their Euphorbia, which would make it a Euphorbia Cam, but whose counting.

This is supposed to update every 10 minutes, but if not, then you can go to the Canadian Government Cheese website to see the original.

Channel 9 News in Denver has some very subtle advice for people who bring their cactus and succulents and other plants indoors for the winter.

Some plants, such as African violets, orchids or cacti and succulents may need a watering schedule that calls for more or less water….

Good stuff. Now you can take care of anything.

Hap,

I came by on Saturday to ask about my sick cactus. Here are some pictures I took for you to better diagnose the problem. I’m very attached to the cactus so what ever I can do to cure it please let me know.

I only water the cactus once every three months and the last watering beginning of October I fed it a little of the cactus food. I first discovered the discoloration about 3 weeks ago.

Please feel free to email me or call me xxx-xxxx, if you have any questions or need more pictures.

Thank you for your help,
Shahriar

Shahriar,

If your plant was by a window I would have said it had a bad sunburn from being turned so the shaded side was suddenly facing the full sun glare and UV…. But since it looks like it is back in the room, it looks like your Euphorbia has caught a virus or fungus. It may have been brought on by water stress, we usually recommend watering plants like yours once a month during the summer months and every six to eight weeks during the winter. Although other than the infection you plant looks like it was doing fine with your water schedule, but being stressed may have made it more susceptible to an infection.

If it is a fungus, it may be treatable with a Neem Oil spray (Neem Oil is a natural, but usually effective treatment for both fungus and insect problems, that will not make your house toxic). I recommend spraying the plant with a 1% Neem Oil Solution to the point of run-off and even watering it in to the potting soil. Retreating two or three times once every ten days. If Neem doesn’t stop the fungus you could use a more aggressive chemical fungicide, but since we only use organic products I can’t recommend a product.

If it is a viral infection unfortunately all you can do is water and fertilize it with Kelp, which is sort of like a multi-vitamin for plants and hope the plant can fight it off. Plant viralcides are not for houseplants as you do not want chemical warfare in your living room.

Good luck,
Hap

Kains Ave.

It’s a barrel of aloe. What more could a monkey want? Nice blooms.

A new film about building a green building in Boston is making the festival rounds.

The Greening of Southie is a feature documentary about Boston’s first residential green building, and the skeptical workers who are asked to build it. From wheatboard cabinetry to recycled steel, bamboo flooring to dual-flush toilets, The Macallen Building is something different––a leader in the emerging field of environmentally friendly design. But Boston’s steel-toed union workers aren’t sure they like it….

Points keep accruing at the building site, as soil and succulents are hoisted onto the green roof…

They’ve got a succulent green roof? Nice.

The extensive green roof on the top of the building, shown in this photo, lowers heating and cooling loads in addition to managing stormwater. Credit: John Horner, John Horner Photography

We’re going into our winter ad campaign in a couple weeks, and that means one thing: Succulent Wreaths.

In the meantime, our summer ads telling people to stop watering their gardens don’t seem all that relevant once the rains have started. So I quickly came up with an intermediate ad before the holiday rush.

Reader Duc Pham sent us a lovely photo of a Cleistocactus in bloom. Maybe C. winteri.

Thanks!

Adenium obesum

The classic succulent flower. The color naturally ranges from white to red, with many pinks in between. Grows a moderate sized caudex, with long succulent stems. Some people like to name a variety when they find a flower color they like, but I am morally opposed to such frippery. The flower colors vary naturally, and widely. They’re individuals, don’t you know. They aren’t all exactly the same and that’s OK.

Did I mention that I like my camera?

From Philadelphia, home of the Phillies, comes a question about a San Pedro cactus (Echinopsis pachanoi) in an office setting.

Peter,

Enclosed please find photos we discussed on yesterday. Please let me know what you suggest I do?

Thanks,
Michael

Michael,

The plant is not getting enough direct sun. I see it is a bright room, but how many hours of sun is actually reaching the plant? The reason it’s leaning is it is looking for sun. Also, the new growth will not be forming a strong woody core to help hold the plant upright. A weaker plant is more likely to lean.

I recommend putting it right in front of a sunny window. To straighten the plant now, basically you adjust the rootball in the pot to get the plant standing upright, and then we use bamboo stakes to tie it off for a month or two. You can also use tree stakes.

Let me know how it goes
Peter