Cactus Jungle on TV

It’s on the DIY network, if you get that. A show called Bath Crashers where they renovate bathrooms. I blogged the shoot here. Here’s the info on when it will air. I’ll remind you right before the 20th.

Floating Waterfall Tub

September 20, 2010
9:00 PM e/p

This bathroom transformation makes its way outdoors! What was once a dark bathroom with Seventies lava rock in the tub room, dated dark floors and golden swan fixtures gets completely gutted and is opened up by taking advantage of an unused courtyard and incorporating it into this bathroom revamp! The outdoor floating tub is the main event in this “crash!” The crew takes advantage of some outdoor real estate and opens the shower room into a garden tub room, where they set the freestanding tub in a shallow pond and create a serene waterfall that cascades behind it! Throw in a ceiling mount tub filler, modern privacy panels and slate pavestones and these homeowners are blown away!

Here’s a picture of the host, who designs and renovates the bathrooms on TV.

The last time Cactus Jungle got product on TV was almost 3 years ago!

Google Fun

I wonder what you get if you google “cactus” and skip ahead to the 100th page?

It only seems to go up to page 88!

Well, here is what I found. Your results may vary.

Cactus Eyed Joe hasn’t blogged in over 2 years.

It’s been a year and half since Cactus Annie blogged.

And Healthy Ashley has a Cereus that bloomed last month. Nice!

It does appear that random blogs make it at the end of the search. I wonder where cactus blog makes it?

British Cactus

Easy Cactus sells cactus throughout England and the EU, by post. The prices look reasonable. The selection is odd, random even. And they also sell live mealworms. Odd, but true. They sell cactus and carnivorous plants and orchids and live mealworms. Check it out if you live across the pond.

They have a survey of your favorite cactus, and the winner is…. not a cactus at all!

They also keep older latin names, not having updated in what appears to be decades. For instance, here’s a lovely Echinopsis backebergii they offer for sale under the name Lobivia wrightiana.

Shocking.

How Unusual!

A Cereus cv monstrose getting ready to bloom.

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It's the Wrong Name

We’ve been calling this Trichodiadema decorum, mostly because it really really looks like that. See:

Until you see the blooms of course, and now that the plant at the top is starting to bloom, we very quickly realized that it is not Trichodiadema decorum, nor even a mesemb of any kind.

It’s Crassula mesembryanthemoides! I assume this means we were not the first ones to be fooled. I’ll post flower pictures after they’re open, any day now…

South African Succulent

Crassula nudicaulis var. platyphylla

Here is a beautiful tray of crassula just about to be broken apart and planted up for you. But I thought it was so nice and green and bloomful that I had to share.

This is from South Africa, so it probably has a South African common name, if I can find it. But alas, google has failed me. I will have to come up with my own common name for this lovely plant.

I shall call it the Fringleberry Jade. I’ll bet by tomorrow if you google for Fringleberry Jade, this post will come up.

Aloe Drinks

I see my local fast food Chinese is serving aloe drinks.

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Most Popular Plant

While looking up my most popular blog entry yesterday, I also went ahead and looked up what plant on the Cactus Jungle site has the most hits.

It’s this one.

I wonder why?

Cynthia's Dolphin Pot

A customer brought in her own handmade dolphin pot, and had us plant this Sedum kimnachii in it for her.

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Nice!

Couch

There are no cacti involved in this couch. Not even a succulent.

It’s a Space Invader Couch from Igor Chak, via Design Scene.

Cactus Robots

OMG! Cactus Robots!

We sell cactus and we sell robots, but nobody ever told us there could be cactus robots. Until now. @SFGardengirl has alerted me to this fine new development.

from Paradis Express, a French blog about all things cactus-robot. And probably other stuff too.

Gifts

I forgot to blog this morning! We’re at the SF Gift Show, breaking for coffee. This fall we’re going to be all over unusual shaped terrariums.

Cactus Tile

From a website featuring Antique Tiles I found this lovely leftover of the 60s; a statement in the lifestyle that made living in the postwar era the best of times for American suburban families worldwide. And it’s an American Olean design! I love misplaced exclamation points, don’t you?

It could also be a Reagan-era portrait of ET waving goodbye on his way home, but it’s not.

Dr. Cactus is in the House

OK, so I’m not a doctor. And therefore you should not take any medical advice from me.

In fact, I won’t give out any medical advice.

I’m just passing along this list of home remedies. For canker sores. Ouch!

Following home remedies for canker sore are considered useful and are mentioned below…
• Cactus Juice: Juice obtained from cactus helps in reducing canker sore. This juice must be kept in mouth for some 20 seconds. It exerts a drying effect on the ulcers by dehydrating them and shrinking them. Application of cactus juice on canker sores for 2-3 days aids in removing them.

I have not tried this home remedy, and I have no personal knowledge of anyone who has. They don’t tell you what type of cactus, or what type of juice. So in other words, this blog post is a complete waste of our time. damn.

Houseplants

I added the beginnings of a Houseplants page, including orchids and terrariums, to the website.

I don’t really know exactly what to do with the page, but it’s a start.

Any ideas? (And don’t give me no Martha Stewart)

The Martha Stewart Chronicles, Part 4

Now it turns out that Martha Stewart has been all about the round presentation of succulents all along. Her succulent triangle this summer at her Connecticut home turns out to be the exception, and not the rule. Who knew she could be so fickle?

Making beautiful terrariums is a perfect way to bring the outside indoors during the winter months.

So finally we agree, Martha and I. That is a beautiful terrarium, and it sure would spice up your winter months. And I’m not just talking about those of you kind readers who live in Iowa. We’re having winter right now here in California (brrr…) and I like them!

Just be careful watering succulents in a terrarium, since there isn’t proper drainage.

Martha Stewart Week Continues

OK, so we have discovered that Martha Stewart has determined that succulents should be arranged in a triangle; that you don’t cross Martha Stewart; and that succulents arranged in a semi-circle, while attractive, are just plain wrong.

So why is Martha Stewart’s own website featuring succulents arranged in a circle – or 2 semi-circles if you prefer!

And she even admits this in the body of the text!

Special thanks to Simply Succulents for providing round wreaths.

Round! Now what am I to think?

The Crew Sends Photos

I see from this cell phone shot that the crew has had a very busy day today installing a cactus garden.

Photo by Ian Simmons

A Cactus Grows in Oregon

From the Corvallis Gazette Times we find out the truth of this claim.

A prickly pear cactus at Oregon State University bloomed this year. The flowers, which lasted only about a day each, were at their peak earlier this month. (Photo contributed by Jim Weldon)

Pretty! Well, I’ll be. A cactus does grow in Oregon.

Or does it…???

Now that I look at it, there’s no proof in the photo itself. Do we trust the Oregon State Beavers to give us the straight story on the growth of cactus in Oregon? Do they even have a horticulture department? These are the question that I respectfully demand answers to before I will accept this claim that a cactus grows in Oregon.

Oh, and this too.

Herb Trough

It’s looking particularly pretty today.

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Another Joke

This one is not nearly as funny as the Demetri Martin joke below. So, really, don’t even bother reading this one – scroll down and read the other again instead.

Why did the cactus cross the road? Because it was stuck to the chicken.

Oh my god, I’m gonna die.

It's a Joke

About a month ago, I got a cactus, and a week later, it died. I got really depressed because I was like, damn, I am less nurturing than a desert.
Demetri Martin

Nevada Barrel Cactus on the Go

The Las Vegas Review Journal has an article about growing barrel cacti in the Nevada desert. I’ve extracted a photo essay from it, with my comments, for your fun and games. Click through to see the rest of the article.

Barrel cactuses are protected from certain birds and wildlife by their sharp thorns.

OK, that seems reasonable. I don’t really have a comment to put here, so instead I will use the classic writer’s “trick” of typing out some kind of gibberish that the editor will fix in preproduction.

This old barrel cactus survives with deep roots anchoring it into the fissures of a cliff.

That is amazingly tall for a cactus growing in a fissure on a cliff. I know because I grew up on a cliff face. If we had one that size, and I would estimate it is about 5ft. tall, we would charge $2k for it. But, as it were, we don’t dig up plants from the wild, and we don’t have any 60 year old barrel cacti at the nursery. Or so you would think. But actually we do. We have a giant clump of Echinocactus grusonii that is at least 60 years old that we rescued from a heritage garden in San Jose a few years back. And we have a price tag on it that is a bit higher than my supposed $2k.

When barrel cactuses thrive in groups like this, conditions are ideal for reproduction.
SHNS PHOTOS COURTESY MAUREEN GILMER

(She’s talking about sex among the barrel cactus….)

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