Well that’s interesting! Or not. Let’s add a poll!

…can lead to some bamboo culms falling over, across the turtle pond. Hap then cut it into pieces, without falling into the pond. And removed the dead tree-fern fronds.

Agave geminiflora is big and soft and not so dangerous as other agaves, and it will get a 12ft. bloom stalk when ready.

You can’t buy this costume, but you can rent it from Angel’s Fancy Dress in London.

I have to warn you though, that they consider this costume to be both a cactus costume and a pickle costume, so you might have to tell people what you are when wearing it.

It’s a scary succulent-filled skull, from Notcot.com.

Click through for more angles of this luscious Haworthia planted in a crystal skull shot glass.

So like we get people occasionally, you know, like totally tripping on the names we use for our plants. And they ask us to change the names!

(sometimes we do!)

Here are 3 new names for your collection. We’ve had the plants listed under other names which I will not reveal to you.

Echeveria “Glory”

Graptoveria “Amethorum”

Sempervivum calcareum

Update your files!

Apparently there’s a whole subgenre of postcards detailing disasters in the desert, including dessications and dromedaries.

This card is a cactus careening into a car, a career-ending caper if ever I cared.

From Brain in a Jar.

Did you ever wonder what the plant they make absinthe out of looks like? Artemisia absinthium looks like this!

And you can grow it if you want. Shrubby to 3 or 4 feet tall, and easy to propagate from cuttings in the spring, it also doesn’t need to be watered very often. Now that’s service!

Now they tell me that if you extract the oils, wormwood can get very poisonous, and yet people use the dried leaves as a tea for stomach upset. So who are you going to believe?

People often ask us what a rhizome is. Usually they’re talking about running bamboos, but the subject comes up for other plants too. Here’s one.

Agave parryi

I don’t often get such a clear photo of a rhizome since they’re an underground structure, and when you dig a plant up the longer rhizomes usually get cut off. But this one shows you the plant, the roots, and the very different looking rhizome that was off on a traveling rampage through the underground precincts.

Nice!

So here we go with some botanical information for you. A rhizome is not a root. From the Botanical Dictionary it’s,

A horizontal underground stem

OK then. So what have learned so far? It’s the same as an above ground stem and can grow roots and shoots and new stems and all the other good stuff.

Here’s a diagram of a bamboo rhizome.

(via BibliOdyssey)

Yesterday was my day off, but I see from this photo Ian sent along that he potted up a terrarium with some very nice gravel pathways leading to, wait – is that a tiny gravestone? And another?

Oh no! Ian’s planted a graveyard in a glass bowl!

Helianthemum nummularium “Wisley Pink”

These are a spring bloomer, but we didn’t have them in the spring. We had “Mesa Wine” through the bloom season, and then we got these pink ones in and no more blooms. Until today. We have a late bloomer!

The Sun Roses have replaced the related Rock Roses as the most popular of the Cistaceae family for us. I think people like the groundcover foliage of the Sun Roses better than shrubby open form of the Rock Roses.

Penstemon “Firebird”

Ian keeps sending me photos of “successful” mousetraps. If you know Ian, please let him know that I have enough photos already. Thank you.

Apparently you can now buy a cactus for your game of Farmville.

The Saguaro costs more than the Barrel Cactus.

I wonder if you can buy tweezers from the game to get the game-sized spines out of your game hands.

Looking further into this, we find you can buy Farmville dollars from Target.

Hey you kids, Get off my lawn!

It’s Lauren’s first time getting a photo on the blog. Here we see she has taken a classic picture of a particular angle whereby the succulent in question is made to appear to be heart-shaped. A valentine’s gift in September.

Kalanchoe thyrsifolia

I highly recommend clicking the photo to see the full sized photo.

Yay!

Spooning amongst slugs- photographic evidence.

Have you noticed how most cactus cartoons aren’t funny? I wonder why that is. Maybe the desert makes for dry humor.

I think the picture says everything. I don’t really need to add a comment, do I? No, I don’t, but I will after the photo.

Moss bathmat! Moss! it’s a bathmat! Oh, the humanity.

(moss)

Here are some fruity pictures from around the webosphere.

Ferocactus acanthodes Photo from Cactus Art

Ferocactus cylindraceus Photo from Bird and Hike

Ferocactus wislizeni Photo from Cacti Guide

Ferocactus macrodiscus Photo from Cactus Art

Sedum lineare

Well that didn’t last long. We’ve sold through our entire first crop of this cute green stonecrop in 2 weeks. We’ll have more hopefully next month. Maybe we should have planned to have more to begin with?

Aloe “hercules” and Yucca elephantipes and Cereus cv monstrose.

These are actually prickly pear flavored! Or available in mixed flavors. You need to buy in packs of 30, though.

I must say, it’s a dream come true. Now should I order 30, or go for 60?