Cactus Blog 

Eremophila hygrophana

It’s the Blue Emu Bush. With a name like that I assume it’s from Australia. I wonder if Emus really like to eat it? It’s a generally erect shrub only 2 ft. tall or so. A lot of Eremophilas have been used by the aboriginals in Australia for their medicinal uses. I wonder if this one has medicinal uses? It should be pretty cold hardy. 20F? 25F?

You’d think being a garden blogger of a sort I would have these answers for you, but really all I know about this plant I’ve copied from other websites; it’s new to me. Like this picture of an emu with chicks from a site in Africa selling emu chicks.

Like this quote from Mountain States Nursery:

Just in case you might have been concerned about the potential for invasive behavior, Eremophilas set fertile seed infrequently, and this seed is notoriously difficult to germinate, thus they are unlikely to ever become weeds.

How about you, do you know anything about the Emu Bush you’d like to share with us?

The results of our poll are in, and the verdict is nearly unanimous. 95.5% of you want me to add CactGuy to the blog roll.

And it is done!

Wendy, a Landscape Architect in Pacifica, sends along a whippet picture of Bentley and Aston Martin.

I hope they come by and visit the store soon. Benjamin and Jason await them.

Anigozanthos “Bush Tango” is pretty much the brightest flowered Kangaroo Paw cultivar I have ever seen. I’m blinded! Fortunately it’s not one of the giant Ani’s, but only gets 2 ft, with 3 ft. bloom stalks. Just don’t look at the blooms in full sun or they will blind you. Blind!

Attention Hap and Keith

What is this plant?

Thanks so much Cathy

Catherine,
The main plant in the photo, the green one on the corner, is Agave attenuata, also known as the Foxtail Agave.

In the middle of the photo is Aloe plicatilis

and behind that is a Leucadendron. Also seen here.

I’m not sure what the blue one spilling onto the sidewalk is, maybe a Cotyledon.
Peter

Hey Guys,
Thank you SO much for taking the time to answer my question. I was in the City yesterday & discovered this growing in my old neighborhood…..since my partner & I collect unusual cacti & succulents, I was wondering if you could identify this specimen so I can find one for my Honey for his upcoming birthday.

Thank you,
James

James,

It is a yummy Aloe marlothii! One of the Mountain Aloes of South Africa.

And we have cute babies as well as a few larger in stock. I even have a 15 gallon one at our grow-space that looks like the larger one in your photo…

Take care,

Hap

We have ended our Winter Hours experiment (opening at 10a, closed tuesdays) and are now back to being open 7 days a week. Being alert at 9:00am is going to be tough though, but here we are, the gates are open and where are you?

Ebracteola wilmaniae is my favorite new mesemb. It’s easy to grow, but we think it’s not hardy so we have it indoor. Of course it’s from South Africa where it grows in gravelly soil and limestone. It can get up to 20″ of rain in habitat so it’s probably hardy here, but I’m not going to be the one to try it.

The post title is in fact one of it’s South African common names.

Usually they bloom white, so this pink flowering individual is a rarity.

And here’s what the rest of the plant looks like.

Keith sent along this photo of a bird on Hap’s shoulder. I’m not at the store today so I don’t know what it means. Maybe Keith will explain it in comments.

Quick questions go by quickly, so slow down, read carefully, and don’t skip over any part of this at all or this quick question will go by quickly.

Hello!

Could you help me identify this aeonium?

Thanks!
Allison

Allison,
It looks like it’s A. canariense, but there are a few types that look very similar.
Peter

Do you think you could do better?

It must be Spring! Rain!

Mammillaria compacticaulis

Such a tiny cactus usually will be multi-stemmed, but this small mammillaria is generally solitary. And yet it stays under 6″. While the flower colors are variable, we’ve had crops for 2 years in a row with the same flower color.

While these will bloom through the summer, we find that they throw out a few early flowers, sometimes even more than a few, when we have an early spring. And I do mean early.

Oh, and if you click the picture you’ll see the whole plant. All 2 bloody inches of the thing. Click away!

CactGuy from Dallas has sent along a link to his tumblr blog and asked that I blogroll him. Well, that’s a privilege that many seek, but few receive.

Hahahaha!!!

No really, I recommend you start with CactGuy’s Haworthia post here.

And then before I add this to the blogroll, a poll! Shall I add this to the blogroll? Yes or No? Please visit his blog first and then state your reasons for why this new tumblr blog should be added to my blogroll in the comments.

A touch of the spring flowers on one of the succulent wreaths.

Kalanchoe delagoensis

I’m sorry to be a bother but it seems after I bought an aloe ferox (in a 3 inch pot) from you two weeks ago, I’ve neglected to ask when it should be repotted and into what size of a pot? I can’t find a definitive answer anywhere. Thank you for you attention!

Most of our plants are good in the pot they cam in for about a year. With Aloes when the rosette is covering the top of the pot and making it hard to water it is time to repot. Of course it will grow faster in a larger pot, but it is easy to over water if you go too large, so it is better to keep the scale of the pot to the plant.

Take care,
Hap

And in case you were wondering, we have a beautiful crop of 1ga. Aloe ferox out now.

By the way, did you know that in the nursery trade gallon pots are not abbreviated 1ga. like normal people would do it, but #1, and #5 and so on. But I refuse to give in to the forces of evil and will continue my habit of abbreviating things normally. I’ll give out more secrets of the trade if you ask me.

I blogged this plant last week, but it was a cell phone photo. So here’s a portrait for you.

Oenothera caespitosa

They bloom through the night and are fading by morning. You can see this one was fading when I took the picture, but still pretty spectacular for a primrose. A California Native primrose, no less, ratty thing.

Pardee Street
Aeonium arboreum in a nice metal planter. The vignette blur effect was achieved with my cell phone photo editing software, a free add-on from photoshop so you know it’s good.

Too bad the great early spring is over and some winter weather has come back, though we do need the rain, but fortunately I took this photo last week when the weather we still nice. Nice run-on sentence!

Oh No! Next come the Dinosaurs! We’ve seen this movie before and it doesn’t have a happy ending.

The oldest plant ever to be regenerated has been grown from 32,000-year-old seeds—beating the previous recordholder by some 30,000 years.

A Russian team discovered a seed cache of Silene stenophylla, a flowering plant native to Siberia, that had been buried by an Ice Age squirrel near the banks of the Kolyma River (map). Radiocarbon dating confirmed that the seeds were 32,000 years old.

Pretty.

(ht Rikki)

Also out in force are the California Native Ceanothus which are also out in full bloom.

It looks like there’s been a break in the early spring weather as the temps are dipping down below 40F.

Maybe we’ll get some much needed rain too.

In the meantime, we’ve had such nice weather that the nursery is all ready for spring early. More plants are out than you can imagine. Like these California natives.

The spurges are looking good for our crazy early spring this year.

Our first spring organic veggie starts are out at the nursery. That seems crazy. It’s only February! But there you go.

Lots of fresh green tall bamboos at the nursery on such a hot and sunny early spring day.

The garden’s owner was cropped out of the picture because he/she asked me to.

At Nandi Hills, the large cacti have graffiti written on them…

An official of the horticultural department says that visitors are requested to not harm plants or uproot them, but young people in groups often cause damage to the plants.

When Jason went to visit Jezebel and Poutine (Not pictured).

Here’s a cactus puppet called Kishkashta.

Impressive!

And now here’s another, more recent cactus figure.

Apparently there’s a controversy about these two friendly cactus characters.

Bareroot Sempervivum tectorum greenii.

Nice roots, looks good, pot ’em up! Ship ’em out! Next!