Cactus Blog Archives

Cactus Blog Writers

Peter Lipson
Hap Hollibaugh

Local Delivery

Succulent Roof


Hi there, just want to share a sight from a walk yesterday. This is one of those free little libraries, but with an awesome roof composed entirely of succulents, on both sides. It’s off Colusa in North Berkeley.

Pretty neat, eh?

Doris

Read More...
Read More...

Cactus Jungle Opening Nursery in Marin


Cactus Jungle comes to San Anselmo
Cactus Jungle, based in Berkeley, is branching out with a store on the former Sunnyside Nursery site in San Anselmo.

By PJ Bremier, Marin Independent Journal

In San Anselmo, it’s a new nursery for the New Year. That’s the good news for Ross Valley gardeners as Cactus Jungle is moving into the vacant former Sunnyside Nursery location in San Anselmo.

Sunnyside, which operated from 1940 to 2015, was a local favorite known for its good selection of plants, helpful staff with deep knowledge of plants and its own Marin growing grounds. Then Armstrong Garden Centers opened there, but closed this summer.

That makes Cactus Jungle, based in Berkeley, only the third nursery there in more than 75 years…

Click through to read the rest. Find out when we’re opening! Find out what we’re planning!

Read More...
Read More...

The Future is Cactus


According to Earther.com:

We’ll All Be Eating Cactus in the Future Thanks to Climate Change
by Katie Valentine

…the prickly pear cactus, a humble plant that, according to a new book co-published by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, can serve as a lifesaving crop for many countries…

“It’s actually a fairly amazing crop that can grow in most dry areas of the world,” Makiko Taguchi, a cactus expert at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, told Earther. “And the dry areas of the world are expanding in some places.”

Oh, and it’s delicious!

Prickly Pear Margarita

Ingredients

coarse salt as needed
2 fluid ounces tequila
2 fluid ounces sweet and sour mix

1 fluid ounce triple sec
1 fluid ounce lime juice
1 fluid ounce prickly pear syrup

Click thru to see the rest of the instructions.

Read More...
Read More...

We Get Sick Cactus Questions


hey there…. i was wonder if you could help me with my cactus…. we had mealie mites and i used a insecticidal soap. then this started to happened and fast. could it be corking? i don’t think its root rot. i dealt with that before. is there something we can do to save it?

Could we cut the bad out of the cactus and callus it and replant? the tops don’t seam to be infected..

thank you for any help you can provide!!!
Gene

 

It looks to me like you have 2 plants with the same problem. After the infestation, which the soap didn’t fix, the plants would have been susceptible to infection.

I would recommend getting the 3 of them out of that soil, and repotting the 1 healthy one on its own. You can take tip cuttings of the other 2 if you can cut above the infection. When you cut, if the flesh is clean and white then you can let it callous over for a week before planting. Since it’s winter I recommend Sulfur Dust on the cut end to help prevent fungus. If the cut end is not clean then keep cutting upward til you get to clean flesh, or if the infection is all the way through the plant then it is not saveable.

Peter

Read More...
Read More...

Cactus Cupcakes 


Are you wondering why no nobody in New York has offered a holiday cupcake party with a cactus and succulent theme? Cupcake Decorating Workshop by The Sill has you covered, if you are available and in New York next Tuesday only. Nice!

I wonder if they teach you how to make delicious cupcakes, or just how to decorate any old cupcake.

You will learn how to decorate cupcakes like a pro. 

OK! No good cupcakes, only decorative frostings. I mean, I assume they don’t prevent you from using delicious cupcakes, but it’s hard to say for sure. 

And what if you’re a beginner…. 

This class will be good for beginners who want to explore their interest, and for semi-professionals who want to develop new skills in buttercream design.

Read More...
Read More...

Tiny Flowers


Those are some very small, tiny, Crassula perforata flowers. So small that in person they just look like dead flowers. But no, up close they are alive. ALIVE!

Read More...
Read More...

Cardon


Pachycereus pringlei

Common Name: Cardón

Origin: Baja California

Description: Tall and spiny to 40ft. with 2ft. trunk, slow growing. Edible fruit, medicinal stems.

Temperature: Hardy to 25F

Read More...
Read More...

Los Altos Euphorbias


We recently delivered a giant 9ft tall Euphorbia “Ammak” down all the way to Los Altos. At least we thought it was giant. It sure looked giant in our store greenhouse!

But as you can see it is the small Euphorbia there! They’ve been growing them for many years and the new one looks tiny! Nice.

Thank you for our new 9ft Euphorbia Ammak. She is settling in nicely next to her larger family members!

Best,
Lorilynn

Read More...
Read More...

Prickly Pear Pests


Hi-

I got this guy from you a couple months ago. I’m worried it has developed a fungus. What do you think those dots are?

Thanks!
Stephanie

Stephanie,

That is Scale, a small hard-shelled insect that sucks the juices out of cactus. We recommend spraying with natural pyrethrins. We sell Don’t Bug Me which will kill them on contact. They have a hard outer shell so you can clean them off with a spray of rubbing alcohol which will break down the shell, and then use a soft brush to wipe them off. Be careful not to scrape the cactus.

Peter

Read More...
Read More...
    
    
  Cactus and Succulents
  Bamboo
  Perennials
  Carnivorous Plants
  Airplants

  Sign up for our Monthly Newsletter

March 2023
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  

US Constitution

Videos



We Get Questions

Email your questions to:

blog [at] cactusjungle [dot] com