We’re potting up terrariums and mixed succulent pots and filling hypertufa pots with lots of very colorful Sempervivums like this one! It must be almost a holiday type if season coming up.

Indeed.

We have a few larger specimens of the white-spined version of the classic golden barrel. We call it Echinocactus grusonii “White Ghost”. Some prefer to call it c.v. alba or even v. albispinus! Those people are ridiculous.

The golden-spined species is probably the most commonly propagated species of all time. But did you know that its native habitat in Queretaro, Mexico has been nearly eliminated by the construction of a dam?

Opuntia robusta

This Euphorbia lactea is a ghost variety. Normally all our ghost Euphorbia lacteas are crested. But now we have a small number of uncrested (non-crested?) ghostly lacteas. It’s full and proper name is Euphorbia lactea “White Ghost”.

“Lactea” sounds like a milkly name and indeed this is also known as a Milk Bush, in this case a Ghost Milk Bush, although Euphorbia tirucalli, i.e. the Pencil Cactus, is actually more commonly called Milk Bush and E. lactea is more commonly called Candelabra Cactus. Common names can be so confusing! Milk Bushes tend to be more poisonous than other Euphorbias, although not the most poisonous of Euphorbias. African Milk Tree (Euphorbia trigona) is less poisonous, but still nasty. In case you haven’t figured out, the milk part of the name refers to the milky white latex sap which is the poisonous part of the plant.

The Ocotillos are leafing out so pretty!

Fouquieria diguetii

Fouquieria formosa

Fouquieria splendens has very fresh new little leaflets!

Pachypodium eburneum is new to us this year, and here we have succeeded in capturing the rare act of flowering. Well, not so rare since it happens reliably every year or so I’ve been told.

Hoya kerrii

Pretty plant, pretty flowers. Since these photos come from my cell phone I took two hoping one of them would be decent. Waddaya think?

I see the hoya compacta blooms have opened. Here they were last week ready but not open.

Dischidia ovata, from the Mangrove swamps of Queensland, Australia.

It’s been Hoya week here at the Blog, and now we have the very close relative, the Dischidia, which is also in the same Asclepiadaceae. It’s also the family of the Stapliads, after they got moved over from the Stapeliaceae family. And the Milkweeds like our own native Asclepias tuberosa. Now that’s a nice family.

Anything else I can tell you about this Dischidia? Or maybe you’d like to read a bit about the Mangrove swamps of Queensland, Australia. Well….

In the news we find out that Cyclone Yasi has downed trees and the swamps are now in renewal mode.

Hoya lanceolata subsp. bella variegata has awesome foliage and the flowers are what one might call, if one were Italian that is, “bella”.

Another early blooming cactus. These usually don’t bloom this small, but here you go.

Stenocactus crispatus

I wish my cell phone camera were better. It’s so much easier blogging from the droid but the quality suffers. (The picture quality, not the writing. As if there’s ever quality writing on the Cactus Blog!

Myrtillocactus geometrizans

We’ve got some nice sized specimens that are covered in berries, and still more blooms too. The berries aren’t as photogenic as the flowers, but there are 3 berries in this photo. They taste like blueberries.

Agave americana v. medio-picta “Alba”

This has been a popular plant, since we featured it a couple weeks ago. We only have 15ga. plants right now, the 5’s won’t be ready for a few more weeks, and there has been a rush on them! We only have 1 left. I wonder why? Maybe because it’s gorgeous. Here it is in a front yard in Berkeley.

Customers say it looks like it’s painted. So I tell them that we paint them ourselves, in-house. Locally painted, I think, is better than having them shipped to Wisconsin to have them painted for us, like those other nurseries around do.

Echinopsis thelegenoides

It’s been so cool out in Berkeley recently that this flower lasted 3 days! The plant grows to abot 6ft. tall and then the stems crash over on the ground, sometimes rooting into the ground right there. Either way there are always more stems growing. Such a cycle to behold.

It’s our newest houseplant hanging wall unit.

A little heat finally and the cactus blooms are wide open.

Another day, another cactus flower opens. This time it’s white. And not just white, but the most fabulous white flower you’ve ever seen. It’s enormous too. Add white to the bright pink and peach colors so far.

Echinocereus grandiflora hybrid.

Euphorbia amygdaloides v. robbiae

These are a larger, greener leaf than a lot of the other spurges we carry. But the blooms are just starting to open, so that’s very exciting. They’ll be green, or slightly yellow.

These are a low growing spurge – only 18″, but they do send out a slow spreading rhizome. Easy to keep contained but will form a dense, lush fabric of leafy goodness.

Euphorbia x martinii – I don’t know what this is a cross between, so let me look it up. As it is there are dozens of cultivars of this hybrid. I’ll bet it’s one of the German hybrids. Well, the answer is as simple as it appears: E. amygdaloides x E. characias. Now you know.

Science!

Yes, I know, aloe week was last week. And yet the aloes keep blooming. What am I supposed to do, ignore them?

This Aloe humilis isn’t even blooming yet, but look at that crazy stalk. And if you look deep into the rosette, you’ll see another one coming.

The flood subsided. We’re back and open again. But it is still raining.

Pelargonium tetragonum – not usually this leafy. Mostly a lot of sticks, with an occasional leaf. But they seem to like this new wetter winter.

Myrtillocactus geometrizans – We’ve sold out of our large plants, so we grew some babies. Eventually they’ll be large too. Edible fruit – actually quite delicious! – called Whortleberry, taste a lot like blueberries – but better!

I blogged the larger, blooming plant, here. But these smaller ones are nice too. Better color in the picture.

Myrtillocactus geometrizans

These blueish cacti have blue-berry like fruit. And I can tell you here and now, they are delicious. If you are ever trapped in a desert-like environment, in Mexico, and you must find some food, I would try these. Now while it is true that tunas, i.e. prickly pear fruit, are even more delicious, unfortunately they are covered in spines, whereas these are not.

The name Whortleberry is also common to a type of berry-bearing heath from Europe, as well as a particular type of American blueberry. So much to learn.

Aloe humilis

You can’t tell from this bloom picture, but this is a warty aloe. Not just toothy, certainly not spiny, just warty. And small, stemless and frost tolerant, too.

I could show you a picture of the rosette, or I can link to one.

Kalanchoe fedtschenkoi

A bluish leafed shrub with tall bloom stalks and dangling bell shaped flowers. Easy to propagate, but frost sensitive. They’ll get damaged below 30, so take care and cover them, okay?

Aloe ferox

The bloom stalk is quite impressive. This one is around 2 ft. tall on a plant that has barely started a trunk. The bottom blooms have just begun to open, and they will work their way up the stalk.

It’s so big.