Cactus Blog 

Eriosyce islayense won’t be featured at the store until October but here’s a blooming preview.

Eriogonum nudum “Ella Nelson’s Yellow” is the latest of the native yellow buckwheats to hit the streets. And it’s pollinating season for them too.

Native pollinators are so cute!

Eriogonum nudum “Ella Nelson’s Yellow
Naked Buckwheat

California Native
Evergreen Perennial

Sun: Full Sun
Water: Low
Size: 1 to 2ft. tall

Widely distributed from the Coast to the Sierra Nevadas. Small grey-green spoon-shaped leaves with 18″ tall bloom stalks and large yellow bloom sprays. Attractive to bees. Deer resistant. Hardy to 10F.

These are called bushes, and yet they can easily get 20ft. tall.

Fremontodendron “Pacific Sunset”

Fremontodendron “San Gabriel”

Fremontodendron “California Glory”

I don’t know if there’s a whole lot of difference here. Some slight variations in flower color and leaf shape. But these are all in the 10-20ft. tall range. “Pacific Sunset” is maybe the tallest of the 3 and can get over 20ft. on a good day.

Plant them out of the way of pedestrian traffic since they can cause a reaction if you rub them the wrong way.

Crassula falcata and Agave attenuata

Fortunately it’s just the Crassula in bloom. Up the street a number of Agaves are blooming all at once.

This is a pretty sage that has been blooming all summer long and still seems to have a lot more blooms to come.

Quite the lavender, no?

Leucophyllum langmaniae ‘Lynn’s Legacy’
Langman’s Sage
Native to Texas
Evergreen Perennial

Sun: Full Sun
Water: Low
Size: 5 feet

Slow growing with a dense mounded form of green foliage. Blooms often when the months get warm, masses of lavender flowers.

Senna nemophila is in full bloom. The little yellow flowers look a lot like Palo Verde flowers.

Here’s the closeup for those of you who like closeups. I mean even more closeup then just clicking on the image above which will also give you something of a closeup, but just not quite as close. Also, it’s a different photo.

You can click the 2nd photo too, and get even closerup.

And here’s our info on the plant for those of you who like info on plants.

Senna nemophila – Desert Cassia
Native to Australia
Evergreen Shrub

Sun: Full Sun
Water: Low
Size: 6 to 8ft.

Green needle-like leaves. Tiny bright yellow flowers in spring and brown seedpods in summer. Hardy to 10F.

It must be spring in Australia since it blooms in spring and we’re just getting into fall here.

More Fall organic veggie starts are out at the nursery.

Let’s see, we have Kale and Cauliflower of course. Spinach is here! Red Choi, Broccoli, Arugula and more Lettuces too.

No cactus here. This is an egg in a cup.

Agave americana on San Pablo Ave. at night.

And here’s the google maps streetview version during the day.

View Larger Map

Ever wonder what the fruit of the Pedilanthus macrocarpus looks like?

And ever wonder why it’s called a Slipper Plant?

That’s the flower, before they fruit. And now you know.

I see our intrepid Bearded Dragon toy has discovered the Aloe Ferox in the garden.

A third leaf appears on a 4 year old Sansevieria at Plants are the Strangest People.

When will the awesome ever end?

In the meantime, since you haven’t clicked over yet, here’s a picture of some Echeverias. Enjoy!

It’s the SF Orchid Show and Sale!

No, not today. It’s next weekend. This here is a friendly reminder to put it on your calender.

It may not be a fancy poster, but it is a fancy show.

Ears up!

In case you didn’t know, this is not breed standard for whippets.

“Erect ears should be severely penalized.”

Our latest in high tech naturalistic lizard toys for the garden is…

Bearded Dragon in the Garden, among the Thymus praecox (Red Thyme).

How accurate is this physical representation of the classic dragon? Here, look at these to compare.

They do a good job with these reptiles.

Hi,

I’ve been reading your blog for a while, and I really love when you tell which plant is blooming. Suddenly, I have a need for that too! Something popped a flower today, and I don’t know what it is. Can you tell? What are the other plants I have in that planter?

Gene

Gene-

Nice grouping. And you’re in luck! I can name most of those for you. The blooming one is a  Titanopsis hugo-schlecteri. In front is Baby Toes, aka Fenestraria aurantiaca. Further forward and to the left, the dark one is Haworthia truncata. At the very front is Sedum spathulifolium “Cape Blanco”. And the last one, the light colored one on the right, is another Mesemb, but I’m not sure which species. Maybe a Cheiridopsis.

Peter

Does anyone here on the blog want to challenge any of my IDs? I’m open to suggestion.

Carnivorous Plants are just getting a real workout here on the blog recently.

Sarracenia alata is our newest species. It’s also known as Yellow Trumpets or Pale Pitcher Plant, and it hails from the Gulf Coast area. Most commonly from Mississippi.

The UC Berkeley Botanical Garden has a rare, unusual, special blooming plant. Visible for all to see!

In case you don’t want to click through the picture to see the larger original and the full writeup on the plant, I’ll let you know right now it’s a Pseudolithos cubiformis. How many of you already knew that?

Hello Cactus Jungle!
I recently moved my dinteranthus from a bright shade location to a full sun (bright shade for half the day) spot about two days ago. Today I noticed a strange lesion developing on one of the leaves (see photos). Overall the plant feels soft/a little mushy compared to before the move.

Any thoughts on how to approach this?
Thanks,
Tony

Tony,
That’s definitely a sunburn. These are very delicate plants, so the prognosis is not great. The best I can suggest is to get it out of the direct sun, and spray with hydrogen peroxide to help it heal. If it survives the week, you can also spray it with some Neem Oil to help prevent any fungus.
Peter

Monkeyflowers blooming in a variety of colors.

Nice!

September is traditionally the hottest month of our Bay Area year, so please watch and water appropriately. Also, if you’ve come back from your summer vacation and all your non-drought-tolerant plants have failed to thrive without water when you were gone, maybe now would be a good time to think about getting more of your favorite drought-tolerant plants. From us! At the Cactus Jungle!

September Gardening Tasks include:

• Water your Lithops. This is the time of year! Take a risk! Pour water right over their little stone-like heads. Remember, the rest of the year we mist them.
• Fall Veggies: Plant kale, spinach, cabbage, peas, arugula and lettuces of all colors.
• Christmas Cactus: Move them into a shady spot and start with a bloom food to get your Christmas blooms on time.
• Orchids: If you got blooming orchids in spring, now is a good time to start the bloom food to get a 2nd round of flowers this fall.
• Last chance for cuttings and divisions for summer growing succulents like Echeverias and Crassulas.
• September is the last month of the year that it is safe to transplant cactus, or to plant them in the ground. After this month we are close enough to winter and they won’t like it.
• Fruit Trees and berries, including blueberries and strawberries both: Now is the time to fertilize with a broad spectrum fertilizer. Citrus need a citrus food. Blueberries need a food for acid-loving plants. Strawberries want a standard fruit and flower food.
• If you don’t pull your weeds before fall, please make sure you dead-head the seed-heads before they spread their seed into weed season. Less seed now means less weeds later.

Abromeitiella brevifolia is everyone’s favorite groundcover terrestrial bromeliad.

Here we see a large mass. Practically a mounding mass of a groundcover.

Here we see one cute little pointy individual.

Salvia uliginosa

It’s hard to photograph the small blue flowers of this tall sage what with a wind and all. But I tried harder and harder until I succeeded. For you!

So what do we know about this sage? It’s tall – 4 to 6 ft. tall – and it’s hardy – down to -10F hardy (or 20F, depending on who you ask).

Good to know!

Do we know where it comes from? It’s native to southern Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina. So, we do know. At least, Wikipedia knows and I know how to click through to Wikipedia and find out for myself.

Generally speaking as a garden plant it will perform best for you (i.e. the most and bluest flowers)if you cut it back hard, really right down to the ground, in winter.

Success!

Carnivorous plants at the UC Berkeley Botanic Garden.

Sarracenia leucophylla. Nice big-throated pitchers. Interesting red veining amid the white coloration.

Big fat Sarracenia purpurea, very dark in the full sun.

Gymnocalycium vatteri, also known in the parlance of the cactus worker as a “gymno-vatteri”. However, some would say that this is really merely just a subspecies. Gymnocalycium ochoterenae ssp. vatteri is too long a name for my taste. I prefer to shorten it to gymno-vatteri. And what a cactus it is. This is one of my favorites of our latest crops of cacti. Maybe my favorite. It is, after all, a gorgeous plant. Luscious. Inviting. And with naked calyxes too!

We’ll have to see how I feel about it at the end of the holiday weekend. These holiday weekends make me crazy.

Ceropegia woodii variegata

That’s a bloom sticking straight out from the side of the plant into the black backdrop.

Why? What did you think it was?

Let’s talk Family Resemblance. These look like they should be related to the Stapeliads. Are they? Let’s check.

Well, they’re in  Apocynaceae which is, as we all know, is known as the…. Dogbane Family!

And what’s the Sub-Family? Asclepiadoideae! Hmmm. Didn’t that used to be it’s own family? Asclepiadaceae? The Asclepiads? Yes! Yes, it did. And what about the Stapeliads? Have we forgot the Stapeliads? Well now they’ve decided to give the Stapeliads their own Tribe in the Asclepiads Subfamily of the Dogbane Family. And that Tribe is called… Stapeliae. Huh. So they are related, but not quite the same tribe. Good to know.

(also, they’re related to the Hoyas, too.)

Science!