Cactus Blog 

Souvenir Refrigerator Cactus Magnet Now Available!

Oh, and the other major breaking news this morning is that the capitalists refuse to invest in AIG and want the administration instead to go all communist on them with a $75 billion bailout.

The secret to getting your Christmas Cactus to bloom around christmas time is to get them some darkness – right now.

The classic Schlumbergera orssichiana x truncata will bloom for up to 2 months, and needs bright indirect light, dappled sunshine being best. But here’s the secret:

1. August, September: Use bloom food every time you water

2. September and October: 14 hours of darkness, with 8-10 hours of indirect light every day

3. November and December: bring out to bright indirect light and watch it bloom!

Love Thyself grows native succulents. Native to South Africa, that is. Well, there are a lot of native succulents if you’re in South Africa – it’s not even fair!

Hello,

A few months ago, I purchases several succulents at Cactus Jungle. A few are having some problems and I would like to know what you recommend I do.

I have attached a photo of a Sedum Matrona that has developed a powdery material at the junctures of the pedals.

Also attached is a photo of an Aloe Burii whose tips are drying up and turning red. Is this a natural development for this plant?

Thank you so much for your advice.

Regards,
Diane

[Note: photos deleted]

Diane,

The Sedum looks like it might have some aphids, tight in the growing tips, as well as a bit of powdery mildew damage. I recommend spraying it well with a good, but gentle jet from the hose and then treat with a powdery mildew treatment Neem or “Mildew Cure”. Or you can just cut off the infected leaves and tips. Sedum matrona can be cut back to just stumps when it looks ratty and it will re-sprout with fresh new growth.

The Aloe is just showing signs of summer dormancy, which is normal, it is native to a winter rain fall area of Africa so it sleeps in the summer and grows in the winter just like most California natives. It will perk up and start growing with vigor this winter once the rains start. 

Take care,
Hap

I wonder if every small town newspaper in the country will eventually have an article about succulents? They are very popular right now you know. Even the Wasilla, Alaska paper has an article up! (Well, maybe not.) Anyway, here’s the way they look at it in Everett, Washington:

A lot of us already garden with succulents but I’m gathering it’s the next hot plant by the number of books on that subject coming across my desk. Some succulent tips:

Good gravy! And what might those tips be? (more…)

Evelyn Ave.

Opuntia ficus-indica. A giant and edible prickly pear. Scrape the spines off the pads and saute and you have a delicious fried green vegetable. On the other hand, the fruit are sweet and tasty and make for a great desert topping or a jam.

But the big news today is in the financial sector where Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy while holding

$613 billion of debt

That is an amazing amount of debt. Outstanding. Holy crap.

Anyway, here’s another shot of the prickly pear. (more…)

It’s a cactus. It’s a frog. It’s a cactus and frog independent film that also features cheese. Fortunately it’s also very very short. Thank god.

One of the customers here recommends watching while soaking in a warm tub. I do not disagree. But I cannot recommend it.

Stannage Ave.

Opuntia ficus-indica, classic fruit producing prickly pear. You can see there are dozens of fruit on this plant, but they’re not ripe yet, so please don’t pick these spiny prickly pears, also known as tunas, yet.

At the Velez Gallery in Colorado Springs.

Point to some brightly colored baskets. “Those are made by the Huichol Indians,” he said, referring to the Western Mexican culture. “The beads are held on with beeswax. There are probably 800 beads, maybe more,” he said, pointing to a basket – perhaps 2 inches across – adorned with an image of a peyote cactus. 

I’d buy that. But then I recently bought a purple gorilla suit filled with gold coins.

They can! They really can!

your own little piece of paradise might include formal topiary or an exultation of cacti and succulents; elaborate hardscaping or simple statuary.

Now you know. I think the link is broken, so you never know where it will lead.

Cornell Ave.

Here we have a Delosperma, an small iceplant, a low-growing groundcover, pretending to be a shrub. In fact, you may not even believe me that it’s a delosperma. Well, check it out.

(more…)

Fast Friday Fabric Challenge clues us in. You’ll have to click through to see the photo.

This project began as a photograph of a barrel cactus in my garden. I printed the photo on both cotton and organza fabrics. I liked the effect when I overlaid the organza on the cotton photo and then offset the two photos. The two photos were secured together with some thread painting then it was sliced into four parts.

Amazing.

Yayyyy! It’s a 32″ inflatable cactus! I want one! No I don’t! Yes I do!

The inflatable cactus make great decorations for parties, restaurants, and can double as real plants in dorm rooms.  Each stands approximately 32″ and comes sealed.

Another photo from Dani while Benjamin is visiting his sister Amica.

Come home soon.

They can! They really can! So says syracuse.com.

Dear Carol: I love sedum and have planted it wherever I have enough sun in my yard. However, some of the plants have started to die with stalks that wither. This is not the first year that this has happened; I’ve already lost three plants over the past two years when it was dry…. What’s wrong? – J.H., Liverpool.

Dear J.H.: This certainly looks like some kind of crown or root rot.

The wood chip mulch I can see in your picture may be part of the problem. Sedums are succulents. They store water in their leaves and stems and are adapted to withstand periods of drought. They like a well-drained soil that dries out quickly; any mulch that traps moisture around the stems could promote disease. Heavy soil will also contribute to rot problems.

I’d rogue out the plants that have problems and put something else there instead, not another sedum.

Oh. I guess I was wrong. They can’t grow sedums in Syracuse. Well that seems silly, since sedums are hardy succulents.

Pardee Street

Agave attenuata of course and sprawling over the rock is an Opuntia littoralis, which is a coastal California native. I guess it’s a good thing this plant is near the California coast, then. And it appears to be well-protected, what with the ADT sign.

It’s a Succulent Purse Topiary

I don’t know what the world is coming to, but it can’t be all bad, what with this incredible artifact of human intelligence made apparent.

Bring a purse home that truly grows every day of the week with Crassula, Echeveria, Sedum, Senecio and Semperviven succulents.

Man, I’m impressed. I can’t say enough about this. I may have a seizure.

Some people who only eat raw foods do the silliest things, and then post the tale on a message board for all to ridicule.

i feel bad cuz once i took two of my friends for hiking
then we tried to get at a cactus pear 

we used a rock and other crude items 
and… well, they ended up eating it after doing their best to ‘clean it up” and get to the flesh 

then they ended up getting a bunch of barbs in their mouths 

i felt so bad for them 

but then they laughed it off 

and the rest of the hike went well 

la_veronique

But it’s entertaining!

Have you ever wondered how you should water your little potted cactus? Well, watch me in action.

And all the rest of my instructional videos on youtube are right here. You can subscribe to my channel, and then you’ll never miss another new video, ever.

Talbot ve.

Aeonium schwartzkopf and Graptoveria x. Plus, of course, a Crassula ovata in the background, but I generally won’t bother taking pictures of Jade since they’re everywhere and I just don’t care to photograph them anymore.

But the grouping of pots is very nice.

…have knocked down trees and power lines, but the cacti are OK.

If you have ocotillos or succulents, like barrel cactus, Harper says they can many times be straightened back up and saved.

I don’t know how you straighten up a barrel cactus, but then I’m not going to see any movies this week either, so my random thought of the day for you is this: Use compact fluorescents wherever you can.

I don’t know where Yucaipa is, but they’ve busted a peyote provider.

Law enforcement also found peyote (a cactus plant that produces hallucinogenic effects) growing in the backyard and a lab used to make and encapsulate mescaline, a psychedelic agent that has been illegal since 1970 and is derived from the peyote cactus.

Stupid illegal cactus, and their hallucinogenic effects.

Lost in the Landscape shares photos of the gardens at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Succulents abound.

Benjamin and Amica are with Dani at her office.

Kains Ave.

A nice mixed garden with Agave parryi, some aloe, cotyledon, euphorbia, opuntia and cereus. Oh, and did I mention the heads?

Tangledwing has featured this photo of a wallpaper that was made from a closeup of mammillaria spines.

No word on where to buy it.

Julie has some disgusting photos of flies on stapelia blooms. I wonder why flies on blooms is disgusting? Bees on blooms are adorable, and we all love butterflies. I wonder why we don’t like flies? Maybe because they are fooled into thinking it’s a rotting carcass. Stupid stapeliads.