Cactus Blog 

A couple of nifty California Poppies for you to enjoy.

Eschscholzia californica “Sundew” is a mini flower. Very buttercup-yellow.

Eschscholzia californica “Moonglow” is big and has very deep color tone. You can choose to gaze deep into this flower. If you click to enlarge you can gaze even deeper.

Finally we have yet another Iris PCH in bloom at the nursery. They have been doing very well all spring long.

The prettiest Echeveria of all is:

Echeveria lindsyana

Wow! If I didn’t have a nursery, and thus have a whole bunch of these Echeveria lindsyanas already, I would for sure buy that.

Some facts for you: From Mexico, as is typical of these Echeverias in the Crassulaceae Family. Hardy into the lower 20s, but probably not all the way down to 20F. They will form small dense clumps of 6″ rosettes. And they’re pretty. Oh so pretty. They feel pretty and witty and bright! And I pity any Echeverias who isn’t lindsyana tonight!

I see that a major corporation has decided to use a cactus flower.

The flower shown is Echinocereus triglochidiatus which is actually found in the Grand Canyon. Do you think they actually extracted a scent from this particular plant from this particular location? We’ll never know for sure, but at least they got their marketing materials correct.

Elliot has gone rogue. Look at what he’s done.

Succulent Birdhouses

A closeup of one of them

And a closeup of the other of them. By the way this one is on one of our new Rusty Iron Stands, handmade in Napa Valley.

More Here.

Hi! Any idea what my pleiospilos is doing? It was looking happy before the winter, but has slowed transformed into this strange shape. Should I be concerned?

Thanks,
RC

RC,
I think they are looking fine. They are a little oversized, which may indicate too much water. But basically you got new leaf-pairs through the winter as is normal, and in one of the plants the old leaf-pair dried out as is also normal.
Peter

From Whippet History Reference we get a picture of a plate in an 18th century French book of plates of whippets and such.

And yet Whippets were not bred until the mid-19th century in Great Britain. So these are not, cannot be, whippets. They are certainly very whippet-like. It’s titled “Le Whippet”. So now what? Have all my books that tell me that Whippets were bred in the mid-19th century in Great Britain from Greyhounds and Terriers been wrong?

Here, have some pretty Agaves for the weekend.

Agave “Kichiokan Marginata”

Agave “Quadricolor”

Agave parrasana

Agave filifera

That’s a lot of pretty Agaves.

Step one on the long and arduous journey for our favorite Euphorbia obesa. That’s a tray of the little guys.

And now for step two:

Pots!

Only a week ago, and we had three different lovely Iris PCH in bloom. Now we have 3 more!

Beautiful

Spectacular

Amazing

Zinnia acerosa

Native to Arizona, Texas
Evergreen Perennial

Sun: Full Sun
Water: Moderate to Low
Size: 1ft.

Semi-woody perennial with many small white flowers through spring and summer. Makes for good dried flowers. Hardy to below 0F.

My Echevierias are blooming, which is nice, but most of the flowers are covered with aphids. What’s your recommendation on controlling that?

As always, enjoy your blog posts a lot (even the dog ones) 🙂
Reilly

Reilly,
There are 3 answers to the aphids on succulent blooms issue:

1. Cut the blooms off. This is a very reliable solution.

2. Spray – We prefer either Neem Oil or Natural Pyrethrins. You can also clean them off with a paint brush dipped in alcohol.

3. Ant control. It turns out most aphids on succulent blooms, including echeverias, are being farmed there by ants. Check for ants in the area and do what you need to control the ants. We do have a couple organic products for this as well.

Peter

A couple caudiciform succulents in the Dogbane (Apocynaceae) family.

From the East Coast of Africa we have Pachypodium saundersii, also known as the Kudu Lily (I wonder if that’s because there are Kudus nearby? Probably.) Shrubby, 3 to 5 feet tall max., and very spiny. But those pretty pretty flowers….

And here we have a gorgeous Desert Rose, Adenium obesum. Ohhhhh….. sooo pretty…… nearly brings me to tears….

Finally, we have a grafted Thai Hybrid of the Adenium obesums. They really do have a lot of crazy colors in Thailand. I wonder how they get them to do that? Anyway, while interesting, I don’t find these to be as beautiful as the ones above.

There are a lot of very Hybridized Echeverias on the Echeveria market. Some are from the 1950s and some are more recent. But they all are growing right now in our very spring weather. Every single one of them. And they are all showing great color in our very sunny spring. A lot of color!

Here are some that we like. I don’t have most of them named so I’m not including names with these, but some of them we do know the names and others I’m sure you also know the names, so there’s that.

Here we go!

Don’t forget to click your favorites to see a slightly bigger picture.

And we’re off again!

Wow, those are some colorful succulents. I couldn’t possibly have more. But I could! I do! And these are all out at the nursery right now. And even more than I’m showing here! So many that I couldn’t hold them all in this blog post.

On to the rest….

Phew!

The Echinocereus grandifloras are in full bloom this weekend, so you know it’s spring out here at the Cactus Jungle.

We call this one “Amber Peach”

Rikki insists this one is “Tropical Pink”

I named this one “White Lightning”

In case you were wondering, these are all hybrids. They are intergenic hybrids between Echinopsis and Echinocereus. You may see these on various websites and at certain nurseries under various and sundry names. Some call them Trichocereus Hybrids or Lobivia Hybrids or Tricho-Lobivia Hybrids, however current taxonomy puts all Trichocereus and Lobivias into Echinopsis.

You may also see in certain quarters where they insist on particular cultivar names. However we have gotten our original parent plants for these hybrids from the original hybridizer and he does not name them himself. So we are free to call them by our own cultivar names. If you have better names for them than we’ve come up with, we’re happy to take suggestions!

Sure, it’s a ladybug. Even if the spots are faint. But can you name the plant it’s on just from the portion of the leaf you can see?

Bonus Liverwort picture! For a happy weekend! Enjoy!

4th Street, Berkeley
So many Euphorbias, but I would guess this is a E. characias hybrid.

Jeana sends along pictures. We like pictures!

Hi, I was encouraged to send photos of plants I’ve purchased from your fabulous store. Here they are. Tell me what you think!

—
jeana

That’s the well-liked Kalanchoe “Fantastic” in one of our chocolate terra cotta pots. Clearly it has a musical theme.

Ceropegia woodii, String of Hearts, in one of our brand-new Chive wall bricks. We squeezed it in there for her. And the plant she chose hangs down way further than even as shown in this picture.

Euphorbia hermentiana is the classic column Euphorbia, and the southwest style fits nicely.

Today’s Spider of the Day is a Black Widow and was captured by Anne. She’s taking it home for a pet.

Aaaaghhhh!!!!!

Cactus bloom season has begun and first up are a couple of whitish-yellowish flowers.

Parodia crassigibba has highly variable flowers, as you can tell if you click the link. Maybe this is a different Parodia? Maybe it is the same?They do vary from White to Yellow to Pink, so it is quite possible

Parodia sellowii on the other hand is only supposed to get yellow flowers. So I must have it mislabeled. What shall I do to try to correct this horrible mistake? Obviously nothing before I post this. [Editor: It’s Gymnocalycium uruguayense.]

Buzzfeed is an interesting website. And “interesting” too. But they do have a good DIY How-to on making Succulent corsages and such, with step by step photos showing you how to kill your succulents for one beautiful night of boutonniere funtimes.

Here are some pictures I’ve “borrowed” from them, so please click through and give them some click-love.

The succulents needed.

The tools needed.

They think of everything!

Euphorbia characias “Portuguese Velvet”

European hybrid
Evergreen spurge

Sun: Moderate
Water: Drought tolerant
Size: 12″ to 18″ tall w/24″ tall bloom stalks

Thick velvety grey green leaves on full stems. Large bloom sprays of green bracts and mixed brightly-colored blooms. Grow from seed and offsets. Deer-resistant.

Hi Cactus jungle,

A friend sent me a spineless prickly pear pad from Texas. I planted it and place it outside in a sunny southern exposure in Michigan. It sprouted 2 more paddles right away.

I was wondering. Can this plant get scales? I asked because in the process of wiping the dust off the paddles I noticed that the surfaces look like they were covered with scales. I took a damp cloth and removed as much as I could…most of them wiped right off. If it is scale, is simply wiping the plant down the best way to treat it?

Thank you for any and all insight. A neophyte cactus person
Lorraine

The Pacific Coast Hybrid Irises are in bloom.

So many colors!

Iris Pacific Coast Hybrids (PCH)

Hybrid from California natives
Evergreen Perennial

Sun: Shade to Part Shade
Water: Moderate, well-draining
Size: 8″ to 20″
Gorgeous clumps of dark green leaves give way to spectacularly colored blooms from spring through summer. Hardy to 10°.

Apparently straw flowers are an Aztec tradition.

Years ago I traveled to the nursery district at Xochimilco, the ancient Aztec “place of the flowers” outside Mexico City…

At Xochemilco there’s a big tradition of gift plants, and the Mexican way of potting them up demands big color. Many of these are set amidst moss or day-glo gravels…

Well, sure, I can understand that. Brightly colored gravel can enhance the natural coloring of the cactus. Seems reasonable.

Since the cactus did not have blooms due to youth or season, the small growers used small dried flax flowers with their needle-like stems. These would be attached by sticking the stem into the cactus flesh for anchorage. Though they may sell better with color, it’s not a sound practice. These punctures can become an inroad for fungus and bacteria to enter sterile tissues every time they’re watered.

Oh that’s not good.

Aeonium “Whippet” is our own cultivar from Aeonium atropurpureum. It looks a lot like A. “Schwartzkopf” this time if year, but it us lower growing, faster growing (hence the reason for the whippet name) and much branchier too.

Agave “Black Widow” is our newest addition to our Agave family. It comes to us as a cultivar of Agave schidigera. Yay! Generally solitary, these might get close to 24″ across. More likely 18″. They are quite filiferous and strongly variegated.

And I found this strange music video from a company that produces this agave.

Nice!