Cactus Blog 

In West Palm Beach, FL, WPTV News closely follows the story of a dove that nested in a cactus. This very important local story, oddly enough, did not make the national news channels. Not even Foxnews. So I am rescuing this story from the trashheap of news stories heaped up on that pile of, well, trashy stories, and printing it right here, right now, for you.

Good lord, who cares.

via atrios

It’s just disgusting.

Don’t scroll down if you don’t have to.

I’m warning you….

Yes, it’s a Venus Fly Trap Caught-in-Action!

It caught a slug. It’s eating a slug.

It’s fascinating. I can’t look away. My eyes are burning, oh the burn, it hurts.

Echinocereus armatus
You know, those crazy Echinocereuses are at it again. They are blooming very early this year. Last week we had that white flower spectacular. Today it’s purple day. Some would say pink, but I’m not quite sure. But I do know it’s 6″ across. Don’t they look like feathers that should be plucked and used on the end of an arrow? We do carry Arrow Bamboo, so you could cut a culm and create your own set of arrows. But then it turns out these are just petals, and not feathers, and so the arrow would not fly true and straight to its target, but would fall flat onto the ground.

Tomorrow, we’ll peek inside this wonderful flower.

Chrysler is paying for cactus on the streets of Detroit. That’s just a mystery to be solved.

Oh. Never mind.

More cactus news from England. This time the North Devon Gazette is giving you advance warning of a show coming up. I wonder if it’s the same show that was mentioned in the previous article. Probably not. I bet North Devon and Newbury are hundreds of miles away from each other. But then, I don’t really know, now do I? Fortunately, I have this tool I like to call the internet. So, here we are, google maps, and it turns out that North Devon is near Plymouth, while Newbury is near Reading, which of course means they are a couple hundred miles apart, and thus are probably not sharing a cactus show.

What was this entry supposed to be about? Oh yeah, the North Devon Garden Show.

There you go.

Newbury (England, UK) Today has the story of a man and his cacti; for today is the day that the local newpaper features the local residents and their local hobbies gone wild. Photos are included, so we residents across the pond can be sure of that we read is true.

The incredible collection of cacti and succulents amassed by Dylan Collins is one the biggest in the south. And part of it is going to be on show from this week as Mr Collins launches his new venture – a plant nursery called Down 2 Earth at Lower Henwick Farm off Turnpike Lane, Newbury….

Mr Collins, aged 39, has… inherited some from the collections of his mother and grandmother.

I see what they mean.

Domino Magazine’s Ivette Soler has learned the harsh lesson of the Agave life cycle.

(M)y prized variegated Agave attenuata – I bought it about eight or nine years ago at a cactus and succulent show…. I had a coronary – it was a $150 succulent in a one gallon pot….

And then came the freeze (last year)… I was so devastated I cut the melted leaves of ooze from the stem and stuck the pot somewhere in the dark recesses of the garden.

I stumbled upon that pot yesterday. Look at it. Pups. Plural. Meaning more than one. And gorgeous.

Now that’s what I call a variegated agave. And a happy ending. Maybe she should be selling some of those pups on ebay, or offer them to me, direct.

Rebutia narvaecense
Small whitish barrels with 1″ flowers in vibrant pink, as if I had to tell you. This is the first bloom this year, but you can see more buds there too. They will bloom into the summer, at which time the Rebutia muscula will then take over with its incredible orange blooms, as if I had to tell you.

The Green Valley News and Sun is happy that it’s finally April, so they can plant the cactus, and watch them bloom. In black and white.

Beaver Tail Prickly Pear bloom in mid-to-late April.

MARY KIDNOCKER PHOTO

Watch what happens in May after they’re done blooming – I’ll bet you they eat them in the Green Valley of Arizona.

Harriet Love – New Pottery

We’re having our first ever art exhibit. April 18 – May 31.
Opening night party is Friday April 18, 4-6pm at the nursery, and we’re very excited, so we hope you can come.

We have the tortoises at the nursery today.

Mica laid 3 eggs this week. Now she’s eating high protein dog food to get her figure back.

Jacob, you dog.

Fremontodendron “San Gabriel”
The Flannel Bush gets a whole heck of a lot of these very graphic thick yellow flowers. And I mean that the color is thick, not the petals, although they are too.

These are a great plant to espalier if you have the right place for it. On the other hand, they are a definite allergen to about 1/2 the population if you rub up against them.

On the 3rd hand, there’s always a little brother who can be tossed into the flannel bush to see what reaction your family might have to it.

Echinopsis chiloensis

Cistus x purpureus

A lovely shrub with large purple flowers, blooms through the summer. Groovy gardens can feature them, while more sedate gardens might want to use them as a supplement only.

As you can tell, I’m working on my garden-writing skills. Here I’ve made up entire new categories of gardens: the “Groovy Garden” and the “Sedate Garden”. Interestingly, this plant will work well in both! It’s a miracle of garden writing style!

Sometimes I crack myself up.

Jacob and Mica are visiting the nursery today, and tomorrow too!

Yesterday we found three eggs in their pen. They’ve been very busy. I forgot to bring a cable to connect the camera to the computer, so you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to see them, unless you come in to visit.

Water When Dry has a recipe for Prickly Pear Vinaigrette.

You’ll need to click through to find the instructions. I wonder if I should try it before I repost it?

Ceanothus griseus “Kurt Zadnik”

We like the Ceanothuses. These California native shrubs range from 6″ tall to over 20 ft. Here we have a cultivar that gets 3ft. tall and can spread over 10 ft. wide if you let it. It was cultivated right here in Berkeley at the UC Botanic Gardens from a specimen found up in Sonoma, so you know it will do well in local gardens.

In El Paso they fret over wintering plants. So they build them a greenhouse or two. And you would do well to follow suit, so you too can have happy and healthy cactus this time of year. And hothouse tomatoes too. From the El Paso Times.

We just got a desert tortoise, sort of a rescue. I hope our red-foots like her.

Succulents and Art come together at a Brewery in Los Angeles, or something. The LA Times confuses me.

Holly Tempo’s small but aesthetically balanced and ordered garden of specimen plants in metallic containers. Her flowering palette begins with yellows and oranges and reds and moves to purple as the seasons change. (Photo: Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

I see aloes. Do you see aloes? And crassulas too.

Echinocereus grandiflora hybrid

Part 4, the final part. Here we have a classic portait of a bloom. Notice the fluffy petals. Language fails.

Just be glad I’m not showing the full size photo.

Well, you can go here to view it, if you dare.

It doesn’t get any worse than this.

ABCNews, via Atrios. Who were they? Rice, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Powell, Tenet and Ashcroft.

The cactus quail return to Colorado, so it must be spring. While not as famous as the swallows who have already returned to Capistrano, it’s all good.

Via the Pueblo Chieftain

Now what I want to know is where to find a good jasmine tea in Wichita.

Lynn’s Garden has an inspirational photo of her winter greenhouse filled with cactus up to the rafters.

Echinocereus grandiflora hybrid

Here we have an artsy shot of this amazing spray of blooms at the top of a spiny cactus. A bit of the green undergirding the giant white blooms. Did I say they were about 8″ across? No? What was I thinking.

Fascicularia bicolor
A terrestrial bromeliad with small vibrant flowers. This specimen was at the UC Berkeley Botanic Garden where the plants are able to get really big – a large mass of them over 10 feet across.

Big News on the Marianas, according to the Marianas Variety:

There are no pictures to prove the truth of the three-flower claim.

Sometimes we reply to people’s questions even though we really don’t have an answer for them. And then I post them so the whole world can see my failures. Like this one:

Q: Good Morning. My name is Jennifer & I live in Wylie, TX a suburb of Dallas. I am interested in installing a cactus garden in my front yard, but I honestly don’t know anything about cacti. I searched online to try to locate a local landscape designer, but haven’t been able to find any that specialize in cacti and succulents. Do you happen to know anyone in the Dallas/ Fort Worth area?

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

Jen

A: Jen,

Sorry but we don’t have any good landscaping contacts in the Dallas area. You might want to try the Texas chapter of the Cactus and Succulent Society.

Peter