Cactus Blog 

This question is all about the nature of cultivars. At least, that’s what I took the real question to be about.

hi
I just bought an agave parrasana at your nursery today. I am just double checking to make sure it is the true agave parrasana, as sometimes confederate rose agaves are labeled as parrasana, and that is not what I was looking for.

Thank you,
Ellen

Ellen,

I am not familiar with Agave “Confederate Rose” but as far as I understand it is a dwarf cultivar of A. parrasana. We do grow some other dwarf cultivars of A. parrasana as well. The nature of cultivars is that they are the species and not hybrids, however someone has found a smaller individual A. parrasana because individuals naturally vary and decided to grow it on and give it a cultivar name. This does not mean it isn’t true A. parrasana. As for what we carry, we’ve never grown any cultivars called “Confederate Rose”, so I assume the A. parrasana you got from us is the variety of A. parrasana you were looking for.

Peter

It’s a french lithograph of a Selenicereus grandiflorus, also one of the many known as Queen of the Night.

Apparently this picture can be yours for only 35 euros.

Echinopsis huascha from Argentina is a low clumping mounding cactus with lots of bright red flowers. Interestingly, as with so many other plants in the plant world, the colors vary naturally from one individual to another. Possibly because these were from seeds that were collected in different parts of Argentina, and possibly because they’re just naturally variable. In fact if we want we could keep these two separate, pull apart all those stems, and call these by cultivar names. Shall we try E. huascha “Red Devil” and E. huascha “Blood Feud”? Does that capture the fullness of the different red colors? Maybe not.

Cereanee cactus in flower, engraved by Jean Miermont (1915-1973), and issued by Monaco on June 1, 1960

This is kind of a beautiful drawing of a cactus. I really like this.

A mom brought in some girls with party hats and took a few pictures with cactus as the background. Here’s my picture of their pictures in the making.

from Nicholas Buffon # via Kactaceae

Today’s vibrant colored cactus flowers include Echinopsis and Echinocereus.

Eremophila “Summertime Blue”

I don’t know why I’m posting this flower. It’s not very pretty. It’s not a cactus or succulent or a California Native. It is drought tolerant, so I guess that’s why. It’s from Australia, so I guess you can appreciate that too. It will grow to 6ft. tall and the grassy needle-like leaves are evergreen, so you might want to think about THAT.

And if that doesn’t interest you, how about THIS. Yesterday I went to an eye doctor for the first time and got a progressive prescription for the first time so now I will be wearing glasses all the time and not just using drug-store-readers occasionally hanging off the front tip of my nose like a librarian in Wichita, Kansas.

Prickly Pear Gummy Cactus Candy
…Oddly enough, the candy is shaped like a Saguaro cactus, although the juice is harvested from the Prickly Pear variety…

That is odd! Deliciously odd. Actual cactus in a cactus candy.

If I had better command of the full features of the blogging software I’m sure I could have a candy tag to help you find all the other cactus candies on this particular blog, but I don’t so instead here’s a set of links to all the other cactus candy entries on this here cactus candy blog.

Here’s one.

Oh, here’s another. Nice!

This one looks delicious.

I like this.

I’m having fun, are you?

Delicious!

Tasty!

Cactus-ey!

Karen sends along a picture of her blooming Parodia.

Hello Peter – just wanted to share the new blooms on my Parodia rutilans. I bought this specimen from you over a year ago. At the time it had a crown of bumps at the top and around its belly. Nothing ever happened, but the bumps stayed there. This year some of the “belly bumps” fell off but the crown is blooming! So pretty! I especially like the little red flower coming from the center of the yellow. Your bloom food really works cuz I’ve had more blooms this year than ever before.

Thanks, Karen

Nice!

Echinopsis chiloensis, formerly in the Trichocereus genus. This is one of the plants we rescued from a heritage garden in San Jose 5 or 6 years ago. And then the day after I took this picture Chris bought it. It’s still at the nursery for now, so if you want to get a good look at this old plant come by!

Now to be sure I’m not certain of the ID, so I won’t be offended if you disagree. Go ahead and correct me in the comments! Just don’t start in with the personal insults, calling me a dipstick or blockhead and especially don’t call me a noodle. I’m very sensitive that way.

It’s Cactus Monday at a Succulent Life and there’s a cactus ring and a cactus with cat mascot watercolor. You have to look closely to see the tiny saguaros on the ring, but it’s worth it.

It’s a giant rubber stamp Opuntia in bloom, as seen on Etsy, by AlohaCowboy.

HOWDY!

This is a very large wood mounted rubber stamp of a flowering Prickly Pear Cactus. It is #2156 by CO-MOTION STAMPS in Tucson, Arizona. The wood block measures 4 & 1/2″ x 4 & 1/2″ and the design is approximately 3 & 3/4″ x 4″.

Hello there, Cactus Jungle gurus!
I was planning on sending some pics of my blooming plants in hopes you could identify them, but I think one is the same Cereus Monstrose you posted earlier today [Friday]. The first (is) of the blooms of what I think this the Cereus Monstrose, the (other) is the unknown. My plants are not very exotic, but they are quite special to me in their own way. We’re just south of Sonoma and they seem quite happy here, so long as they’re protected from the heaviest frost. I’m hoping I can finally put some name tags on them after you have a look. Thank you very much!

 

-Michelle

Michelle,
The first is definitely a Cereus monstrose in bloom. The 2nd was a bit trickier to find, but it is Harrisia tetracantha, although it used to be called Cereus tephracanthus since it appears to be similar to other Cereuses and is a night-bloomer, but the flower structure is completely different so they moved it to Harrisia for good fun.

Peter
(more…)

Chilopsis linearis is kind of a funny plant when small like these. And yet they have these large papery flowery thingys.

Usually a small tree to 15ft. tall, occasionally they can get 25+ft. They like frost in the winter but not so cold that they would get below 0F.

Rikki took a picture of this large sprawling cholla on the California Coast at Lake San Antonio (Paso Robles).

Shall we figure out what the species is? How about Cylindropuntia prolifera. It is a shrubby California coastal native cholla; 3ft. to 8ft. tall.

Mark’s Protea cynaroides is not yet blooming, but he snapped a picture of one at the SF Botanical Garden and it’s a big bloom indeed.

My friend is visiting from Pittsburg and this is her nephew who goes by the name Griffin “Cactus” Spike. He likes cactus.

Greetings Cactus Jungle,

I will soon be purchasing some of your Ultra Soil Blend for Cactus and
Succulent and was hoping you could tell me what kind of cactus is in
the photos below (I found it languishing outside an antique shop and
brought it home to provide it with a little better care). It’s
currently about 23″ high and sits in a 7″ square pot.

 

In addition, could you answer a couple of other questions regarding
the cactus:

1. Again, what kind of cactus is it?

2. Could you recommend the optimal size pot for its size?

3. How much direct sunlight would you recommend for it during the hot
days of summer here in Richmond, VA?

Many thanks for any advice you could offer. I appreciate it (and wish
your garden center were here in my neck of the woods).

Cheers,

Elizabeth

Elizabeth,
Your cactus is a Cereus Monstrose, a genetic mutation off a more standard Cereus species. For pot size we recommend allowing enough space below the soil line for root mass that will match the amount of plant mass above. A 2ft. cactus would usually want to be in a standard 12″ pot, but it depends on height as well as width.

I can’t give you exact care for your location since I’m not familiar with your climate. But if you are hot you may want to provide it some afternoon shade.
Peter

Benjamin’s sister Amica came and visited us. So many sleeping whippets!

Echinocereus pectinatus var. rubispinus

They all sold out at the store before they bloomed. Fortunately I saved one.

Opuntia tuna-blanca

These really are some pretty flowers for an Opuntia. Usually they’re yellow or pale purple or yellowish-pale-purple.

Plus, after the flowers are gone, you get some delicious fruit. Everything you could ever want in a plant! And so easy to grow!

And did I mention that they make good fences – they really do keep people out of your back yard or off your property entirely. Nobody is getting through those hefty spines.

Fouquieria splendens

Crassula columella

We were missing this plant for the last couple years, but our tray of babies has finally grown all up and now we have them out at the nursery, and given how long it took to grow them we’ve had to raise the price, but that doesn’t seem to stop people from buying them. Maybe I should raise the price more? Nah.

So let me tell you a little about this plant. It’s South African name is Silinderplakkie so you know they really liked this plant when they named it. It’s only semi-hardy here, although we grow them outside. Maybe 30F, but they are from a winter rainfall area so that might be why we can grow them even when it gets down to 29 or 28F. They will grow up all the way to 6″ tall. Big!

Everyone always wants to know what color the flowers are, but many crassulas have small, insignificant flowers. Then what? If you really care about these small pale-yellow flowers, you can see a lovely picture of a Silinderplakkie in bloom on the Oregon Cactus Blog.

And now that you’re back you can see what I was talking about. Special!

I wonder what today’s plant will be? Shall we take a look and see?

Aha! Today it’s a Mesemb. A hardy mesemb known colloquially as the Oscularia deltoides. Does that mean it has striangular leaves? Yes! It does mean that. Sort of.

It grows in the sandstones of South Africa, so you know it’s easy to grow. When the blooms are full and the mat-forming plant is completely covered in purple, then the butterflies go nuts.

Hi there,

I bumped into your blog while trying to research to check if my cactus is becoming healthy: in the center of each cactus stalk (not sure what to call it!), it looks like the center is starting to brown and decay. But I’m not sure exactly if it in fact it is doing it, and I’m getting concerned and wondering if I can catch this potential problem right now. Would you by any chance know what’s going on right now with my cactus? Any information would be helpful!

 

Thanks,
Marc

Marc,
It looks like it could be a burn on the newly growing centers of each stem of the cactus. Was it recently brought out into sun, or turned around so a different side was facing the sun? Maybe it was under an overhang and the sun finally came around to its part of the yard? Also, it might have been from spraying it.

It looks like it has healed over enough that you probably don’t have to worry about it getting an infection. But watch for soft spots.
Peter