Cactus Blog 

Burning Man may well be the home of the Flaming Cactus.

According to the Phoenix New Times, Will Brown brought one this year. Here’s the pre-sketch.

And then there were others in the past too.

Here’s one from 2009.

And 2007.

Gotta love the burning of the metallic cacti in the deserts surrounded by vast thousands of people.

Green Valley Gardeners post pictures and cactus reviews in the local paper.

Here’s the barrel cactus article.

New flowers may have to fight their way through masses of spines.

Barrel cacti are currently alive with color. Riding along the highways and glancing across the desert, you get an idea how many of these cacti are growing throughout the area.

Pretty pictures, those Green Valley Barrel Cacti that make it into the local newspaper.

From Priscilla, photos of their yucca in full bloom in Crockett.

And a closeup is in order too.

Creamy bell shaped flowers. Nice photos! Thanks, Priscilla.

Agave titanota is a very toothy agave. Brown spined. From Oaxaca, Mexico. Generally solitary, but we’ll get a few pups off the big ones. They get about 24-30″ across.

Probably Stapelia grandiflora. I could get out a book and check, but I have a blog with readers who will tell me when I’m wrong.

We’re repotting a customer’s plant. And treating it too, in case you were distracted by the giant carrion flower and missed the scale on the plant behind.

Whippet wants to play.

Kale sends along a photo of a Euphorbia ingens that has grown very big in their yard. I estimate 20 feet tall. These are only semi-hardy in our area outdoor when they’re young. We must have had some warm winters back when this guy was young.

Check out this picture of an even bigger specimen in Kenya. Will it really get that big if left alone in Berkeley? Probably.

We’re growing a lot of Euphorbia lactea Crests for winter. They are growing really fast right now with the warm weather and the lights.

Peter–
I notice you have something labeled “Gasworthia”.  Have Haworthia and Gasteria been combined?

Just curious,
Bill

Bill
They haven’t been combined so much as hybridized. The Gasworthia, also known as a Gasterhaworthia is a Gasteria/Haworthia Hybrid.
Peter

Gasworthia “Banded Pearls”

How unusual!

Echeveria pulv-Oliver in full bloom is very pretty. These small pots also get quite a few flowers, but you haven’t lived until you’ve seen a full size shrub of these simply coated in the bright orange flowers all at once.

Jovibarba heuffelii

The genus Jovibarba translates to the Beard of Jupiter for some stupid reason. Stupid Latin.

Anyway, these are a fantastic species of Hens and Chicks very closely related to the Sempervivums in the Crassulaceae family, found exclusively in the mountains of Southeastern Europe. And in gardens all around the world too. I like these flowers a lot more than most Sempervivum flowers, which are generally icky.

Stupid and icky all in one little blog post! I must be 12 years old!

The Mail Tribune in Southern Oregon writes a nice article about succulents to plant around the house. Not to get all pedantic on you, but see if you can figure out what’s wrong with this.

A strawberry hedgehog is one of the plants in the succulents and cactus garden at the Southern Oregon Research and Extension Center in Central Point. Succulents can make good fire breaks around your home. Mail Tribune Photo / Jamie Lusch

Here’s a more standard photo of a Strawberry Hedgehog.

Echinocereus engelmannii from Bird and Hike, taken in habitat around the Las Vegas area. Now the Agave above is a very pretty plant, but these Strawberry Hedgehogs are also pretty much a completely stunning visual experience.

The article from Oregon does have one last thing to say that is unquestionably the wisest thing this writer has ever seen in a mainstream newspaper.

One word of caution, however: raising succulents is addictive. There are so many unique varieties that next thing you know, you’ll be a collector.

Anyone know what could be doing this?

Dear Cactus Blog,
This is one of our large Euphorbias although 3 of them are showing similar damage. My thought was that this might be rodent or other animal damage, but I’m not sure. I have spent some time observing both day and night and haven’t seen evidence of anything attacking. Do you have any suggestions?

Thank You Very Much for your help,
Bill

Bill,
It sure looks like something is chewing on your Euphorbia, however since they are nasty and poisonous, god only knows what. I suppose deer or rats if they were really really hungry. We sell a product called Deer Off, but then we also recommend Euphorbias as deer-resistent.
Peter

I have six pictures of the curly parsley without the fast moving butterfly.

Stupid butterfly.

WORKSHOP
The Master Gardeners will hold a free workshop on dividing and propagating succulents from 9 to 11a.m. Sept. 7 in the Maloney Garden Community Center.

Wednesday morning workshops in the heart of the Sonoma Valley wine country? You should be so lucky.

A dozen koi bask in a pond, surrounded by succulents…

Koi fish line up to be fed by Gwyn Reese in her backyard. Greg Reese is a truck driver with a newly discovered green thumb. He and his wife, Gwyn, converted their former lawn into a “Mediterranean mounds.” jam-packed with color. This makeover, which they did all by themselves, has transformed their formerly ordinary yard into a water-wise oasis.

Wow, that’s nice. Click through for a lot more photos of the transformation.

The Ruth Bancroft Garden‘s curator of succulents shares his secrets for succulent survival in the San Ramon Valley part of the Bay Area. (Hint: it gets colder there than here.)

Growing succulents in the Bay Area is not the impossible task that it might seem, says Brian Kemble, curator of the Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek….

The garden now closes for one month each autumn while workers cover the particularly frost- and rain-sensitive plants as protection against a cold snap.

“It’s worth it,” Kemble says, “to grow all of these wonderful plants.”

And if a bad frost comes, as it did in 1972 and 1990, you accept your losses and move on….

Protecting your plants from frost damage is very important. The Ruth Bancroft Garden puts many specimens under plastic-covered wooden frames from November through March. The clear plastic lets light in and helps trap warm air inside. The bottom of the cover is raised above ground to allow for air circulation. Because the garden has so many plants, the covers are routinely placed, but in a home garden, covers can be added only in a threat of frost or extremely cold temperatures.

By the way, Friday they’re having,

Bluegrass, Brats and Beer in the Garden! Friday September 9, 5:30 till 8 p.m.

Dear Cactus blog

I want to begin with thanking you for a very funny and informative blog. I live in Iceland and bought these two plants about a week ago. I started with repotting them in the same pot (which was dark blue) and sat on the windowsill in a west window which gets a lot of sun. I had two other succulents in the pot previously and they loved it. There are no good plant stores in Iceland and the plants were labeled as succulent mix and crassulata mix (and I don´t remember which was which). When I went to water them the smaller dark green plant with the cup in the leaves had two rotting leaves and just generally looked very unhappy. I have now repotted them again in seperate pots and was thinking of putting the little dark green plant in more shade. I have not seen cactussoil for sale in any of the few plant stores we have in Iceland so I have them soil mixed quite heavily with perlite which seems to work very well for all my other plants. Could you give me any advice on the care of these two plants and possibly what family or species they are?

Thank you for your help,
Albína

Albína,
The small green plant is Crassula ovata “Gollum”. The larger plant is Crassula falcata. Both of them can handle lots of sun, so that’s probably not a problem. It looks like “Gollum” may be getting too much water. They want a fast draining soil, so having added perlite is a good idea, although we prefer pumice. You want to make sure they’re not sitting in water, so having one pot inside the other, make sure there’s no water sitting at the bottom after watering.

Peter

Hap and Peter,

Attached are pics of the vandalized Stenocereus thurberi. Feel free to blog about it or not. I’ve subseqently trimmed the top at a 45 degree angle and applied hydrogen peroxide. After it heals I’ll try applying some kelp extract to the tubercles to see if I can induce branching. I’ve read also that 0.1% benzylaminopurine works …

Chris

Late flowering Echinocereus grandiflora with bees. Hap took the picture a couple days ago, just before the plant sold.

I purchase this plant from you about 6 weeks ago. Soon after planting it started to not look well… The bottom leaves almost immediately started to yellow/brown and shrivel up. Now the tips of almost all the leaves are turning black. Is it too much water? It is in full sun almost all day and I have been watering every week or two.

Thanks,
Caroline

Caroline,
Your Graptopetalum has sun burn. We had it here out in full sun, but there have been foggy mornings so it may be that you just have a lot more sun where you are than us. However the good news is that there are new leaves growing out of the center of the plant that are nice and clean and used to the amount of sun you have, so the plant will be fine. You can remove the old leaves if you like, or leave them in place until they start to shrivel off.
Peter

Hap finally got the giant San Pedro’s dug up and potted.

10ft.? Sure! Echinopsis pachanoi? You bet!

Hello,

Cactus Jungle is quite a finding! I got many ideas from your displays. Anyway, The picture of this Haworthia shows how big compared to my hand.

The haworthias in the other arrangement are tiny next to the unidentified one.

Also, I wanted to share the other arrangement I made after a visit to a store in LA “the juicy leaf”.

It may inspire you to create more things in your store.

Thanks for your help.
Janaka

Janaka,

It looks like you have a Haworthia retusa, although there are other similar Haworthias.

Nice to see a new succulent store down in Venice. I used to live there and it sure has changed a lot since then.

Peter

Straight out of Holland.

via Jim at Greenbriar Nurseries in Virginia.

Hap announced:

In which I announce with total sincerity that this will never, ever, ever happen at Cactus Jungle! I am putting it in the employee manual first in the morning!

This is my whippet named Jason. He likes toy sharks, as do all whippets named Jason.

Crassula falcata in full bloom. They do make the nicest bright red puffballs of blooms around.

Bowood Farms’ green roof didn’t do well in this summer’s tough weather (in Missouri) and so they will replant with tougher plants like sedums. They posted photos so everyone can see the process.