Cactus Blog 

This is one I need to know. I can get a little gel out of the aloe leaf just by cutting the tip off and smearing the cut end all over me. Or at least smearing it on the burn or cut. But then what about the rest of the gel in the leaf – how do you harvest it? Since I plan on making my own moisturizer I need to learn these skills too.

Video after the break since I can’t get the auto-start to turn off. (more…)

Today seems to be all about the How-To’s, so here we have a unique and rather fascinating look into how to knit a cactus tea cozy.

wootwoot teaches us the rare and tender skills.

First you buy the yarn.

Yarn:  Araucania Nature Wool (100% wool, 240.59 yd/100 gr) : 40 and 08, 1 sk each,  Cascade 220 Quattro (100% wool, 220 yd/100g): 9436 1 sk, approx. 20 yds natural colored lace weight wool.

Then you make a copy of the stitch guide to keep alongside you while you’re knitting.

Stitch Guide:
• m1p: make 1 purl:
stitch by picking up the horizontal bar before next stitch and purling into the back of it.

• S1: Slip 1 stitch

• mb: make 2 stitch bobble:
kfb, turn, p2, turn, s1, k1, psso

• dd: double decrease:
Slip 2 stitches as if to k2tog, k1, pass slipped stitches over.

OK, now you’ve lost me. I don’t know what that is all about. I better stop right here. Here’s a picture of the final product.

Very cozy. If you want to know more, then click through the link already, for crying out loud. The rest of us are going to scroll past this post and get to the good stuff. Margaritas.

If you know how. Here’s some instructions, with a really nice illustration. Now you too know how to get to the meaty pulp of a spiny cactus pear.

How to peel a cactus pear.

Step 1: Holding the cactus pear with a fork, cut off each end.

Step 2: Make a long vertical slice down the side of the fruit. Cut deep enough to go through the thick skin but try not to cut into the fruit.

Step 3: Gently pry open the skin and it will peel away quite easily.

Step 4: Remove the fruit from the skin and discard the skin.

That looks really easy. Much easier than the technique I used last time I made prickly pear margaritas. They were delicious.

Apparently they measure out very small amounts of water for each cactus in Australia to save water.

Ross Comben, of Kirisit Nursery, shows that only a drop of water is needed to take care of his succulents. Photo: Peter Holt

We prefer to water less often, but with more water. Drench the cactus and let the water drain away, never sitting in water. We water cactus only every 2 to 4 weeks. That’s what we do. But then, we don’t live in Australia where the water drains from the bowl counterclockwise.

Sometimes when a cactus or agave blooms the local newspaper gets all excited and prints a whole article about it. Yay Cactus! Here we see the Oregonian getting all excited about a blooming Rhipsalis.

Genie Uebelacker of Clackamas wrote weeks ago to tell me her mistletoe cactus (Rhipsalis baccifera) was blooming for the first time in more than 40 years. That’s news…

Genie inherited her mother’s mistletoe cactus, which had never bloomed, in 1991.

“My mother acquired the plant in Seattle and had it for at least 20 years and maybe more,” Genie wrote. “I remember seeing it in a corner of their kitchen and thinking how pretty it was.”

I say it’s a success story when a family can keep a single plant alive for 40 years or more. Good job, Genie.

If you don’t live in or near Dallas you may not know that there is not only a Dallas Magazine, D Magazine, but there are at least three more Dallas magazines to boot: D Home, D CEO and D Weddings. What, no D Fish Markets?

Anyway… back to D Home we find that a writer there has too many succulents. So many, in fact, that she can’t even take a vacation anymore.

In fact if you added up all the money I’ve spent feeding my succulent addiction over the past couple of years, it would be enough to pay for my family of four to go on a pretty spectacular trip… overseas. I do not exaggerate friends. It’s a bad scene.

Interesting. I do feel like her friend after reading the article, and I think if she stops this addiction and gets a vacation together she should invite ALL her new friends along. Her name is Joslyn, so now you too can be her friend.

Here’s a photo she included, and it’s got some nice succulents in it, so we can understand her ongoing lack of vacations.

There was a cactus winner in the competition at Sarabha Nagar gurdwara.

It’s in The Times of India, Ludhiana edition, so we can assume that this competition was in India.

Those who put their plants up for display were very excited too. ”I grow only cactus so I participated in the competition for cacti and succulents in pots. It was great and I won four first prizes in different categories,” said Didar Singh, a senior citizen staying in Haibowal.

I don’t have a picture of the cactus winner, but here’s a picture of the neighborhood, Sarabha Nagar gurdwara, which may be in the Ludhiana district of the State of Punjab. Anyone want to correct my geography?

Regardless of where it was, congratulations to Didar Singh for winning the cactus and succulent portion of the competition.

I looked through a whole series of articles today to bring you one nice picture of a succulent container. Trust me, the others were not good. This, I do for you.

Vintage urns house Kalanchoe felt plants. Succulents are easy to maintain, drought-tolerant, colorful and are structurally interesting. Photo courtesy of Bonnie Manion

The plants in the photo are…

Kalanchoe baharensis “Fang”, Aeonium decorum (maybe one of the cultivars, maybe not) and probably Graptopetalum paraguayense. Do you agree with my ID’s?

Any explanation Keith?

Euphorbia myrsinites

That crop sold out quickly, while in full bloom. You’ll have to wait for our next crop which should be ready, though not in bloom, by May.

A really nice semi-evergreen gopher-proof groundcover spurge, though not called Gopher Spurge which is a different Euphorbia entirely and not one that I particularly like.

Now that’s a hell of a bloom.

Cactus Boots? In Houston?

There are a lot of succulents at the SF Botanic Garden.

UC Davis apparently had an enormous plant sale Sunday. Veltheimias!

So this is Berkeley, so this is one of the toys we’ll be carrying at the nursery. The rest of the toys we carry are tiny things for terrariums, but not this one. This remarkable presidential figure is 4″h. The minimum order is 3, but I may get 6 what with this being Berkeley (did I mention that?) and a presidential election year.

I see this year’s Parodia crassigibba flowers are purple again. Here’s a picture of when the crop was yellow. Interesting how this plant can do that. You might think they’re different species or subspecies or something, but the books all say this plant can vary that much in flower color.

Awesome Craigslist find by reader JBot.

Giant Eye-catching 9 foot Cactus Statue. Very very cool.
Must be Mascot for some Advertizement, not sure.
Metal skeleton with I think fiberglass exterior.
Very Sturdy. Very good shape.
$200

I think it may still be available if you’re interested. Don’t contact me, click through to the Craigslist page and contact the owner of this fine specimen.

Any idea of the cultivar name?

I call these the cabbagy echeverias, but it probably has a cultivar name like E. “Curly Nights” or E. “Eagle River” for some reason.

The moon sure looked bigger this morning behind the Yuccas than this photo shows.

I wonder why we see the moon as bigger in person than it clearly is in reality as depicted in this very photo right here?

Nice urban Yuccas, too.

The easiest way to tell them apart is to cut them open. Or look at the spines. Either way you figure it out, keep protected when pruning.

“I spent Valentines Day crying and in pain from burning eyes so bad I had to call the paramedics. That day I pulled lantana that had interweaved into pencil cactus. I was so careful not to get any cactus sap into my eyes. It was awful pain. The paramedics said just to keep your open eyes under running water. It took about four hours. Now I am afraid of my garden.”

My heart goes out to Kurt, an innocent gardener who tangled with Euphorbia tirucalli, which is not a cactus but an African Euphorbia called pencil tree….

Like all Euphorbias, this one contains caustic white latex sap that would burn the lips of any animal that tried to eat the moist, succulent flesh….

Nick the skin of any Euphorbia and you find big white drops of latex come pouring out. Nick a cactus and the sap is clear or green. Sap color is key to telling a Euphorbia succulent from American cactus….

One experience of mine proved that flecks of latex that landed on the forehead or in your hair can later travel in your sweat to contaminate eyes, nose and mouth. Wipe it away and it’s on your hands too. Another gardener contaminated his eyes in the evening by taking off the shirt that he wore when working with Euphorbia that day.

It doesn’t take long to learn the lessons of the Euphorbia. By the way, E. tirucalli is a beautiful houseplant as well as looking benign while being one of the more caustic of the Euphorbias so it doesn’t mix well with children.

Here’s a photo for your fear and enjoyment.

And here’s one in habitat.

Big! Why, that looks like a tree. Everything grows bigger in Africa. But keep it inside in the Bay Area since it’s not hardy at all. It will turn to slime with one cold night.

The Copenhagen Botanic Garden has a cactus collection.

First, here’s a historic photo of the gardens.

And now what does it look like?

It’s the same!

What about the cactus collection?

Greenhouse 10

Cacti and other succulents from desert and steppe-areas, like cacti from America and spurges (Euphorbia) and “living stones” (species of Aizoaceae) from Africa. Furthermore, a large collection of plants from Madagascar and many special, so-called caudiciform plants, where the stem is short, bulbous or thickened and with a thick cortex layer. In all about 1,000 species.

That’s a lot to fit into one greenhouse, but then there’s even at least 9 more greenhouses to visit. Denmark has been busy collecting plants over the years I guess.

And here’s the obligatory picture of the famous Palm House.

Some photos of the collection can be found here, you know.

A few weeks to prepare for the Colorado Cactus and Succulent Society 2012 Show and Sale.

March 31, 2012 9:00 AM to April 01, 2012 4:30 PM

Neighborhood: Downtown

Event Type: Festivals
Denver Botanic Gardens
909 York Street
Denver, CO 80206

Hopefully it’s warmer at the Denver Botanic Gardens by then because right now it’s only 37F with an overnight low of 28F.

Here’s the Botanic Gardens Kids Garden in warmer times.

Digging!

San Francisco is a nice place to stroll the streets looking for inspiration from succulents. L.A. too, but the new store is in San Francisco so there’s that.

It’s not unusual to find textile designer Andrea Bernstein, founder of Los Angeles company Millworks… strolling her block with a camera and sketch pad ready to capture inspiration for her hand-painted, retro-inspired pillows and bedding.

“I walk around my neighborhood and look at the colors in… succulents, and I just start painting,” says Bernstein.

And what succulent inspired items has she designed?

I don’t know, I don’t see any succulents in those pillows.

Why did I blog this?

It’s true, the first full crop of Organic Veggie Starts are out this morning for spring. It’s been very spring like around here for a month now, and so people ask us, is it time to plant?

Yes! It is time to plant. Get your spade out and start your digging.

Aloe speciosa blooms are amazing. The buds start out red, then turn orange and then greenish white and then finally they open and shoot out in bright red.

If it’s an Opuntiad, i.e. in the Opuntioideae subfamily of Cactaceae, i.e. generally in the genus of Opuntia, Cylindropuntia, or Austrocylindropuntia, plus a few other genuses like Consolea which look like Opuntias, and Quiabentia which are really cool, then you:

1. Wait for it to flower. Take a picture, it will last longer.

2. Check out this website Opuntiads Web.

3.Click one of these links to get to the flower pictures:

LINK: http://opuntiads.com/O/opuntiad-flowers/opuntiadflowers-1

LINK: http://opuntiads.com/O/opuntiad-flowers/flowers-3

LINK: http://opuntiads.com/O/opuntiad-flowers/opuntiad-flowers-4

LINK: http://opuntiads.com/O/opuntiad-flowers/opuntiad-flowers-5

LINK: http://opuntiads.com/O/opuntiad-flowers/opuntiadflowers-2

4. Match up the pictures and grab the ID.

5. Send me the photo and the proposed ID and I will be happy to concur.

From the OC Register, we find out that you can abuse your succulents for months on end. Good to know!

There is more than one way to roll with succulents. You don’t need to plant them in the ground directly. Succulents can tolerate all kinds of situations in gift arrangements and bouquets where they’ll be happy for weeks before the fresh flowers fade or the plant outgrows its gifty environment.

In fact, the fleshier succulents with fat stems can live for months in floral foam. I made succulent centerpieces for a wedding a few years back, and the echeverias not only rooted in the foam, they lived a long time with water and an occasional feed.

Roses with the Echeverias and Kalanchoes? Never mix cut flowers with cut succulents. That’s my cutting rule to live by. Except for Proteas. And then only for Spring weddings. Winter weddings are another story, which I’ll tell you later when everyone else has left the party and it’s just you and me and a bottle of shiraz. Or vodka. Either one will work for my purposes in the winter wedding story.

Hi,

I was browsing your blog when I saw a cool looking succulent in a terrarium featured on the site.

This is the photo of the terrarium I’m referring to.

I was wondering what is the name of the one on the left side that looks pale yellow with purple and red colors.

Thanks,

Jeremy

Jeremy,

If we are looking at the same one, it is Echeveria ‘Metalica’

Let me know if that is the one you mean.

Take care,

Hap

Helena from Australia passes along her cactus story.

A man from South Australia an avid collector of succulents visted South America, he brought a cacti back.

he used to go out and just give it a slight spray of water once a week, then he noticed, really strange! the cacti was shaking! it stopped, but made a point of watching it the next time he sprayed it, the same thing happened! he decided to ring a friend who was also a collector, explained where he had got the plant from, his friend said I’ll ring you back, 1/2 hr later he did, said take your family out of the house , next thing these firefighters in protective suits turned up, next door neighbours had to be evacuated, fire men round the back, then “whoosh” all over! the cacti was full of huge spiders deadly!!! growing inside this cacti, and every time i water it I think:-)

Interesting… That sounds like an urban myth. Nice!