Carole made us this amazing needlepoint cactus.

It’s a very fruitful prickly pear. Thanks Carole!

Yesterday’s stormy rain left us with moist succulents.

Kalanchoe

Crassula

Senecio

Yesterdays stormy rain is over and today it is gorgeous and sunny.

We were very busy yesterday, and now what can we expect for today? –  the last day we are open for the year.

In case you were wondering, we do have a few more wooden succulent wall panels available for sale on this last day to buy your loved ones a beautiful and delicious Christmas present. (Open ’til 5:oo).

It’s only a few hours (or less if you live on the east coast) til 12 12 12 12 12, or 12/12/12 12:12 as some would have it.

Here, have a picture to tide you over:

Cryptanthus “Pink Starlight”

Cryptanthus “Ruby”

If the Ellen Show can stoop to showing the public this stupid photo, so can we.

We don’t sell that type of succulent at the Cactus Jungle.

“As seen on TV.”

Stewart who lives in Alamo.

You didn’t think I forgot my yearly post on the latest and the greatest in high tech cactus costumes, did you?

I would never forget!

We feature only the tastiest cactus costumes. The razzliest and dazzliest cactus costumes. The pastiest and brassiest. On to the costumes!

Up first:

Student in recycled materials cactus costume. Horizon School, Marin (CA).

And this one is an adult dressed as a cactus with a tail, as brough to to you by Coca Cola.

Finally this is a homemade Saguaro costume that is more cute than you all deserve. MORE CUTE!

A new cactus lamp has finally made it onto the market, if you live in Europe. I don’t know of any US distributors but that’s probably only because I haven’t checked for any.

Cactus Table lamp
Brand: LZF

Designer Miguel Herranz
Cactus is a likeable and elegant table lamp made of wood veneer strips. Switched off it creates an interesting volume, and switched on it increases its beauty defining interesting volume, and switchd on it increases its beauty defining interesting patterns by the superposition of the different wood strips.

And it costs 271.83 € so you know it must be most excellent, and not just “likeable and elegant” which it certainly is also of course. I would totally agree with that marketing assessment. However the rest of the description looks like it went through a bad translator. “Increases its beauty defining interesting volume” is not a meaningful phrase in the English language. Maybe it was translated from an original Swedish, but through a midpoint of Italian and then to the French before finally landing on English.

Here let me show you how that works, but starting with English and then through Swedish etc and back to English: “The fox and the dog came to London to learn a new language” through the multi-language translator stuff comes back out into English as, “Fox and the dog came to London to learn a new language”. Huh! They’ve improved the translator programming. How about that.

Last week I posted a picture of a cactus skirt by a company called Nasty Girl, although they were out of the skirt. Now this week we see that a company called koshka has a cactus dress for sale and its in stock! and it turns out that it is the exact same fabric!

Nice use of fabric. I wonder who the fabric designer is, and where we can buy the fabric, and if we bought the fabric what we could do with it – would you buy a cactus print muffler from us? a cactus print finger warmer? a cactus print fabric square? a cactus print laptop bag?

(Thanks to Angie for the link)

Apparently nobbly guitar picks are called “cactus picks” and you can buy them pre-nobbly-ed in 3 packs.

You never know where the word “cactus” is going to take you on the interwebs.

…and then cut into the shape of a skirt. It’s Cactus Maxi Skirt by Nasty Girl.

Now sold out, so you’re too late. But here’s a closeup of the pattern. You can export this and then make a wallpaper pattern out of it if you like. Not that I’m giving you permission, since I don’t own the rights to this, but if I did I would.

Apparently a NY nail polish manufacturer named one of their yellow nail polishes after a succulent or a cactus or something.

This is the color. They called it Baby Toes Cactus, which I suppose refers to Fenestraria, i.e. Baby Toes, although it’s not a cactus.

Here’s the full bottle:

And just so you know, this fabulous cactus or succulent or mesemb color has been discontinued.

Noooo!!!!!!

In case you were wondering, this is the real color of a Fenestraria aurantiaca flower, i.e. Baby Toes Yellow.

And the actual flower:

Lotus “Amazon Sunset”

Lotus “Gold Flash”

Don’t be looking to me for approval.

Succulent Ornaments

They call these living ornaments, even though they are cuttings that cannot survive, and indeed they say they will only last on your tree for a few weeks before dying. So that’s not really a living ornament, more like a zombie ornament.

And they are expensive. It’s a cutting! With a piece of wire.

(And don’t get me started with their wreaths…)

Kung Fu Maintenance gives a brief video tour of a cactus garden with huge cacti.

A little subtle for my taste, especially the closeup of the middle part of an agave bloom stalk. Subtle.

I don’t know why anyone wouold make such a cute porcelein girl and place her next to a skeleton, even if it is a cactus skeleton.

Porcelain Girl with Cholla Cactus Skeleton Birdhouse Friends

How odd.

Anyway, it’s for sale at that link above in case you care to try it out for size on your windowsill at your own home, far away from me.

Well, not really a jacket, more like a safety vest.

Keith found this and wants me to get them for the crew at the store. Then they will be really visible whenever a customer needs help. Fluorescent colors are the best colors.

But most of all it’s the tie that makes us respect the cactus.

Here we have a very interesting specimen, a Star Wars Yoda Terrarium, by Megatone230.

Yoda Terrarium – Hanging Moss Zen Garden – Star Wars / Empire Strikes Back

Yoda… you seek Yoda!
Take you to him I will…

This small ceramic planter is a bit pricey, but it does come with the one little plant too.

Eley, by The Sill

Actually, it’s a gorgeous pot, but it would be better if it had drainage.

Cheri sent this in and wants you to know that Jane in San Francisco has a cactus pendant for sale on etsy. And not just any handmade cactus pendant, this being etsy and all, but a vintage handmade cactus pendant.

vintage cactus pendant necklace

this pendant is a mystery to me. seems like a black glass or enamel with a super-fine painting of a cactus with blooms. that is set into what i believe to be a sterling casing, although it is not marked. hung on a 16.5″ black cord with clasp. sweet piece.

Good to know!

OK, so Urban Farmgirls actually makes these pots in San Francisco, all the way across the bay, but we still consider them local. Because that’s just the way we are.

Our new order with lots of new shapes and materials has come in. And it’s spectacular.

No cactus here. This is an egg in a cup.

Fake cactus? I found them for you, online, ready to order.

Here we see a classic fake Cereus peruvianus, aka the Night Blooming Cereus, however not to worry, these don’t bloom and so won’t attract bats to your home late at night to come pollinate the large white flowers, that don’t exist on these fake plants.

And this is something pretty impressive, an 8ft. tall Saguaro, with seams and everything.

If you click through you’ll also get to see fake Pachypodiums, fake Euphorbias, and even fake 4″ mixed cactus and succulents for your tabletop. Now that’s service. Oh, and Science! too.

And in case you were wondering they also have fake orchids, fake topiary, and a gargoyle smoking water fountain. Hah!

I wonder if other fancy chocolatiers make prickly pear flavored truffles too, or if it’s just Meeteetse Chocolatier, from Meeteetse, Wyoming.

You can’t tell from the picture, but the description says,

Prickly Pear Cactus Truffle
Prickly Pear Cactus Fruit blended with a dark chocolate ganache and enrobed in a Belgian dark chocolate shell. Sweet cactus fruit with a mild melon-fig taste.

And it’s only £14.00! And don’t forget that…

Price includes VAT.

Excellent.

I don’t know anything about this. The website I got the picture from doesn’t say anything about it.

My googly research didn’t find anything substantive.

So it’s off to the guesses!

It looks like it’s in a gallery, so it’s considered to be art, and not furniture. Art, which means it’s sculpture. And that means it was carved out of granite, since all sculpture is carved out of granite, with the thumbtacks applied liberally at a later date. This implies that it must be in a gallery that is near a quarry, because how else? So I did do some research after all and have determined that it is from a quarry in Indiana. Specifically, the Hardstone Quarry of Jasper, Indiana. Within a 16 mile radius there is 1 museum and 3 art galleries, 2 of which are dedicated to Australian Aboriginal Art (Strange!) while the Museum is the National Museum of Historic Zoological Specimens. That leaves us with the Heatherton Gallery of Fine Arts in Winston, IN which does have a resemblance to the room in the photo. Solved!

Carole sends along a link to this thing that has power and cactus and outlets and fun!

I love the description, too

Power Cactus, the Best Multi Plug-In Device

Italian brand Manifattura&Design proves creativity has no limits! The original power device is both aesthetic and functional because it adds some “atmospheric” lighting to your room. Wouldn’t you like to have an ‘electric cactus’ in a flower pot instead of a white, common, plastic multiple plug-in?  In fact, Power Cactus can complete the statement of a house or improve a room’s decoration and give the feeling one is looking for. The designer said that it functions as in a perfect embrace, the light winds its thread around the Cactus to find the power in the trunk of the tree. (Italics added)

I love a copywriter who would say that “Creativity has no limits!” with an exclamation at the end! The awesome power of the copywriter.