Cactus Blog 

The local Oakland-based author of this children’s book thinks we might do well carrying her book: Dangerously Ever After. I open it to you all – does this look like the kind of book you would buy from a cactus nursery?

Thai Hybrid Adeniums are all the latest rage in Thailand and Japan.

And now they’re celebrating!

Personally I find these fluffy flowers on a desert plant to be unpleasant.

(via PATSP)

Hi there,

My boyfriend bought a really nice plant for me from your store and apparently he mentioned that I have some succulent questions and someone there said I should just email you. So here goes!

I bought these succulent clippings for a wedding in June. After the wedding I put them on a tray with paper towel underneath and just soaked the paper towel occasionally. They seemed to be doing fine but haven’t really grown any serious roots.

I tried to put them in dirt (as you can see) but the don’t seem to be doing as well now (maybe because the dirt absorbs the water before the succulent can get to it?).

Anyway, can you advise me on how to turn a succulent clipping into a free-standing plant? Thank you!

Best, Megan

Megan,

It sounds like you are doing fine with them. It can take a few months, especially in winter, for those succulents to develop good roots. The plants should be fine in the meantime. Water every 2 weeks or less during the winter, more in the summer.

In general the best way to root cuttings is to let the cut end dry and heal over, then put them straight into dry cactus soil (we sell our own cutom blend). Don’t water for a week, and then start watering regularly same as if they had roots.

The plants do look like they might not be getting enough sun. I can’t tell if that was from before the cuttings were taken, or if it’s because they’re on the floor below where the sun gets to. But I would make sure they’re getting 3-4 hours of direct sun every day.

Good luck!

Peter

Fremontodendron “California Glory”

California hybrid
Evergreen shrub

Sun: Full Sun to Partial Shade
Water: Summer-drought
Size: 15ft. to 20ft. max.

Unbelievable spray of yellow flowers in Spring. Rounded shrub with dark green lobed leaves. Saucer-shaped buttercup yellow blooms. Will espalier well. Hardy to 20F.

These do seem to bloom not just in spring, but throughout the year as I’ve blogged these Fremontodendrons in spring and Fall and now winter. I think the spring bloom is more extensive.

Echeveria “Baron Bold” are a highly carunculate hybrid. These are not naturally occuring cultivars, these are hand crafted hybrids. This one is from the prolific Dick Wright who worked in Southern California, in Fallbrook where the weather is really quite perfect for such a thing. If I had a bigger cactus nursery it would have to be down near there.

Echeveria “Christmas” is a E. agavoides hybrid. It actually looks pretty much identical to the Echeveria “Beauty” we’ve been growing. I wonder if our original stock of this plant was mislabeled and we’re selling more Echeveria “Beautys”?

Finally we have Echeveria “Blue Cloud”, our latest blue hybrid small Echeveria that is really what these small succulents are really all about. Some people like them the caruncled leaves but here we have a perfect little specimen. These small blue plants are very popular in Japan and Korea, so here’s the name in Japanese or Korean, I really don’t know. ‘블루 클라우드’ Actually, I do know it’s Korean.

I haven’t posted any pictures of our Succulent Wreaths yet this year. I take new succulent wreath pictures every year and I have been remiss this year. What was I thinking?

This is a less “posed” picture than I usually take, but then the succulent wreaths don’t seem to mind.

In case you were wondering, those are links to our succulent wreath page on our regular website, and to the succulent wreath page on our online shop. I’m not saying you should click those links, just letting you knwo what they are there for.

Hah!

We’ve have been so busy making terrariums for everyone. Remember that Terrarium Wall I posted? There’s more.

That’s a Kalanchoe in there. Is there enough soil for the plant to survive? Yes! There is enough. And a little bit of charcoal at the bottom too. But be careful not to overwater.

Check out our ad in the Sunday SF Chronicle tomorrow with even more terrariums. I suspect it’s in the garden section, but then you never know with the chronicle.

Tillandsias are the easiest way to go for sure, and the airplants are very reliable too.

That’s a nice one. It has a frog! And not just any frog but a red tree frog, Litoria rubella.

In case you haven’t figured it out, we are the one stop shop for all things terrariums.

This California Native Giant Chalk Dudleya is wet, but the rain stopped long enough for me to take the picture.

Dudleya brittonii

Now this is a somewhat confusing picture. You may be wondering what exactly is going on. The whippets are in the office storage area on a cold day and the office is a mess, so somehow the 2 dog beds got moved out of the way and stacked on top of each other, 3 beds high, and Jason on the bottom doesn’t seem to mind Benjamin stacked on top of him.

Many of our Lithops are now in the process of splitting. These “Living Stones” sometimes split from 2 leaves to 2 leaves, and sometimes to 4 leaves. As you can see below, so I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know, having scrolled down to see the pictures already.

You haven’t scrolled down yet? I’ll wait up here while you go ahead and scroll and take a look a the splits.

OK, now to the knowledge base. Lets see here… Oh yeah – I wanted to let you know not to water. When the Lithops are in the process of splitting you need to let them absorb the moisture from the old leaves into the new leaves. If you water then you risk the old leaves staying big and choking off the new leaves. Choking!

Now to the pictures.

This color really blends into our lava color.

Here we see some Lithops leaves BURSTING out.

There are 4 new leaves popping up from this one. However you can see that the smaller pair of new leaves are at risk of being choked off, so I will watch them as they grow and gently pull the old leaves back over time. Gently.

On an Agave medio-picta “Alba”

Gardening Succs took a visit to our own Cactus Jungle and lots of pictures ensued.

Did they enjoy their visit?

Our verdict? This place is worth a trek–and we’ll certainly be back!

If this blog were a tumblr blog then all I would have to do is click the link to repost this item from the tumblr-o-sphere.

But no! I have a proper blog and all so I have to do a proper entry and calculate the settings and find the links and copy and paste and credit and so on, too.

And what is this really about? Christmas Cacti! Singing!

via CactGuy.

Also from CactGuy, this post linked from BatesNursery which was linked from Woseph of a mixed pot that Joseph planted up at the nursery. Things do seem to get around on the tumblr-nets.

Datura discolor

Nice flowers. And it’s in the Solanum Family (Solanaceae) so you know the leaves are poisonous. Why is it called Thorn Apple? Because of this:

Lotus “Amazon Sunset”

Here’s another picture of the lotus in a hanging basket.

Eriophyllum lanatum “Siskiyou”

These keep on blooming throughout the year, so I’ll keep on posting photos of the flowers of this California native perennial.

Here’s when it was in FULL Bloom a few months ago.

Dazzling!

This picture is from the UC Botanical Gardens.

Ladybugs are still swarming in several locations. This abundant swarm was photographed in an Agave by Ben Anderson yesterday. It’s in the Mesoamerican Area.

I don’t understand. How is this happening up the street from us? And why are they swarming the Agaves?

We got in a new set of Dragons for the store – mostly for terrariumsbut also for the garden. I don’t like these as much as some of the other toys we’ve had, but whatever – here you go – some dragons in the garden.

with Plectranthus

Mystery bug on pot with blooming Rebutia fiebrigii. Do you have any idea what it could be?

I don’t know what species this Euphorbia is. It’s a lot like E. myrsinites, and yet not the same.

Mystery!

That’s a lot of Air Roots hanging down there.

Crassula radicans

Well not so much a Tiger Orchid, but a tiger and an orchid.

The orchid is a Moth Orchid, i.e. Phalaenopsis. The tiger is a Bengal Tiger, i.e. Panthera tigris.

If you know how to crochet and just need some patterns for crocheting succulents, then this here is the find of the century.

Planet June is selling succulent patterns. So hurry up, get those patterns, and crochet yourself some christmas gifts ASAP! I wonder if you could use those as a tea cozy?

And don’t forget the crochet dinosaurs.

Cute! I know what I want you to crochet for me for christmas this year…

In San Francisco? Nobody told me! And we’re not hosting it? Unreal.

“Succulent” Terrarium / Utsuwa Floral Design
Utsuwa Floral Design
Friday, November 30, 2012 from 7:30 PM to 8:30 PM (PST)
San Francisco, CA

Now that IS a quality terrarium. It turns out you don’t have to come to us at the Cactus Jungle for a quality terrarium. But tickets are limited.

If the Ellen Show can stoop to showing the public this stupid photo, so can we.

We don’t sell that type of succulent at the Cactus Jungle.

“As seen on TV.”

Apparently today is Amex’s annual Small Business Saturday so you can get $25 back from Amex with qualifying purchases from small businesses.

We qualify as an Amex small business! So shop at the Cactus Jungle today and get $25 from Amex!

On Small Business Saturday, if you use your Amex card, Amex will give you a $25 credit on your statement if you buy an item costing $25 or more from a small business.  To get this credit, you have to pre-register at shopsmall.com.

Excellent…

An ironic use of a cast iron duck; among the hens and chicks at the nursery.

Ferocactus glaucescens