I refuse to link again to the ongoing saga of the pathetic Kiko the Cartoon Cactus, so don’t ask. This is an offense to all fun loving cacti everywhere.

While looking for more porcelain cacti, instead I found this interesting product reviewed on a few different sites, but I can’t seem to find a place to buy it, or who manufactures it. I think it may be so last year (or even as far back as 2006), and is no longer available.

Kiko the Lonely Cactus is a sad kind of character.

I forgot this item in my previous post about porcelain cactus and succulents.

How could I have forgotten that one, you may ask? Well, I have a bit of a head cold, so that’s the excuse I’ll be using.

Maureen Gilmer, regular contributor to the Orange County Register…

Her new book, “Palm Springs-Style Gardening” (Sunbelt Publications, $24.95) brings as much insight into gardening in dry places as she brings to her myriad projects.

They haven’t sent me a review copy yet. So no review. And we don’t carry it at the store. You’d think the publisher would be on top of things.

Devine Tropical sells a lovely pink dragonfruit, or pitahaya, also known as Hylocereus, probably H. costaricensis.

The LA Times says they’re becoming more common, more popular even.

And all from a happy vining tropical jungle cactus. Here’s my photo of the plant growing in a tree in Costa Rica.

Erde Design on Etse has some beautiful handmade wood succulent planters for sale. Singles, triples, you name it, they have it. Not that you couldn’t plant something other than a succulent in it, but why would you?

I wonder if they have drainage?

It’s a little early in the morning for tequila, but this story is from the UK, so it’s already cocktail hour in London.

In the UK, consumption of tequila, the fiery spirit traditionally distilled from the cactus-like agave plant, has trebled in a decade.

Actually, I just like this story because they used the word “trebled.” And while many people assume agaves are cactus, they’re not really even “cactus-like”.

Cactus:

Agave:

I rest my case.

Apartment Therapy likes succulents. Here they feature a cinder block wall designed to hold succulents, inspired by Annette over at Pot-ted.

More photos over at the link. Some text too, but why read when you can skim?

Tristan Toms, owner of the Amigos restaurant at the top of Union Street near Castle Circus in Torquay, was told his giant six-metre tall sombrero-wearing, maracas-playing advertising cactus is just too big and too dangerous for the area….

“It’s just a bit of advertising fun. It’s chirpy and big. And vivid green.

“I guess it was too big and too green.”

I wonder if Torquay is anywhere near California, because maybe we could take the banned giant inflatable cactus off his hands. Let me look it up. I see it’s in South Devon. Of course! Well, is that in the US? No, it’s in the UK. Now you know. Too far for us.

In this fire season in Southern Cal., Debra Lee Baldwin writes about firewise plants on Gardening Gone Wild.

Succulents by definition are plants that withstand drought by storing water in fleshy leaves and stems. This makes them slow to catch on fire. Consequently, they’re good perimiter plants for gardens in fireprone areas.

She also discusses fires in the recent past and shows pictures of gardens that helped to protect homes. This is just as relevant here in Northern California, where the fires are just as intense, if less frequent. Debra will also be teaching a class on planting for fires on September 20, if you happen to be in the Encinitas area.

So to summarize: Preparing for drought? Plant succulents. Worried about fire? Plant succulents. Want a gorgeous garden with a multitude of varied architectural shapes and modern colors? Plant succulents. What more could you want?

There’s a backyard succulent nursery in Hollywood. Such secret locations are to be carefully hoarded, and not shared with just everyone. Well, maybe with online readers, but that’s all. And newspaper readers too. And I should probably just twitter and facebook this and get it over with.

A kindly woman by the name of Theresa sells potted plants out of her backyard in Hollywood.

Me in her jade garden
Photo: Chandler Poling

We started out as a backyard nursery too!

I’ve decided to start chronicling my experience trying to get my broken Archos media player replaced. I started the site archossucks.com. You can follow along there.

An update on my broken Archos media player. I spoke with customer service, after an hour on hold getting through to tech support and then another 1/2 hour on hold being put through to customer service, and they will send me another RMA so I can send it back to them and they’ll put another note in there about the problem yet again. When I asked for a new unit, the woman said “Absolutely not.” So the first time I sent it in, they kept it for 1 week, before sending it back unfixed. The 2nd time I sent it in, they kept it 3 weeks before sending it back unfixed. Now they’re offering to take it back a 3 time, maybe to keep it for 5 weeks this time? They’ve had this unit in their shop for more time than I’ve had it in my home.

I called their US corporate offices and spoke to someone named John, and he said he would look into it for me.

In the meantime, Here’s a clearer video of the problem. I also figured out that the problem is with the screen, and not with the motherboard or other internal hardware. Interesting.

Let me take a moment out of my cactus day and rant a bit about Archos. Archos makes media devices with lots of memory so you can watch movies and such on a nice screen. Not cheap. However, my device is broken and Archos doesn’t seem to want to fix it, or replace it.

I have sent it back to them twice already, and they kept it for weeks on end, and then they sent it back to me and it is still broken! Why would they do that? Are they evil? I can’t make a clear determination on this, but it sure seems to me they are evil.

So I am pissed off as you can imagine. Maybe having a readership of a few hundred blog readers will get their attention, but I wouldn’t bet on it, evil bastards.

More Cactus clipart for you to enjoy and share.

Public domain cactus clip art for the masses! Print it out and paste it on your notebook, and you’ll be the coolest kid, trust me.

Cactus Linda

The Arizona Family Examiner shares pictures of cactus, this one by Jim.

It’s great to go barefoot in places with beautiful green lush grass, but definitely not advised in the desert. Step on some cactus and it takes pliers to remove the needles. “Ouch.”

In the middle of an article comes this quote having to do with cactus. I think it stands on its own, and there’s no reason for you to read the rest of the article, so I’m not linking to it at all.

Price said Schaer was the first patient he has seen with a wasp sting on his uvula, although he once treated someone with a cactus spine in his uvula.

OK, here’s the link in case you think I’m making this up.

I was going to have a photograph of a Clusia orthoneura bloom for you by now, but the bud is still not open!

I hope you don’t mind this morning’s posts with me  just writing whatever’s on my mind. I promise you I’ll post the clusia bloom as soon as it opens. They’re very pretty.

And I have the best Friday Whippet Video ever coming up soon too.  Stay tuned.

So earlier this morning I mentioned it’s the time of year to take your final cactus cuts. And I thought I should also mention that it’s OK to take some succulent cuts all the way into winter.

For instance, Aeoniums. And Aloes, too!

Fun fact: Did you know that the stoma of the aloe leaf are often sunken, and surrounded by well-developed lobes?

Portion of Vertical Section of Aloe Leaf

1. Stoma                            5. Vascular Bundle
2. Cuticle                          6. Water Storage Tissue
3. Upper Epidermis     7. Palisade Tissue
4. Palisade Tissue         8. Lower Epidermis

And from Aloes: The Genus Aloe By Tom Reynolds

Science!

Roslindale.

Bins of fresh nopalitos, the wing-like pads of a cactus that can be grilled or pressed into juice…. at El Chavo, a Mexican market in Roslindale Square

Well, I guess if you’re looking to eat the cactus then that’s the place to go. What if you want to grow the plants? Then what do you do? Apparently you bring them back from Arizona.

I love doing random google searches. However, today I tried a random bing search, and look what came up!

It’s George Jensen’s Cactus Fork  and the whole cactus collecton in pdf form! 31 sterling silver pieces in the collection!

I wonder why someone would feel so inspired by cactus to make a chrome bathroom faucet called Cactus?

Yes, it does look like a cactus.

I see Rabbits Against Magic have added a cactus to their home decor.

And a fly, too.

You’d think the BBC would have fact-checkers and editors, and that the British people in general would be pedantic about getting the names of their plants right. At the Taunton Flower Show we find this lovely cactus.

Apart from flowers, visitors could also see a wide range of cacti – this is called Noto Cactus Magnificus.

OK, so what do we see wrong with this? What can be fixed if we want to be as pedantic as we imagine the BBC to be? Why, to start, it would be “Notocactus,” one word. And the species name “magnificus” would be lower case – if we were to get all pedantic on the BBC.

More importantly for you pedants out there, and I’m certainly not talking about myself, because I am no pedant, don’t you know for I fear no run-on sentence, but the genus Notocactus has long been retired and replaced with Parodia. So there.

A haunting photo essay on feral houses in Detroit.

I’m sure it will be a slow news week for cactus, with it being August and all.  So I’m off to New York for a few days.

Yay!

You can be sure blogging will be slower than usual, but not absent! No, never absent! The photos don’t blog themselves!