…is made of glass!

“For more than 30 years, I’ve been fascinated by glass, and the process of pinching and pulling and stretching glass as it melts into something new,” says artist Barbara Dillon, whose work is on display at the Missoula Artists’ Shop in downtown. Photo by KURT WILSON/Missoulian

What’s made in Italy, ceramic and hand-blown glass, with a cactus inside? Wait! Don’t guess yet. It’s also 10″ tall and has legs. Did I mention that it costs € 100.00? That’s about $150! But they’re not yet available in the US.

It’s from Monotono and called Domsai, and there’s also a € 500.00 model. I’d be first in line to import them, if the planter without plant would retail for about $85 each.

Oh well. Here have another one.

Cute only cuts it so far in the hardscrabble world of cactus.

From the SF Chronicle comes this creative use of succulents.

Baylor Chapman, owner and floral designer of Lila B. Design in the Mission District, is known for sustainable gardens.

Photo: Russell Yip / The Chronicle

Danfun tries to win Phish tickets from Glide magazine with this cactus costume.

No, he did not win.

A simple enough costume, if you can keep your arms up all day long.

So we’re coming down to the wire here, and if you haven’t already made your cactus costume for Saturday then you’re probably not going to be making one at all if you’re honest with yourself.

So this picture here of a prickly pickle costume is just for fun.

Although, they do claim it’s a cactus costume, and they even supply instructions for how to make it, a veritable recipe, if you will, for a cactus costume that looks like a pickle.

So maybe you might still have just enough time left to assemble the ingredients and make your own.

…of Cactus Costumes on the blog, and by then you will have chosen your own special cactus costume to make and wear on Halloween. If you send me photos, I will be able to extend this costume fetish of mine for another week.

I was sitting around thinking of a great idea for a costume and remembered my boyfriend telling me… (h)is mother had a Cactus ornament on her antenna of her car.

You can imagine where the rest of this story goes.

I thought you might like a picture of a real cactus to go with this one, so we can compare and contrast.

Well… I had no idea, but it turns out that costume is quite realistic. Scroll up again and take a look. You can practically feel the spines sticking into you. Now scroll back down again, and just add some sunglasses there, and that hat too, and YES! They are practically identical. Such artistry, such hyper-realism.

No, I am not nuts, stop saying that. Photoshopping sunglasses on a cactus is perfectly normal. And I stopped talking to myself years ago. Stop pestering me to go see a doctor. I did not. No. No. OK, I concede that, but must you be so aggressive when you make your points? I’m feeling a little put upon right now, I think I’ll go take a nap. No. NO! OK, maybe on Monday I’ll call and make an appointment; will that satisfy you?

There are a lot of cactus growing in Jamaica, so the Jamaica Observer has an article about cactus in Jamaica, so they say….

The exquisite cactus Euphorbia Lactea, native to India, is commonly called Mottled Spurge, Frilled Fan or Elkhorn. The bloom of this plant is called a Cristata. The cactus with its fan-shaped crested branch comes in an assortment of colours.

Just like many in the cacti family, the Euphorbia Lactea needs sun and warm temperatures to survive.

So much that needs correcting. The joys of blogging are being a pedant in public. I can’t correct people like this at the store.

1. It’s not a cactus. It’s not in the cactus family (cactaceae) but in the Euphorbia family (euphorbaceae).

2. Lactea is the species, so it should be lower case, i.e. Euphorbia lactea.

3. The bloom, should it bloom which it usually doesn’t, is called an Inflorescence.

4. The cristate portion of the plant is the plant itself, the E. lactea, the thing you see in the picture above the leaves. It’s grafted to a different Euphorbia base which grows the leaves because a ghost crest has very little chlorophyll.

5. Nowhere in the article does it say anything about these being beautiful, and this must be corrected, because these are beautiful.

6. The photo above does not do justice to these crests. Here’s my photo of one of them. Justice will be served.

Nice graft.

It’s a student in recycled materials cactus costume in Marin. That’s local!

Halloween is coming soon, so I better pack in a few more cactus costumes for fun before it’s too late. I wonder if you’ll notice next year if I reuse some of these?

This one is frightening, indeed. A cactus head in a buffet! What, no sausages?@?!

And I see that Misty Garrick Miller has uploaded her cactus costume photos onto flickr finally. Who’s Misty? Why, she’s the one in the costume below. A very clever use of yarn to simulate cactus flowers.

And in case you were wondering, here’s a picture of Misty at work in her costume.

You know, it might be easier if you just googled cactus costume images yourself. You know, cut out the middleman. Hey, wait, that’s me! I’m the middleman in this transaction. Maybe I shouldn’t be giving away my secrets that easily. Shhhh, don’t tell anyone about the magic search engine called google, OK?

It’s my random photo of the day, so please excuse my shouting in the headline. I don’t know anything about this. I don’t know where it’s from or what it means.

If it’s your photo, congratulations are in order.

I see we have here an Opuntia ficus-indica and some aloe and a yellow hydrant, among the many things here.

Have you ever been to the Artichoke Capital of California?

The World’s Largest Buffalo of Jamestown, ND?

Wandered into Pekin, IL the Marigold Capital?

Anyway, whatever, they got nothing on Sanderson, Texas, the Cactus Capital of Texas.

Suggested slogan: “Eat more cactus”

And as if that’s not enough going for it, they are also the Gateway to Big Bend National Park. I love Big Bend!

By the way, here’s me in front of the World’s Largest Buffalo in Jamestown, ND. I think this is from 1986.

I’m not sure what to make of this. I received this in an email from a wholesale distributor of toys. There is no link on the email, and no catalog online, so I don’t really know what this is. They call it “Brilliant Quiff by BLUW” but it looks like a cactus hat.

I wonder what it really is? To the google!

I see it is actually an Giant Inflatable Elvis Wig. How disappointing.

Have I given you enough ideas yet for your halloween cactus costume yet? Here’s another homemade idea from flash: did not fire‘s Flickr photostream.

One of these dancing cacti is flash:did not fire, the other is Susan.

I give these costumes a rating of 5. They are quite convincing, and they look like you can really get down and boogie in them. So in all, they are a masterful projection of the collective id on the form of the individual, lost and parched in the desert.

Happy Monday to you too.

But it’s still October, so what can I do?

Here we have a nice and easy costume put out by ACME. Awesome!

How well does it fit? Come with me after the break, and check it out. Read More…

It’s a cactus costume for a baby, just in time for Halloween.

Except it’s sewn onto a beanbag doll, and while it only costs $6 US, it’s only available for shipping to the Philippines. Oh well, maybe next year they’ll sell a costume version for a real live baby and sell it at Walmart. Chubby dollie…

It is! It is another cactus costume for October National Cactus Costume Month here on the blog.

Someone named Hulaman likes to dress up every year, and not for Halloween, but for the Bay Area’s favorite race, Bay to Breakers.

1997 The Lone Saguaro
Since I moved to Tucson I wanted to go as a huge Saguaro cactus. The tricky part was making it so I could ship it with me. I’ve worn it in Tucson several times. I tried to do a play on words with a costume in a costume.

Yay!

…for your video game character.

This is from a site, Tabula Rasa, that seems to create costumes for gamers. I like calling them costumes, whereas they probably like to think of them as characters.

at the Reno National Bowling Stadium

From Lucca & Co. we find 18th Century Stone Cactus Planters from Monaco and now available for purchase in New York.

Price:
$1,000 List

Dimensions:
Approximately 9” diameter

Description:
Stone Cactus Planters from Monaco

These are very attractive, but a bit out of my price range. And by a bit, I mean a 10-fold bit. But now you know what to get me for Hanukkah.

It’s cactus costume month here at the jungle, and here we have an entry that would qualify as a great buy, if it were for sale, but it’s not, so you can’t buy it, no matter how long this run-on sentence goes on, running on. That wasn’t too long.

It’s home made by Laura D. (Seattle, WA).

Well, it’s finally October, and the cactus costumes come out to play. But what do you do if you want a cactus themed dress-up party, and you don’t have inflatable cactuses (inflatable cacti?) available for inflating up as decoration?

Why, you go to the Inflatable Cactus Page and buy one, for only £5.86 each. Uh oh, I guess that means you need to be in Great Britain.

Nevermind.

Hello Kitty and Dog in CACTUS COSTUME Dog Tag Necklace

Wow! What a find! Too bad the item is no longer available since they were only $6 each. Oh well.

Is it October yet? Can I start posting about cactus costumes yet?

This one is a professional mascot costume, which means it’s expensive and probably not what you would want for Halloween.

I’m not particularly clear on who would want a cactus mascot costume, except maybe a cactus store. That’s us! In fact, I’ll bet Keith would love to dress up in this as the store’s mascot, and hang out on San Pablo Ave. waving down potential customers.

MSNBC held a photo contest and Stamford, Connecticut’s Bob Stoddard won with this shot that I’ve borrowed off the MSNBC site.

Here we have a classic 20th century antique cactus lamp.

The species is Echinocactus grusonii ssp. plasticspinii

The Dealer is the renowned Robert Dickson & Lesley Rendall Antiques

It comes complete with 40 watt fluorescent bulb so that you can fully experience the 20th century glow of this fine specimen.

Cactus Pinball Machine for Sale

Win a succulent book in New Zealand, thru Nov. 10.

Top Chef cooks with cactus.

Cactus Fruit Tasting Tour at 10 a.m. Sept. 30 at Ruth Bancroft Garden.