Cactus Blog 

It’s a rainy day and the whippets don’t won’t to get up today. Leave them alone!

Pachypodiums grow big and tall and spiny all over, and then we get to deliver them! Here you can see the crew preparing this 10 foot tall Pachypodium for delivery to Stinson Beach.

It may not be a cactus (Cactaceae), since it’s in the dogbane family instead (Apocynaceae) but you get the idea. It is however a Madagascar Palm, and it is very spiny underneath all the wrapping paper.

Christmas lights on a cactus garden in Berkeley!

Doris made Cactus Cookies for her holiday party. Delicious!

Jessica sends along her wine glass terrarium centerpiece. Nice!

Jungle Cactus are some of the best winter cactus around. Along with the classic Christmas Cactus we have here a beautiful Mistletoe Cactus.

Rhipsalis salicornioides
Hanging epiphytic jungle cactus from Brazil, pendant to 6ft long. Not frost hardy, but will grow well in the Bay Area outside under an eave or porch overhang.
  
    

Benjamin last night was ready for the company party!

New glass, new Airplant Terrariums

We make these high-quality succulent terrariums so you don’t have to. They are ready to go. Ready to give as gifts. Ready to water and grow and be your favorite thing ever. This one is by Pia

Nice!

Benjamin licks his cute little whippet paw

It’s been a few years since the fight over protecting the Cactus Owls has made its way to court, but a new court battle over protections is coming.

Two environmental groups filed a lawsuit Tuesday aimed at forcing the federal government to protect Arizona’s diminishing cactus ferruginous pygmy owl population under the Endangered Species Act.

The Sonoran Desert of southern and eastern Arizona is home to about 50 of the owls. While Arizona’s population is one of two small populations in the United States, there are significant populations of pygmy owls in Mexican states of Sonora and Sinaloa.

The lawsuit filed by Defenders of Wildlife and the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity calls for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the owl as endangered….

Pygmy owls were once more common in Arizona, but urban sprawl from Phoenix and Tucson in the 1970s and ’80s has eliminated much of their habitat, according to Noah Greenwald, endangered species director for the Center for Biological Diversity.

A change to the Endangered Species Act in 1997 defined the cactus ferruginous pygmy owl as a “distinct population segment” that could be protected under the Act.

It’s green, it’s made in batches small enough that they dry the strips of cactus on the dashboard of their truck, and it’s entirely Carribean.

It’s Cadushy of Bonaire!

But I’m here at Cadushy of Bonaire, where they make a liqueur of the same name from the Dutch Caribbean island’s Kadushi cactus, to remedy that situation.

And just what is this Kadushi Cactus of Bonaire? It’s the Cereus repandus which can get over 30 feet tall and has many delicious edible fruit that apparently you can distill which are known as Cactus Apples, as well as Cadushi.

Did I mention Terrariums?

Cactus Jungle is happy to launch our new workshops with a Terrarium Class! Sign up and learn how to make you very own. We provide all the materials you need: tools, terrarium glass containers, plants, media and decorative additions including all your favorite mini animals. We will help you design and build while you learn how to take care of your own miniature environment. You can choose between a Succulent or Airplant theme. Space is limited to 10 people for each class. Only $35 for a 9” Terrarium and everything is included.

Our first classes this year will be December 7 and December 21, 10:00am. You can reserve your spot online – each class is limited to 10 people!

Amica came to visit for Thanksgiving! Benjamin was very happy to see his sister.

Amica now lives with a cat, Mister Cat, and Jen shared this photo with me so you could enjoy it too!

Jaxx visited too, but he’s not in the picture.

And just in time for the holiday. The one that is coming up this week, not the one coming up next month. Although it is in time for that holiday too.

Tom’s Pricklypear Cactus and Cranberry Jelly

I have a large pricklypear cactus growing outside my back door. Most years… it produces large numbers of dark pruple-red fruits. I make these into either jelly or syrup, depending on whether it sets or not. This year, I turned my less bountiful harvest into a variation on cranberry sauce–the jellied kind….

24 or so ripe pricklypear cactus fruits
1 bag fresh cranberries.
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 box pectin
3 cups sugar

Click through for the full instructions.

And who is this Tom and why should we follow his recipe? He’s Tom Fitzmorris of WWL AM870, a talk radio fixture in the Gulf South Region with a food show. On the radio! I trust him. I really do.

Coreopsis gigantea
California Native

Shrubby to 6ft.; summer deciduous. Yellow daisy flowers.

Hardy to 25F

Full Sun

Cactus Soil

Low water, moderate in winter

Our Fine and Handsome Succulent Wreaths are available at the nursery, or you can order them online too. People ask us if we ship them, and I tell them Yes! Yes we do ship our Succulent Wreaths and Thank you for asking.

Angela has been busy making a beautiful wall of Airplants and Terrariums for you.

You like it! You really like it!

Now, can you name the species in the picture. There are literally, not just sort of, but literally, 49 species of Tillandsia in this one photo. You may want to click to embiggen to get in real close and see them all. Enjoy!

San Pablo Ave, Berkeley

Agave attenuata and an Aloe ciliaris in bloom.

It’s been awhile since we’ve posted one of these local news stories where an Agave blooms and everyone comes from miles around to see the enormous sight. And then the local newspaper gets involved and publishes a picture and that picture zooms around the world on the wings of the web to my desk and from my desk to your eyes.

Enjoy! Local news at its finest.

Mystery cactus springs more than 6m in Bentleigh garden

…(LORNA Smith) and her husband, John, have lived at the Bentleigh house since 1956 and the huge cactus is a first.

“It’s gone straight up like a rocket, it’s taller than my garage now,” Mrs Smith said.

“I just can’t believe it, nothing like this has happened before.”

The commenters have correctly identified it as an Agave americana.

Hello,

If I remove the thorns from my cactus plant will the plant die, re-grow the thorns or continue to live without them?

Thank you

Vaddot

It should do just fine and continue to live without them.
-peter

Question? yes. Answer? yes.

Success!

Are you a fan of the cactus? Then you are so fashionable right now that you are practically dripping in irony.

Fashion’s love affair with the humble cactus

Marina London’s silky green separates are best accessorised with Pedro the cactus…

The tough, drought-tolerant cactus and its close relation the succulent (the fleshy-leaved, geometric-shaped rockery plant, also known as house leeks or sempervivum), are ”trending” right now.

Expensive clothes, expensive stool, expensive cactus – so why is the pot cheap plastic? You couldn’t spring for terra cotta?

Fear Not, New England: The Hilltop Cactus Is Here To Stay

The Hilltop Steakhouse sign is “one of the few remaining landmarks on Route 1 in Saugus from the bygone era.”
Boston Globe

The plastic cows may be forever gone from Route 1, but the giant, green neon north star in Saugus is going nowhere fast.

A sign from my youth. And it’s still there? Who knew!?! Classic.

Hanging out in La Jolla on a beautiful November weekend? How about checking out Nicole’s beautiful succulents at the farmers market?

Nice! I see she’s come up with the coffee cup carrier concept for small pots. Also nice!

Any other Cactus Jungle alum selling succulents on a Sunday today?

Dudleya farinosa is normally a pretty green California native succulent, coastal northern California the  best more interesting about it. But the Noyo River form is white white white. This is also northern California Coastal, but almost all the way to Fort Bragg.

We’re potting up terrariums and mixed succulent pots and filling hypertufa pots with lots of very colorful Sempervivums like this one! It must be almost a holiday type if season coming up.

Indeed.