Cactus Blog 

Keith thinks the Carex “Milk Chocolate” looks like a bad rug. (more…)

It’s started getting colder. Maybe a bit warmer next week? Anyway its jacket and blanket season for the whippets.

A Cereus bought in a pharmacy 42 years ago is pretty big now. Since this happened in North Carolina, it’s big news and the newspaper is all over it.

Credit: Lauren Carroll/Journal

Forty two years ago, Beth Kerr walked with her mom through the snow to Bobbitt’s College Pharmacy to buy a cactus…. Beth had saved her money until she had 50 cents for the cactus….

The cactus is thriving on the back deck of the Campbell’s home in Pudding Ridge in Mocksville.

I love those place names. Say it out loud with me:

Pudding Ridge in Mocksville.

Nice!

While it’s true that you can tend to dig up cacti and move them, this is not going to go as well as the article suggests.

Prickly Job Ahead At Joshua Tree National Park
Upwards of 800 cholla cactus plants will be dug up to be returned to the area near the Cholla Cactus Garden in Joshua Tree National Park after a road-straightening project is completed.

Kurt Repanshek photo.

This is one thorny job.

So first of all, moving the larger plants will cause a lot of them to lose branches. They do come off rather easily, so a large plant will ennd up being a small plant by the time its put back.

Secondly, this is being done in winter when these chollas will be dormant. There will be a lot of root loss, and a lot of the plants won’t come back after that.

And now we have our newest line of toys we sell at the nursery.

Earth Block eco-friendly legos. Made in Japan, all natural and made out of Green Tea, Sawdust, Bark and Coffee Bean scraps, they not only have natural coloring they also have natural smells. Yes, it’s true, they smell delicious.

I made a Tillandsia Castle. I used the Green Tea blocks.

Rikki made a Tillandsia Robot. She used the Sawdust blocks.

All together now…

Cactus fruit salsa
By Betty Cortina, NBC Latino

It isn’t every day you discover an entirely new ingredient, something you had no idea existed let alone tasted this good. But that’s exactly what happened to us, the NBC Latino crew, while we attended the Culinary Institute of America’s Latin Flavor, American Kitchens conference last week in San Antonio.

It happened when we stepped into the kitchen with Roberto Santibañez, the chef-owner of New York’s Fonda restaurants (in Brooklyn and Manhattan) and author of “Truly Mexican” and the soon-to-be released “Tacos, Tortas and Tamales.” First, he taught us to call the ingredient by its name: xoconostle. (Pronounced: choko-nose-leh.) It is, he went on, the fruit of the cactus plant and similar to a prickly pear, which in recent years has grown in popularity, its sweet flesh often used to flavor margaritas. But the xoconostle is sour and tart instead and typically used to make salsas in Mexico.

Interesting! I wonder what that is. I’ve never heard that name for a cactus fruit. But first the recipe:

Salsa de xoconostle/cactus fruit salsa

1 pound xoconostles (about 9)
2 small dried chipotle chiles, or 5 dried árbol chiles, wiped clean
1 medium garlic clove, peeled
Kosher salt, to taste

Simple! Click through for the instructions.

And now, for your fun and kicks, the xoconostle is the fruit from the Opuntia joconostle. It looks similar to tunas, but it tastes different, and most importantly the seeds are all grouped in the center rather than spread throughout the flesh.

Nice!

Lotus “Amazon Sunset”

Lotus “Gold Flash”

Good afternoon;

I have a couple of questions regarding my golden barrel cacti. I have five outdoor plants in a cactus garden on the northwest side of our home. I’ve noticed that the two smaller barrel cacti (one is about the size of a melon, the other the size of a grapefruit) have developed yellowish ribs and the space between each of the ribs is a light green. Are they not receiving enough sunlight? Should I place the barrels in pots and move them to an area with more direct sun? They get about 5 hours of direct sunlight this time of year.

I also water my barrel cacti about once every 10-14 days – are they receiving too much water? If it’s any help, I live in Newark, CA (about an hour south of Berkeley) and have bought some cacti from Cactus Jungle. I appreciate your feedback. Attached are two photos taken during the summer of the cacti in question.

Thank you,
David

David,

From the pictures, the cacti look fine. In general, 5 hours is enough sun. A little yellowing could be a sign of too much water; reduce the watering to every 3 to 4 weeks except when you are getting over 90F. You can stop watering them now for the winter unless we have a particularly dry winter.

Peter

Lupinus albifrons has beautiful silvery leaves and tall purple bloom spikes.

And it photographs well too.

Lupinus albifrons – Silver Bush Lupine

California Native
Perennial Shrub

Sun: Full Sun
Water: Dry
Size: Bushy, 3 to 5 feet

Blue flower spikes sit on top of silvery shrub. Needs good drainage, full sun, and little water. Butterfly plant, moderately deer-resistant. Useful to fix nitrogen in depleted soils. Hardy to 25.

Eriosyce islayensis is an awesome little cactus. I blogged it in bloom last month, before we had it out on the floor, but while it was blooming. Here’s the official portrait for the website. And they’re now on the floor for sale! Yay!

Ron and Doris are growing a stapeliad outside, and successfully, too! Semi-hardy in the Bay Area, it’s planted under the protection of a larger cactus.

Caralluma piaranthoides

These are some of the prettiest of the carrion flowers, and not too smelly especially when they are successfully blooming outside in the garden. You might find some beetles come find these flowers, but everyone loves them some beetles. And more blooms coming!

And here’s a bonus Echinopsis fruit from their garden. If those seeds drop….

That’ll make a pretty garden.

In which Keith gets a Shoutout!

Hey,

Keith helped us with this succulent project and here are the awesome results. Thanks Keith!

-Amy and Sasha

Nice photos from around the nursery on this is 4 my blog.

Check out the picture of Keith in the pot.

Whippet pictures!

And why didn’t he share the praying mantis video? Why?

Don’t be looking to me for approval.

Succulent Ornaments

They call these living ornaments, even though they are cuttings that cannot survive, and indeed they say they will only last on your tree for a few weeks before dying. So that’s not really a living ornament, more like a zombie ornament.

And they are expensive. It’s a cutting! With a piece of wire.

(And don’t get me started with their wreaths…)

Hello!
I stumbled across your blog and I have a few questions regarding my new copiapoa.
How often should I water it, and how much water should I use when I do? Now that it is winter I thought I would need to water it less. I just got it about a week or two ago and it was flowering–now the flower has closed up. Is this usually the case with this cactus?

I also have a succulent that I have had for about a year, I think I over watered it recently but I thought maybe taking a look you could tell if it is doing okay. I was wondering if I needed to plant it in a bigger pot?

Also, I live in Oklahoma, just so you could get an idea on weather.

Thank you in advance!
Alicia

Alicia,

Cactus flowers only last 2-4 days, so it is not unusual that the cactus has finished blooming so quickly. It is unusual that it was blooming so late in the year. Normally you should see it flower in early summer. I would recommend some low strength fertilizer in spring and a little bit of extra bloom food.

For winter, put it in the sunniest window you have, water every 4-6 weeks, and pretty much leave it alone. In spring you can start watering about every 3 weeks.

When we water we prefer to drench the plant and let the water drain away – a kitchen sink is a good place for that.

The succulent is Crassula ovata, and it is fine. It definitely wants a bigger pot, but I would wait until spring.

Peter

We stopped off and visited Trey at his Golden Gecko Garden Center in Garden Valley.

Trey gave us these lovely and ginormous Armenian Cucumbers he’s growing behind the nursery.

We ate a part of one with dinner, not a whole one since they are gigantic. We got some new seasones sea salt recently, so that was good with the cucumber pieces.

How stupendously big are they? 18-20″ long. That’s big! We did not carry them a the nursery this year. Maybe next year.

Thanks Trey!

You can also visit Trey’s blog The Blogging Nurseryman.

Kung Fu Maintenance gives a brief video tour of a cactus garden with huge cacti.

A little subtle for my taste, especially the closeup of the middle part of an agave bloom stalk. Subtle.

Fenestraria aurantiaca

I think we can get to 2-3″h. clusters but don’t forget to mention the transparent tips! Very low water, especially if they aren’t getting a lot of sun.

I wonder when was the last time I blogged this cute little mesemb? It’s been 2 years! That’s a long time to go without Baby Toes.

That was short. This next one is much, much longer. So long, in fact, that I haven’t watched it all the way through. Who has time for that? If someone does, can you please report back to us how good the ending is? Thanks

Faucaria felina is a pretty little mesemb. Semi-hardy, easy to grow, easy to get to flower.

I like it!

I wonder when the last time I blogged this plant was? A year ago. Tiger Jaws indeed.

Dorena sends along this picture of cactus candles in Alaska.

And this picture of a peach in Idaho.

That is a nice peach.

It’s my brother Dave’s robots in New York.

Photo sent by Steve.

Thanks, Steve!

It’s the cactus and succulents tables at Redwood Barn Nursery in Davis, CA.

Nice!

Hey Guys,

I have another one for your ID help … and it’s blooming for the first time (for me). Is it a Disco? Melo? Echino? species?

Thanks,

CactGuy

A very nice Texas sage has a late little bloomer. Just the one!

Leucophyllum langmaniae ‘Lynn’s Legacy’

It had a full complement of flowers just a month ago.