Cactus Blog 

The flowering cactus are out in full force, full bloom, full glorious sunshine today and all weekend long! Now is definitely the time to get an eyeful.

These are all what we call Echinocereus grandiflora Hybrids, but others call them Tricho-Lobivia Hybrids. I would tell you why the others are wrong, but that would probably bore you to tears, so I will only leave you with this one word of advice: Don’t trust the Botanists.

Subject: Can you identify?

I bought this at your shop years ago, cannot remember name or type of plant. Can you help?

Karen

That is a lovely blooming Billbergia nutans, also known as the Queen’s Tears.

Nice!
Peter

Lots of cactus are blooming today what with the heat and the hot and the sunshine too.

Coryphantha delaetiana is the classic Beehive Cactus from Durango, Mexico. Regular and reliable bloomers. We see new buds coming throughout the spring and summer usually.

Anne sent along this photo of her Sarracenia collection.

One of those has gotten HUGE!

Do you think she’ll be kind enough to add species names in the comments?

It’s been an early spring here in the Bay Area, excepting yesterday and today that is. But what about Europe?

It’s all available at Les Succulents Cactus. I’ve blogged about them before, but now we have a good picture of the store on JOELIX.com – a traveling friend to succulents.

Here’s a small picture I’ve borrowed from JOELIX to entice you to click through to see all the pictures of the Cactus in Paris.

The store as seen in these pictures is reminiscent of the late and lamented Red Desert cactus store in San Francisco up to about 12 years ago. Then they closed. Now you can go to Paris instead.

Grayson St, Berkeley

Jason got himself on This is 4 My Blog‘s Tumblr. I wonder how many tumblr photos of Jason and Benjamin there are out there?

Hello Peter,

You were giving me some advice there at the nursery a few days ago about
possible choices of cacti and succulents for some planting that I’m hoping
to do here at my place in Kensington.

One of my neighbors has a succulent (I think)that I like very much. It’s
shown in this photo.

Can you identify it? Are these things available?

Your advice will be much appreciated!

Yours sincerely,

James

James,

That is an Echeveria “Fireball”, a very nice succulent. And we do not have any growing right now. We may have some by mid summer. We do have a lot of other Echeverias that are that big, even if not that red.

Peter

First up us a lovely little Prickly Pear, Opuntia “Baby Rita”.

That sure is a nice plant. Small pads, brightly colored flowers, low growing, and prolific. I better get started parenting one of these.

We had some of our Special Order Pottery just get here this week – A late edition to our Terra Cotta Pottery Sale! Check it out – we have giant terra cotta strawberry pots. Plus cubes and eggs!

ANNUAL POTTERY SALE
Thru March  30, 2014
30% OFF All Terra Cotta Pottery

Cactus Jungle Nursery and Garden
1509 4th Street, Berkeley, CA 94710
(510) 558-8650

Open 7 Days
9:00a – 5:00p Weekdays
10:00a – 5:00p Weekends

Dear Peter,

You may recall that I came in a few weeks ago with some photos of my Agave celsii, which had sent up 7 flower spikes. I was asking what to do now that the spikes were beginning to rot and you suggested taking the whole plant apart, which I did. I managed to rescue three pups, which are now planted and hopefully at least one of them will begin to replace the plant that is no more.

At the time, you asked me to send you some photos, for your blog. I am sorry to have taken so long to get around to this, but here they are.

A few months later, an A. paryii also bloomed – in some ways even more spectacular.

Thanks again for all your help.

Gail
Berkeley

And a lot of pictures were sent. Click through to see all of them. (more…)

Pardee St, Berkeley
Aeonium “Schwartzkopf”

This one has enough rosettes that it will pull through the bloom period just fine, but many would not make it alive after the flowering.

Wayfair sells miscellaneous home goods type crap and such, and for some reason they wanted to let me know they also have butterfly maps for the US. So here, have a link to their Butterfly Maps for the US.

With Butterfly Pictures too:

It’s an odd thing for that website and I wouldn’t have blogged it but for the pretty pictures. That’s what it takes for me to blog something! Send me a link to pretty pictures!!!!!!!

It’s a tiny little bud on the side of a Pachycereus marginatus! This one is only 4ft tall, we’ve never had one this size bloom!

Now it’s a race to see if it flowers before it sells so I can get a picture.

I don’t use this blog to advertise the business very often, but when I do it’s usually to promote our annual pottery sale. You know you can get 30% off all terra cotta pottery right?

Have some pictures of pots!

Cercis occidentalis
Western Redbud

Southwestern US/California Native
Evergreen tree

Sun: Full to Partial
Water: Winter rain, summer drought
Size: 20ft.

Careful not to disturb roots when transplanting. Magenta flowers in Spring. From rocky soils at foothills. Bright green kidney-shaped leaves.

That’s a great idea! We should invent a wifi enabled smartphone plant minder. The devices should cost only $5 per plant, with a base unit that costs about $25. You could connect all your plants to your smartphone for under $100, unless you’re like me and have a lot more plants than that.

You could check the soil moisture and temperature of each plant. You could check the amount of ongoing photosynthesis happening on sunny and cloudy days. You could make sure your roommate isn’t overwatering.

Nice!

Too bad it doesn’t exist. But this does:

My Sick Euphorbia Lactea

My cactus is sick. A few weeks ago it was fine and beautiful, maybe a few tiny (pin prick or freckle sized) raspberry red dots on it, then – BAM – I looked at it yesterday and could barely believe it was the same plant. I don’t know what to do to treat this plant and protect my other plants.

It has strange rings (brown filled with raspberry/pink edges) and brown spreading patches. I’ve already looked online a little and couldn’t find anything like it.

Is it terminal and I should start chopping off branches to try to grow a new plant before the disease spreads to the entire plant? Do I isolate and treat all the plants in the one pot or is this a Euphorbia-only fungus? Isolate all the plants within a ten foot radius?

Also, will I get a response via email or will I have to check the blog? Both?

Katie

Katie,

It looks like a virus from the ring pattern. I don’t know what caused it but it could have been from a sunburn – if the plant was put out into direct sun after having been inside or protected, or if it got turned around. If the infection is on one side of the plant only then that indicates it was caused by a sunburn.

You can try to treat it – I can recommend Oxidate by Biosafe, which is a ready to use disease control, or Neem Oil, both of which we carry. But the prognosis is only 50/50. If the plant survives it will have scarring.

Go ahead and isolate the plant in the meantime.

You can also check out the blog now – the answer is there too. Share with friends!

Peter

Dudleya brittonii, the Giant Chalk Dudleya from Baja California. Now don’t argue with me here – I have an answer for any objections you might have to my answer below.

Q: How do you differentiate between a dudleya and a echeveria?

–Mary
(via Instagram)

Mary-

They are very closely related! But Dudleyas are California native and summer dormant, while Echeverias are Mexican and winter dormant. Also Echeveria flowers are more brightly colored.

Peter

Rikki and Jordan went hiking yesterday and found some very photogenic succulents.

Dudleya farinosa is the most common of the local native Sea Lettuces. Still, the plants are small and often found in rocky crevices, so look for them!

Thanks Rikki!

Our newest green Aeonium is “Jolly Green”. Well that’s a festive name. I wonder who decided this particular succulent was festive enough for that name?

It is low growing, staying under a foot tall, and will spread about 4 feet wide. Red edged in sun, more green in shade. Hardy to 25F or so. Maybe below 30F you should throw a frost blanket on it.

Apparently this hybrid has uncertain garden parentage, so we’re not going to make a claim on the species or species.