Cactus Blog 

I don’t think I will explain this to you, but the headline is what Hap told me.

I see the Cactus Candy Company has new single serving size packaging.

Now you can buy 1 small hard candy all by itself. And they will ship, too!

Does this look delicious to you? Why should I post a link to a candy company without offering my readers the yelp-like opportunity to review the product first, right here, in the comments. And since you probably haven’t tasted this single piece of candy in it’s own package, all you can review is the packaging of course. So much packaging for one little piece of candy!

Have at it.

Dear Peter and Hap,
One of my Cereus (?) like cacti is being devoured (see attached photo). We’re not sure by what – I suspect slugs but their slime trails aren’t everywhere. Neither Steve nor I have seen the perps. I did find lots of pellet-y critter poo in the tray under the pot. They are attacking mostly new growth and have taken out a lot of the apical meristems. What should I do??

Pauline
—
Art imitating life is so last century. It’s all about life imitating art now.

Pauline,

It really looks like snail and slug damage. We use Sluggo with good results and without having to worry about killing pets and wildlife like most of the other Snail and Slug killers on the market. Of course you do have to reapply on schedule or they munch it again. Check the pot for hiding gastropods, they will often get down at the base and hide out during the day. You can trim out the worse damage and fertilize and it should resprout with new growth fairly quickly.

Good luck and take care,

Hap

Rhytidocaulon macrolobum ssp. macrolobum

This guy has been hard to photograph. We’ve been growing them for less than a year, and we have flowers already! We’re growing a few in more sun than the others. Sometime soon we’ll have to start taking the plants apart to propagate them. And then hopefully we’ll  have some for sale. So far so good!

As if we didn’t have enough critters (deer, gophers) to worry about, guess what we saw for the first time in our yard today? A wild turkey, gobbling around in all the up-turned soil at the top, no less. The dog raced it out of the yard, thank goodness, but now who do we blame for uprooted vegetables etc?

Ben

At least they are tasty… smart, friendly (at least the ones I hatched and raised as a bird crazy youth… they like M & M’s by the way…) but they are very tasty…

You may need to hoop the beds and cage them in?

Maybe a cool kinetic sculpture? maybe not, after all the jays might get scared too…

sigh.
Hap

In case you wondering, here’s a photo and a discussion of the Wild Turkeys of Berkeley.

Aloe “Blue Elf” is a really nice color of blue. Not that you can tell from this photo since it focuses on the extreme orange flowers, although the unopen buds are really more of a red. But those open blooms are a true orange-peel orange.

Here’s the blue of the leafy scrabbly aloe.

See what I mean? Toothy too.

These hybrid aloes are probably from A. humilis and will get maybe 18″ tall, with a good sized clump about 2 ft. across. That’s nice. hardy to 25F, so you know you can grow them.

By the way, I thought you should know I’m listening to Tupelo Honey while typing this. Just thought you would want to know what I listen to while writing about Blue Aloes.

Our unseasonable winter weather continues here in formerly sunny California.

I think we need a new logo. How about this one  from a company called Cactus Rain?

That does pretty much say it all. Blooming Opuntia about to have a storm unleashed on it.

On the other hand, here’s some wet cactus spines from Dreamstime.

I’m feeling wet already.

Whippet Judging in Manchester.

The dogs seem small to me. But oh so adorable.

Disocactus speciosus is the remarkable epiphytic Sun Cactus from the jungles of Southern Mexico and Guatemala.

Related to the more common Aporocactus flagelliformis, Rattail Cactus, which have more recently been moved into the Disocactus genus. Similar flowers, but the Sun Cactus is much more spectacular.

Pendant stems will grow more than 3ft. in length. Easily hybridized, there are a number of cultivars out there with various and different equally remarkable flower colors.

We recommend that you grow them indoors.

Hello Peter,

Thanks for this month’s newsletter. I am happy to see you have some Myrtillocactus blue crests! I have a little baby one about 4” tall with only one little fan…yours look wonderful.

I am sending some pictures – hope you don’t mind. The first one I bought at H*** D****. It was/is gorgeous!! It is labeled as Trichocereus grandiflorous Hybrid and your website (I do believe) calls it an Echinopsis terscheckii. Are they one and the same?

The second pic is my poor little beat up Myrtillocactus.

And the third picture is of three plants I bought at a local cactus and succulent club sale… from left to right they are… Euphorbia Knutii, the poisonous Tylecodon and on the right is the Euphorbia Aeruginosa. Sound right to you?

I also bought a Rebutia torquata with lovely orange flowers – can’t find it in any books, though.

Thanks for your time!

~Karen
Placerville

Karen,

The first one we call Echinocereus grandiflora hybrid. The Trichocereus name was changed to Echinopsis years ago, but many nurseries have kept the old name. These are intergenic hybrids, including both Echinopsis and Echinocereus parentage, so we picked the Echinocereus name, while others have picked the Echinopsis or Trichocereus name. It’s definitely not going to turn into a giant tree cactus like the Echinopsis terscheckii.

The small Myrtillocactus Crest looks like it needs to get repotted into a bigger pot and fresh cactus soil. It has very good shape, but needs more root space and nutrients.

Your Euphorbia knuthii is a really nice young specimen. They will grow a beautiful big caudex over time. The Tylecodon could be T. paniculatus, although it’s hard to tell for sure from the photo. Finally, the ID on the Euphorbia is correct. If you pot it up it will sprawl everywhere and with those spiny stems they are quite the challenge to repot.

Rebutia torquata is more properly called Rebutia pygmaea. This one can handle less sun than most cactus, and would prefer some afternoon shade.

Peter

I wonder what year this was taken?

Pyramid and agave plants. Mexico, n.d.
ID. Gilbert, G.K. 483 – ggk00483 – U.S. Geological Survey – Public domain image

Stunning.

What a difference a day makes! Oreocereus celsianus in bud on day 1.

Day 2 and the bloom opens! It’s the pistil and stamen!

Nice!

Oreocereus celsianus gets 10 to 12ft. tall, and is hardy to 10 °F. High altitude from the Andes, the hairs will collect fog, dripping droplets down to the roots.

While they can be grown from stem cuttings, we’ve had our difficulties.

Here’s a habitat shot from a U Texas Cactus Field Research team.

Some wonderful plants: Oreocereus celsianus growing near the border between Argentina and Bolivia.

Now that’s something.

Here’s a photo of rain on cactus for a very unseasonably rainy day today. I refuse to go outside myself today to snap a photo for you. Me and the dogs are staying inside.

Oh how the weather patterns are shifting.

Sunset Magazine shows you how to buy a raised garden bed kit, and how to assemble the easy-to-assemble pieces that are all precut and ready to assemble.

Wow! That was easy!

Don’t click the link over your breakfast or you’ll be spitting milk. Ouch.

News that’s fit to print in the NY Times.

It’s finally here. Cactus Vodka! Perfect for a vodka drink featuring cactus! The article is from the NY Times so hopefully the link will work for you, what with their new paywall and all. You’d think with this being written essentially as an advertisement for Skyy Vodka that they’d make sure the link to the article would work for everyone, paywall or not.

A Fruit With a Future

Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times

“For a marketer, it’s a dream come true, because how many dragon puns can you come up with?” said Andrea Conzonato, the chief marketing officer for Skyy vodka. “An orange is an orange. A raspberry is a raspberry. But then you find a dragon fruit, and you’re like, Where did this come from? Why did I not know about this before?”

That is one sexy dragon fruit photo. And then it gets sexier yet. The NYTimes prints celebrities posing with dragon fruit for some odd reason. Oh yeah, baby, now I really want some dragon fruit.

Michael Buckner/WireImage

CELEBRITY STATUS Escorted by Omar Epps, Brandy and Keisha Spivy.

I don’t understand.

Finally, they published a photo of Skyy’s new bottle, because a “Paper of Record” can’t advertorialize a brand of vodka properly if they don’t show a bottle.

I wonder how much they got paid for this? I got nothin’. But it is interesting in a socialogic journolistical kind of way. Plus, you know, Cactus!

The water feature was leaky, so they planted succulents.

The “overflowing water” is Sedum Burrito and Disocactus flagelliformis. Echeverias are “water lilies”.

Not very attractive. But that’s what you get when you google around.

And in addition, google came up with this Richard Thomas movie vehicle from 1971, Cactus in the Snow.

Bing came up with this, which doesn’t seem like a snowy addition to the cactus family to me, but then I suppose microsoft knows better than I do what I was looking for.

It may not be snowy in there, but it is the cutest darn cattle-rastlin’ cactus evah!

Just so you know, YouTube came up with a Kenny G. Christmas song, so I don’t recommend clicking the link, but to be fair there is snow on cactus in the video. Now that I think about it, I dare you to watch it! Grab a screencap if you can, ’cause the cactus snowglobe makes an appearance at 1:12.

We’ve seen succulent centerpieces, painted succulent corsages and succulent bouquets. Now get ready for succulent boutonnieres. No! From Aol’s DIY site.

For a boutonniere that has a distinctly modern feel, why not try sculptural succulents? Even better, Ellen Frost of Baltimore’s Local Color Flowers designed it for those who are a little intimidated about the whole idea of going the DIY route on boutonnieres. Here’s her easy tutorial.

And it turns out we’ve seen Succulent Boutonnieres before too. All tied up!

Hap,
I don’t know if you got my updated photos on my project but here are some photos of the Purple Temple Bamboo. The leaves are turning yellow and I am not to sure if I have a problem.

I am watering once a week for 20 minutes on a drip system but I don’t think I am over watering.
Thanks Dan

Dan,

It looks like a bit of transplant shock and perhaps wind burn. What is the gallons per hour of you drip hose? If it is one of the low volume hoses, you may need to run the water longer to get enough water to the plants. During the settling in phase your bamboo should each be getting about five gallons of water per week and more during hot windy periods. After a couple of months of growing roots and getting settled, you can cut back a bit, but keep up the regular water the first year or two and get them fully established before weaning them off to once or twice a month water. If they don’t perk up in a few weeks you can give them liquid kelp and that should help them grow out of their funk.

Take care,
Hap

Hap,

the drip hose is .9 gallons per hour and holes every 12″ on the drip hose. Sounds like I was not giving the bamboo enough water so I will water 5 days a week for an hour each time…… Thanks again for everything, Dan

Usually people plant small succulents for their green roof projects. This one has giant Aeoniums spilling off the roof.

Succulents are spilling off the roof of this shed.
Photo by Lisa Hallett Taylor

There are people in the background of this photo, hanging around while the photographer worked.

Our first giant poppy flower of the year!

According to Calflora,

Matilija poppy is a glabrous, shrubby perennial, heavy branched and woody at the base, growing to 8′ tall.

I wonder what glabrous means? I suppose I should take a botanical terminology class. Or, let me check the wikipedia.

In botany and mycology, glabrous is an adjective used to describe a morphological feature as smooth, glossy, having no trichomes (bristles or hair-like structures), or glaucousness (see also indumentum). No plants have hair, although some structures may resemble it. Glabrous features may be an important means of identifying flora species. Glabrous characteristics of leaves, stems, and fruit are commonly used in plant keys.

Romneya coulteri

Well it’s not a cactus, properly speaking. It’s a “Cactus Sponge”! and not just any cactus sponge, but the Cactus Sponge, Dendrilla antarctica, which I guess makes it more of an animal than a plant, too.

Pretty creature. It would probably be hard to keep it alive in a fish tank.

Kathleen has some pictures of mystery plants she needs identified.

I’ve ID’ed a few to start:

• Tropical #1a: Ruellia makoyana?

• Succulent #1 looks like Aloe saponaria

• Succulent #3 Peperomia ferreyrae

• Succulent #9b would be Agave attenuata

Any others you can ID?

It’s a book cover!

A romance! But he looks gay. Hmmm, what is she thinking? But then she does look a bit masculine… too much blush applied… and that wig looks like it’s about to fall off. She’s a he! It’s a gay cactus romance with lavender balloons.

Anti-aging cream made from succulents?

I find… that the dry skin on my hands and neck are thirstily drinking it up.

I guess that’s a good sign. Or maybe you’re skin is naturally dry and it’s a temporary moisturing.

This is made up of… prickly pear, blue agave, lady’s slipper orchid… aloe. Of all of these, prickly pear, or cactus pear (opuntia tuna) is the most convincing…. Cactus pear has plenty of antioxidants, such as ascorbic acid, carotenoids, reduced glutathione, cysteine, taurine, and flavonoids such as quercetin, kaempferol and isorhamnetin.

Sounds important!

Unfortunately… Blue agave, from which tequila is made, doesn’t have much research to back it up and I could find no supporting evidence as to its role in skincare. Lady’s slipper (cypripedium pubescens) has primarily been used as a sedative.

So you can drink it if you prefer. A little prickly pear juice for the anti-oxidants, some tequila for the buzz and a little Lady’s Slipper for the sedative…

Delicious!

FERNANDA ECHAVARRI / ARIZONA DAILY STAR

The cactus is in front of the Travel Inn near I-10 and Wilmot.

From a distance, the cactus may look like it’s broken or even dead, but it is alive and healthy.

Seasonal birds visit from time to time, making one of the saguaro’s arms a temporary home, Patel said.

I like the term “seasonal birds”. Like the seasonal retired people who come down to Arizona every winter, the seasonal birds do too.