We’ve been growing this small spiral Euphorbia for so long I forgot the name.

No branching yet, and it’s still tiny so I would suggest this plant does not want to be propagated. Nonetheless, I think this spring we’ll be cutting its head off. Maybe then it will branch. If not, at least we will have taught it a lesson. I mean, at least then we’ll have two plants.

Today I thought maybe instead of looking back at a previous top ten list we might look forward to a future top ten list.

Top Ten Future Cactus and Succulents

10. Opuntia deliciosii
Clearly even more delicious than nopales, both the fruit and the pads, will be cultivated in 2011 in Oaxaca.

9. Pachycereus flingii
Tall and handsome column cactus in 2023 will develop new defense mechanism – something to do with spines and the ability to throw them up to 2 km.

8. Carminecereus pillboxeri
In 2056 one Carmine Minsk will create the first completely genetically modified cactus from scratch, in the shape of a round hat.

7. Trichocereus marsensis
In honor of the first new species of cactus discovered on Mars in 2420, the genus Trichocereus is reintroduced to be used for all off-world species.

6. Humalocactus brazilensii
It took until 4236 for the first truly sentient cactus species to wake up and smell the coffee.

5. Cumulocactus shrekii
Who knew there would be no new species of cactus between the 92nd and 192 centuries? Until this one gentle giant of a cactus evolved out of the primordial goop in Idaho in 19,225 (still AD here, folks).

4. Cereus kingwencesalsii
The calendar turned out to have an ending, and it wasn’t 2012! So this cactus was created by the new King to celebrate his ascension at the dawn of the new era. Year 1, KW. And all did celebrate, and all did bow down.

3. Mooncereus spinossissima
As the King was subsequently murdered in his tub the very next day, that era didn’t last long, and the first cactus of the new calendar, same as the very old calendar was introduced by the top scientists at the Space Program on Moon Base Alpha, year 212,555 AD. Spiny, too!

2. Lophophora groganisis
It turned out that when Grogan the Fearsome conquered the Planetary Federation of Fine Little Earths (PIFFLE) in the name of the Girgonosphere, he was unleashing more power onto the Renowned Cactus Planets of Far Binghampton than he could ever have imagined, thus setting off a series of wars in the Farflung Periwinkle Alliance. 2.55 cc.

And the number one cactus of the future is… Read More…

If you can’t tell, it’s going to be a slow week on the blog with the store closed and me catching up on my 2009 naps with the dogs.

Nopalito Pie from RecipeZaar

An unusual dessert from Margarita C. Hinojosa of Benavides, Texas, famous in the Rio Grande Valley for her Nopalito Pie as published in the Texas Highways magazine. Her creation is reminiscent of the taste of apple pie, especially if served warm and topped with a gorgeous vanilla ice cream (whipped cream works well, too).

It must be Christmas Break, because we are having pie in Idaho.

kaowinston in London needs help identifying a cholla, possibly a Cylindropuntia, but I think it’s an Austrocylindropuntia, A. shaferi even. What do you think?

The Chron has some crazy ideas sometimes.

Dress up your holiday gifts with frosted succulent “bows” that can be replanted in dirt or sand after the presents are opened.

Photo: Stephen Lam / Special to The San Francisco Chronicle

Now that’s what I call classy.

Twinings Red by Lipson Robotics, at the nursery through the end of the year.

The eyes, the eyes….

I wonder what it’s looking at?

I have a new Droid I got for Hanukkah and I’m very excited to be able to mobile blog.

Let’s see how a photo works on this new platform.

Agave attenuata in my front yard with rain drops

If you haven’t seen this yet, I recommend it.

Octopuses use coconut shells.

Niall McKeown of the Belfast Telegraph compares social media to cactus and puppies. Scroll down to the 2nd question and answer at the link.

I think he’s trying to say there are 2 types of people in the world, puppies and cactus. The puppies like to use facebook and the cactus like to use twitter. On the other hand, the bloggers are more like puppies that have run into a cactus and are crying for you to get the spines out of their tender little paws. Awwwww, that’s so cute.

What about the googlers, and the myspaceians? The yelpers and the tripadvisorites? So much social media, so little time.

From the LA Times at Home blog, I see one of the most interesting and reasonably priced gift items of the year. Moss Hills.

Yes, Moss Hills. From Krislyn Komarov.

One of her more affordable introductions this year: “moss hills,” 1-foot-wide assemblages of dyed moss that are arranged into simple, lovely tablescapes. (In the Krislyn’s store, they also call these pieces moss pets.) They start at $80 and can be ordered online.

I like this.

Try low to the ground cycling through Saguaro National Park.

Cactus Forest Drive at Saguaro National Park East.

The paved eight-mile loop drive is a scenic treasure…

Oh Colly, we hardly knew you.

From commenter Christine, comes LAKEROL PASTILLES: Cactus

It seems they’re “Popular in Scandinavia.”

And look, they’re available from Nordic House for only $7.95. If that’s not enough to convince you, then they also have Liverpate for $4.25!

Now to be sure, I’m not so sure these are really candies. They look more like cough drops to me. If you look up pastilles, it says “lozenge” and if you look up lozenge, it says:

3 : a small usually sweetened and flavored medicated material that is designed to be held in the mouth for slow dissolution; especially : one that contains a demulcent —called also pastille, troche

So I think I may be correct in my skepticism. Any Scandinavians out there know for sure?

This is the kind of exciting investigative reporting you get right here on the Cactus Blog.

I thought I should give equal time to a succulent candy to go along with all the cactus candy, so immediately I thought of aloes, and BAM! there it is, aloe candy.

From the Chaoan Yinhe Enterprise Limited Company, East side of chaoshan highroad, Chaoan, Guangdong (I presume that’s in China.)

This does not look as delicious as the cactus candies. But wait! there’s more! Aloe Fresh Pulp.

Yesterday’s featured cactus candy had a real retro feel to it, and in fact it was an old time favorite in Arizona. Nostalgia candy.

Today we have a newer product. Cheri’s cactus candy.

I wonder which is more delicious?

But wait, don’t buy yet! There’s also cactus syrup! Now you can have the best dressed pancakes in town.

This robot’s name is Volt. She likes to swim in the ocean, but only when it is warmer than 80 degrees in the water. She’s very sensitive to the currents, and always knows what phase the moon is in at any time.

These sure look delicious. I’ve never seen them for sale around here.

I wonder if it actually contains any cactus in the candy?

Here’s another one.

Interesting. And it’s in the shape of a cactus.

The LA Times has a very detailed set of instructions for creating succulent centerpieces for your holiday table.

Center of attention
(Robert Lachman, Los Angeles Times)
Start with a large, shallow bowl. Add some offbeat elements — in this case, some small house plants — and fill in the rest with something decorative. Like smooth stones.

Too late for thanksgiving? Try Christmas instead.

I see the new Kaiser building in Oakland has opened after years of construction. They’ve got a nice bamboo screen out front, planted within a bamboo cage.

And somehow they got some gaura to look nice, too. We have a lot of trouble with this plant at the nursery. It has beautiful flowers, but can look rangey and scrabbly and just all around a crappy plant most of the time.

Gaura lindheimeri

These were cell phone photos, so not really up to my usual standards. I guess this is Tuesday Morning Lousy Photography Blogging. Yay!

Dakorah Designs & Garden Lovelies has a cow planter with jade. I wonder if they’re selling it on their etsy site, or just showing it for fun?

The Christian Science Monitor has an article about wintering your succulents. Here’s a pretty photo and caption that went with the article.

Succulents – with their wide range of colors and textures – are perfect in containers. (Photo courtesy of Betty Earl.)

True enough, but what does that have to do with overwintering the plants?

I’m sure there are dozens more cactus hats out there for me to feature today on what has turned out to be “Cactus Hat” day at Cactus Blog, and if you send me your cactus hat photo, I promise I’ll post it, but first we have the most amazing…

Cactus Hat Rack!

Now this is some serious hat rack. It sold for $3000 in July. It has an artist’s name attached to it. Wow.

Artist Name: Guido Drocco & Franco Mello
Manufacturer: Gufram
Description: “Cactus” hat rack
Circa: designed 1960s

I love this hat rack. Anyone know of another one available for sale? Maybe slightly chipped?

Here’s another hat, claiming to be a cactus hat. But it looks more like a grass hat if you ask me.

This one is an English Knit Hat from Heppie Hats.

Super fuzzy! Heavyweight Forest Green with lots of lime fuzz. Acrylic and polyester.

This one is not as cute as the one from this morning. In fact, it’s not cute at all. But it is very nice.