Cactus Blog 

Nice! And it’s native. What’s its name and care info? I’m too lazy to type it all out so here’s a picture of our label.

That was easier.

It must be spring. It did get to 75 today.

Did you know that chameleons can’t turn blue? I didn’t. Until I saw this photo (Nat Geo). Now I know. And you do too.

Hah ha ha! That’s the way rumors get started! You saw the picture so you believe me, but is it true? Do you know for sure? Can chameleons not turn blue? Or is it just the Florida chameleons that can turn blue?

Now you may also choose to ask what this has to do with cactus and a blog about cactus, and the connection is that when cactus were first being cultivated for the trade in the 1920s in England, the lead nurseryman, Sir Albert Frosher, was also a chameleon fancier, and so ever since cactus and chameleons have been paired. It’s traditional!

Mr. Subjunctive won the contest, naming the blue-stemmed cactus, but we can’t send him any award-winning plants yet since he lives in Iowa where the temperatures are still getting below 20F.

Here, enjoy a picture of warmer California where the Aeoniums live outside all year long and the whippets run free (on leash).

And just to be clear about it, we’re getting up into at least the mid-60s today, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we broke 70, not that I’m showing off or anything. Maybe a little.

8th Street

It’s the latest in succulent breeding technology.

Crassula “Morgan’s Beauty”

You can’t resist it’s charms, and neither can I. I gave up last week – and you? When did you succumb to that bastard of cuteness, that Crassula of comeliness, that pulchritudinous plant?

Not yet? What? WHAT!

Give in to the force, I tell you.

By the way, it’s a C. mesembryanthemoides x C. falcata hybrid and hardy down to about 25F and it has its own flickr page too.

The winner to this weekend’s contest is…

…

Mr. Subjunctive! … “Yay!”

And don’t forget to follow him on his blog PASTP.

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!

Jennifer

Most of our small plants are good in the pot they came 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 can grow faster in a larger pot, but it is too easy to over-water if you go too large and then the soil doesn’t dry out properly, so it is better to keep the pot sized right to the plant.

Take care,

Hap

I think this one was also on 8th Street in Berkeley, or thereabouts. I could do another contest to name it, couldn’t I? But this one isn’t very difficult. Just do a search for variegated leucadendron and this is the first one to pop up.

By the way, I now use duckduckgo as my primary search engine, so I no longer get to joke about the googling. Now I get to joke about the ducklings.

Anyway, Leucadendron ‘Jester’ (Leucadendron salignum x L. laureolum) it is!

We don’t carry the variegated Leucadendrons at the nursery because Hap doesn’t like them, so you’ll have to go walk the streets of Berkeley finding them in people’s yards to get your variegated leucadendron fix.

Hesperaloe parviflora “Brakelights”

They tell me this has redder flowers than the standard H. parviflora whose flowers are more of a salmon pink but that’s in the eye of the beholder. What really matters is that they bloom for most of the year.

It’s a difficult plant to photograph, unless it’s in habitat. It’s a sprawling plant with sprawling bloom stalks. Good luck with that. So I focused on the flowers.

It’s very much a full sun plant and hardy to below 0F. I don’t know how much hardier it is than that because I stop keeping track below 0F.

It’s time to review the contest time from Saturday. We have a winner. But before I announce the winner, who do you think was the winner I’m about to announce?

Let’s Vote!

Now I’m going to wait to tally all these votes. When Will I stop tallying the votes and announce the winner? When? Should we have another poll? No!

8th Street

We’ll leave the contest below open for another day. Throw out any guesses you have – there are no wrong answers, only a lack of answers. Or something. I guess there are wrong answers too. But I prefer to think that we’re all winners here. Even Keith who is dying to make a guess.

Can you name the cactus from the bloom?

How about if I show you the cactus?

The blue stems are the giveaway. So ignore that photo. Pretend you never saw it. Focus on the bloom above.

Is there a prize for getting it right? Yes! And not just the satisfaction of a job well done. There’s also recognition from your peers. And a Lithops, to be shipped anywhere in the US except Alaska or Hawaii. Sorry for the restrictions.

Is there a clue, too? Sure! It’s not hardy in Berkeley.

Ceanothus “Joyce Coulter”

These grow low and wide. How wide? Maybe 8 feet wide. They will mound to about 3 feet high when mature.

You really want to make sure you have sun if you’re planting them on the coast. But the good news is they can handle some coastal clay soil.

In the mountains they can be hardy down to 10°F.

I see the Fouquieria diguetii is leafing out nicely getting ready for Spring.

And those are some nice fresh leaflets there.

These Ocotillo are from Baja California and are named for Diguet, a French pearl explorer in the gulf of California. Or so we find out here. We also learn the proper common name is not Ocotillo, even though it is an Ocotillo, but you’ll have to click the link to learn it for yourself.

It’s our own latest cultivar we’re calling Aeonium “Pedro”.

It’s not yet available for sale, but soon, I assume. Soon!

Still wondering what the aloe in bloom from Tuesday’s post was?

Aloe vaombe

It’s a nice aloe and we would grow it too if we could, but it’s not hardy this far north so we don’t. Also, it’s too big around to make a good houseplant.

I’m back from a short trip to San Diego and all I got you was this picture of a window box with succulents.

Kalanchoe thyrsiflora and Echeveria “Topsy Turvy”.

Bilbergia nutans are in bloom. What do you have to say about that? These are a really good shade tolerant terrestrial, bromeliad so we like them for all their great uses in the garden even if the foliage is not as pretty as the flowers.

Sometimes I even mix them among native fescues. Shameful!

I almost forgot to blog today.

Anyone have any idea what this giant aloe with the huge bloom sprays is?

It’s a short question. Bear with us, because the payoff is worth it.

Hi,
I was wondering if you could help me identify a plant, it is a succulent, I have attached a picture of it – it’s the little plant climbing up out of the globe.
Thank you!
Ilana

And here’s the picture of the plant in question:

Cute! Seems tricky to get the plant to grow through the side holes. Of course, the plant didn’t actually grow through those holes so much as the stems were placed there.

And here’s Hap’s answer to the question in question about the plant in question:

Ilana,

It looks like Crassula ‘Tom Thumb’ or one of the similar dwarf clones from the Crassula perforata group.

Take care,

Hap Hollibaugh

It’s not yet spring and yet the orchids are coming out. There must be a holiday when it’s traditional to give flowers coming up. This week.

Howeara

Oncidium

Colmanara

And of course Phaelanopsis.
Underwater photo filter called Aqua from Aviary.

Exciting!

The Ceanothuses are in bloom.

See here:

And here:

Those were C. “Anchor Bay” and C. Owlswood Blue” but then you already knew that.

If you look past the flowers you’ll notice that the first one is a “holly-leafed” ceanothus which means it’s deer-resistant. (Rabbit resistant too, but then you already knew that.) While the 2nd one has delicious juicy leaves.

One of these is hardy down to 15F. Can you guess which one? OK, that was a trick question. They’re both hardy to 15F!

OK, then, let’s try this one. One of them is from Marin County, just north of us. And the other one is from Pt. Reyes, the coastal national park in Marin County. Hah! C. “Anchor Bay” is known as the Pt. Reyes Ceanothus and thus is from the Pacific side of Marin while the C. “Owlswood Blue” was discovered on the Owlswood Ranch near Larkspur, which is on the Bay side of Marin!

I’ll bet many of you didn’t even know that Marin was essentially a Peninsula between the ocean and the bay, just like San Francisco. SF and the area south to San Jose is also known as the “Peninsula” whereas the Marin area is known as the “North Bay”.

Geography!

In today’s episiode we find Jason wrapped around Hap’s foot.

If my weekly whippet pictures aren’t enough for you, you can always join the Facebook Whippet Group where there are lots more photos all the time. That’s where you can find this picture of Alex’s boy Liam.

Aeonium “Sunburst”

This is a very popular succulent. It grows 2 to 3 ft. tall, and the rosettes will get about 15″ across. As it’s from the Canary Islands, it’s a winter-growing succulent so it grows well in the Bay Area. Hardy down to around 25F, although you will see some leaf damage below 30F. More pink shows up in the leaves in full sun, but the yellow stays year-round. You can see the new branches peeking out from under that giant top rosette. If someone doesn’t buy this plant maybe we’ll have to pull it apart for starts.

I see that this same plant, maybe the exact individual, has been featured on Bamboo and More since Gerhard came by the nursery and took a bunch of pictures. Ever wondered what Cactus Jungle looked like and didn’t think our own pictures were enough to get a full idea? Then check out Gerhard’s post.

A few months ago I wrote the beginnings of a story about cactus in the Old West called Saucy Susie’s Waffle House on the Prairie. Now, finally, we have part 2…

It was a warm afternoon in Utah and the Waffle House on the Old Prairie was hopping when Saucy Susie grabbed a pitcher of Iced Tea and poured ole’ Greg “Handstands” Jaspers a tall glass….

Stay tuned for part 3.

In the meantime, here’s a picture of a Ferocactus surrounded by Agaves.

I don’t know where that picture came from. It was just sitting on my harddrive. Maybe I blogged it before? Who knows! I must be drunk!

8th Street
Echinopsis pachanoi and Aloe arborescens and Pumpkin Head.

I was very disappointed with the photograph last week of a different manzanita I posted. But being lazy, I left it up there anyway. Scroll down if you want  to see, but here’s a much better picture for you.

Arctostaphylos rudis “Vandenberg”

Found at or near the Vandenberg AFB in Southern Cal., these will get up to 6 feet tall, and can spread wide if you don’t prune them. Dense branches, shaggy bark, and thickly foliaged with deep green leaves and these will work even as a hedge if you prune judiciously.

I think they make a centerpiece plant in a large front yard. In a smaller yard you should probably put them up against the house. When you prune them you can keep the red shaggy branches for mounting your Tillandsia collection in your back yard.

Keep the cats away from this plant, just because. No real reason. Just do it.