Cactus Blog 

Aloe “Brown-Powys 21” is the well-named spotted stemless Aloe that looks like it could be a Aloe saponaria hybrid. But not likely.

According to the San Marcos Growers website,

There is some suggestion that this plant is the same as Aloe congdonii that was described in 1994 by Susan Carter or perhaps a form of Aloe kilifiensis or Aloe lateritia. Brian Kemble at the Ruth Bancroft Garden, from where we got this plant, tells us that he discussed these possibilities with John Lavranos, co-author of “Aloes:The Definitive Guide”, and Mr Lavronos suspects this plant to be a hybrid.

Cute and compact bloom spikes.

Apparently they like to plant Euphorbias in Sacramento in February. The Sacramento Bee has a year-long planting guide and right at the top for February is Euphorbia. Any particular type of Euphorbia? Well, read on…

February
Spurge ( Euphorbia sp.): Neither deer nor drought will touch euphorbia, guaranteed.

However, this Mediterranean native comes with a warning: If you break a leaf or cut the stems, you’ll see a white sap ooze from the cut. Avoid getting it on your skin… Don’t touch your eyes with sap on your fingers, either….

Spurge is part of the genus Euphorbia. It is a large genus with about 2,000 species, including succulent, cactus-like types as well as upright and prostrate perennials and shrubs….

It turns out February isn’t just the month for planting Euphorbias in Sacramento, but Berkeley could use a few more Spurge plantings in February too.

Agave “Black Widow” is an A. schidigera hybrid, or maybe it’s a selection. Not only are the green leaves striped, but the marginal threads are silver. Now that’s a nice feature. It’s a moderate sized agave, getting 2 feet across. It’s also a fairly hardy agave withstanding temperatures into the low 20s. So you might be able to grow it where you are. Unless you live in Minnesota and then don’t try this at home.

Our plants are finally get big enough, mature enough, to really show off those silver threads and the symmetrical leaf growth and the variegated leaves. Sweet mercy those are pretty plants.

A close up photo of the kingcup cactus. A Douglas County Girl Scout troop is seeking official state status for the cactus, which is common in many Colorado counties. (Charlie McDonald, U.S. Forest Service)

I wonder what it means to have official state status for a cactus in Colorado? I would support the troop’s efforts regardless, because who doesn’t want more state-statused-officially-cactus plants? And it’s a pretty cactus plant too so that helps. Always with the pretty plants and the official statuses. Nobody ever approves the ugly plants for state statuses. Or even for county statuses. Why is that?

Begonia Richmondensis can be grown in shade or sun, though not too much sun. Coastal sunshine is very good, Valley sunshine is not so good.

Succulent stems, rhizomatously spready, glossy green leaves, salmon flowers, hardy to 25F. You like it! It will even grow well indoors. Now you really like it!

Orange County has a lot of prickly pear cactus growing, so the local newspaper, the OC Register, recommends you eat your share of the delicious green vegetable. Not only do they say it’s delicious, but it’s rich in anti-oxidants too. So it must be good!

Strips of grilled cactus leaves taste delicious combined with pepper jack cheese on an open-faced sandwich.
ANGIE CAO

You won’t be able to read the whole article unless you are a OC Register subscriber, which I am not. So I haven’t been able to verify that there recipes are worth the effort. But the picture looks good.

A strange side-view of the Spiral Aloe – Aloe polyphylla.

Sharp edges! Brightly colored photo filters!

Normally the Spiral Aloe plant looks more like this.

And yet… I think I quite appreciate how this looks in this photo. I may use this image as the cover of the website. Or maybe the cover of my book if I ever get my book written.

Bubble Bursting on a Cactus by nllinux already has over 1/2 million views. How many views of this video have you added to that total?

Apparently a local Landscape firm in Austin, TX has now opened a Succulent Store.

If an alien race were to land in Austin for the purpose of surveying our dynamic with our natural world, they might surmise that Austinites in particular have a symbiotic relationship with succulents, as it appears nearly no stylish home or business can be caught without a sweet succulent adorning a corner, tabletop, window sill or bedside table….

Austin residents have a recent reason to rejoice (whether you love succulents or not): Austin landscape design + build firm Big Red Sun has reopened their nursery… at 1311 E. Cesar Chavez St. at Navasota.

Nice frontage. I’ll check them out next time I’m in Austin. It’s been a few years.

Achillea “Moonshine”
Golden Yarrow
Cultivated variety, including a California Native species
Herbaceous Perennial

Sun: Full Sun
Water: Low to Moderate
Size: Fern-like foliage to 36″

A rich yellow bloom Spring/Summer that fades as it ages. Remove spent flowers for a late summer rebloom.

Keith climbs in to the dog beds.

From our reader Genn comes this photo if Tillandsia, glass and candles. Nice!.

Actually Genn isn’t a Cactus Blog reader, she’s my mother-in-law! Nice!

And the mystery has been solved! But first, the mystery from the Summerville Journal-Seer…

This week’s mystery plant is also a member of the stonecrop family. It belongs to a group, or genus, that is found naturally in warm parts of the world, especially South Africa and southern Asia. Our mystery plant is a native of Madagascar. It produces fabulous tubular, pink (or red) flowers, which dangle on the tall stem. It is extremely easy to grow (as long as it is not overwatered) outside during the summer, but must be brought indoors before frost, or be given a lot of protection, as it is quite cold-sensitive.

It’s a pretty accurate description. Click through for the picture, and scroll down to the bottom of the article for the answer. I wonder where Summerville is? Do you think it’s a suburb of Chicago? They have a lovely Azalea Park. No, it turns out it’s not a suburb of Chicago.

Whippet and Aloe

Benjamin with an Aloe plicatilis

From the local newspaper in Lincoln Nebraska, the Lincoln Star-Journal, comes a story of a small flowering cactus.

Desert Cacti come in all sizes, from ones that barely show in the soil like the LIVING ROCKS (Lithops). They consist of two flat leaves, fused together, with only a slit between them. At maturity, Daisy-like yellow flowers appear from the slit, usually larger than the leaves. When the flowers dry, the “stones” shrivel and a new set appears from the slit. It takes patience to wait for this and you can kill them with too much water.

Now I’m not going to go ahead and correct this little article, but be forewarned that local newspapers often make large botanical errors.

Yesterday featured the Crestview Times-Gruff newspaper and their local story of a woman and her ancient christmas cactus. Today we feature not just a local newspaper story, but a video. Yes, a video.

Enjoy!

This video comes courtesy of the Wisconsin Rapids Tribune, and this time I am not making up the name. That name is for real. I love small town papers!

Jean Zieher of Wisconsin Rapids… has a Christmas cactus she’s had for more than 40 years….

“Old Man Cactus” is a large plant, with red-toned blossoms tugging at its leaves. Blossoming plants might not seem unusual. But this one? It’s likely more than 70 years old….

While it might not be a family tree, the plant has a history. Jean’s grandmother, Katherine Schenk, originally had the plant.

And the article came with a pun! A pun! (See italics above.)

Dear Peter,
Hello. My name is Brian, and we met today as I bought an aloe plant at the register. While I was there, I asked you about my sansevieria plant’s health.

Attached is a picture of my plant currently. I water this plant every four weeks/month. When I feel the new leaves, they feel kind of soft and not very turgid. So, I would like some advice about what to do to make my sansevieria better. Thanks, and I hope to hear from you soon.
Sincerely,
Brian

Brian,

Your Sansevieria looks OK. Overall it probably wants more sun, or some sun, but they are very resilient for a few years with very low light levels. If you were to give it more sun then you might want to water a bit more often.

I think the plant will just look like this in these conditions, and that’s OK.

Peter

I love small town newspapers.

Crestview woman’s Christmas cactus covered in 200-plus blooms

You’ll need to click through to the Crestview Times-Picayune, or maybe it was the Crestview Daily-Reader or wait, no that wasn’t right, it was the Crestview World-Globe? Crestview News-Bulletin? Crestview Advertiser? Anyway, just click through for the picture of the old lady who has kept her mother’s heirloom christmas cactus alive for over 100 years. And the picture includes an inset of a Venus Fly Trap for some reason. I can’t find any reference in the article to the carnivorous plant in the Crestview woman’s collection, so I don’t know why the picture is there. Go ahead and take a look! You’ll see! It’s “Interesting”!

There is no such thing as too many succulents, so if you’re a fan of the prickly plant and the cool planters that come with them, Niche Garden Supply on Tremont Street has just the workshop for you. On Wednesday evening, bring your own container/planter/whatever to design a centerpiece (a perfect gift) at 7pm. The course fee is $20 plus materials.

I wonder which Wednesday they are referring to? Is the event already past? I should probably check this out for you before I post an event for you to go to in this freezing weather and all. Imagine going out in sub-zero temperatures only to find out the Succulent Workshop was last week! That would be horrible!

Actually, it’s not clear to me from their website when the workshop was, or is. I don’t know. And since I am not a reporter I wouldn’t think of calling them to check this story out in advance. Ridiculous!

The Desert Sun has a suggestion of what to do with all your spare cactus. Make a fence! They have good ideas for using some of the taller prickly pear species, or if you prefer the more modern look they recommend a few different column cactus that will work for fences. Like the Fencepost Cactus, of course.

One first-hand account from mission days explained the cactus fence solved the problem of little suitable timber in coastal Southern California. The cactus fence was devised as a substitute. They were started by cutting paddles from well established cactus that reach the height desired. They’re inserted into the ground in a tightly spaced row where they root and grow quickly if watered. Prickly pear fences were not only perfect for containing livestock; they effectively protected the homestead from hostiles. No living thing on this Earth will penetrate a dense prickly pear hedge.

The cleanest living fences are made of fence post cactus, Pachycereus marginatus. These minimally spined upright cactus stems are ramrod straight, making the most amazing green walls. The best example I’ve ever seen was at the ethnobotanical garden in Oaxaca, Mexico where the fences are crisp and straight.

We use a giant cholla for fencing, both at the nursery and at home. Austrocylindropuntia subulata makes for a very good fence. Very spiny. Fast growing. Dangerous to try to breach. And pretty magenta flowers too. What more could you want?

Danger Garden has lots of pictures of The Vercler Castle in winter. Cold, and scenic.

Of course, it’s more a ramshackle brick house than a castle, but that’s part of its charm!

In Arizona they are saving the Saguaros one RFID tag at a time.

(S)eeing saguaros disappear from federal lands, Saguaro National Park came up with a modern solution: radio frequency chips.

With the territory so vast and little chance of catching thieves in the act, land managers insert tiny chips into cactus bodies so they can track them down if stolen.

“We’ve literally chipped hundreds of saguaros we think are in at-risk areas — the size and location that could put them at a high risk of being poached,” said Paul Austin, chief ranger at Saguaro National Park, who said cactus poaching has declined since chipping began about five years ago.

Saguaros are Carnegiea gigantea of course. Named for the Robber Baron Carnegie, they are the only plant in the genus and no one has the courage to move it to another genus of plants to which they are closely related. Of course, most botanists would refer to Andrew Carnegie as a Philanthropist, which might be why they’ve kept the name.

Unnamed, but not unappreciated.

Colorful! By the way, unnamed in this post only.

The Aloe plicatilis in my yard is as big as some of the specimens at the UC Botanic Gardens!

So many winter-blooming aloes…

Ribes “Dancing Tassels”
Chaparral Currant
California Native
Deciduous shrub

Sun: Full Sun to Part Shade
Water: Occasional
Size: 6 ft.

Winter blooming hummingbird plant. Spectacular pendant rose flower clusters. Woody branches have peeling red bark as they age. Hardy to 25F.

We now have googly eyes. We’re so excited.