Apparently there’s an emerging market for cactus products grown in a cactus growing region of Japan. Apparently that region is the city of Kasugai, Aichi Prefecture.

Toshihiro Isaji, manager of the cactus shop Sabobase in Toriimatsu town, shows off a variety of products made from cactuses. Photo: CHUNICHI SHIMBUN

It’s all very delicious, I’m sure, but do they know how to cook it properly so that it doesn’t turn to mush? That’s the trick. So restaurants are starting to pick up the slack,

the unit price can be as expensive as ¥1,000, depending on the size

I like the T-shirt in the photo. I wonder where I can get one?

The moms at The Stir on Cafe Mom are recommending succulent centerpieces for Thanksgiving this year as a low cost option. Good choice.

They have lots more pictures on their blog to go with that photo of silver vintage champagne glasses, although I do have to say those are some of the nicest silver vintage champagne glasses I’ve ever seen filled with succulents in my entire life. I also recommend leaving them in there for only a short while, since you don’t want to be drilling holes in the bottoms of those silver vintage champagne glasses, now do you?

Who knew it was possible. La Belle Bride makes the discovery in Palm Springs, and all things succulent take a turn to the precious.

Photography: Ryan Jensen Photography

Apparently, cactus cigarettes is what’s next out of China.

I’ll post a picture of the package when they get a package for me to post.

From the SF Weekly (is that still publishing?) we find out that succulents are a top target for thieves.

Area residents in both Bernal and the Excelsior recently reported thefts — or cuttings — had been made of their succulent plants…

But why succulents? Are they particularly hardy? Particularly easy to repot and resell? Particularly easy to transport? Particularly hard to kill?

“Yes to nearly all of those,” answers Jake Sigg…

So keep your eyes on your plants, San Francisco. And, would-be succulent thieves — the cops are on to your game.

I recommend a bike lock.

This one is only $219.95, but nobody will steal your Echeveria or Graptopetalum with that hefty deterrent.

on Lake Merritt.

We’ve been contacted by the artists to participate in this project, and we hope to be able to contribute for the big giant floating succulent terrarium.

Here’s a very nice write-up of the project.

In the Bay Area, you don’t have to go far to find beautiful plants near sparkling waters. But, two Oakland artists have a more creative vision. They hope to showcase plants on water – with a giant terrarium that will float atop Lake Merritt.

The “Wonderarium,” a 3,000-pound, 8-foot acrylic sphere, is the dream of Yvette Molina, 38, and Sarah Filley, 39. They plan to construct it, fill it with an exotic array of brightly colored plants, light it with LED lights, and mount it on a floating platform. The target date for completion is in 2012, and the artists believe their project will appear to hover magically above the lake….

To encourage and build children’s interest in the project, the pair taught a carnivorous terrarium-building workshop at the UC Botanical Gardens, participated in the East Bay Mini Maker fair on Oct. 24, and are now brainstorming ideas for classroom visits, planned for the fall of 2011. Meanwhile, for the child in everyone, they created the carnival-like “mobile plant ambassador + succulent circus,” an ice-cream cart with a 24-inch Wonderarium prototype affixed to the front…. From the cart, they pass out succulents in ice cream cups, hoping to garner support for the Wonderarium.

I don’t have any snark to add to this at all. I guess I’m just not up to the full extent of all the responsibilities of my blogging duties. Oh, the humanity.

No, wait! That was some Grade B Snark! Certainly not my A-List best, but close enough for you, my loyal readers, right?!? Thank you and good night.

From Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand, the local newspaper finds that an agave in bloom is a sweet mystery for the residents.

There’s a strange presence in Haumoana that has curious onlookers stumped.

Outside Paula Novak’s art gallery a 5m stem protrudes from a plant… 60cm in diameter and began its growth spurt about six months ago. The unusual plant is subject to speculation from visiting garden groups, locals and visitors, many of whom liken it to a giant asparagus….

They believed it was a form of century plant, which produced a spike that reached heights up to 8m before flowering.

Locals were watching with interest in the hope of witnessing the rare flowering…

Anyone who can shed light on the plant could contact him at the gallery on 875 0061.

So I’m sure you all can help these people out with the information they need. They kindly printed a phone number if you wanted to call them in Haumoana and fill them in on the life cycle of the agave.

But wait! Don’t call New Zealand just yet! First, let me tell you a little something about this Haumoana:

The Kingdom of Haumoana is a coastal settlement just south of the Tukituki River outlet in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand… 10 kilometres east of Hastings;

it incorporates a school, a Church, a General Store, a takeaway shop, a garage, a hall and a Fire Station. The village has developed as a bach settlement and the surrounding area has historically been used for sheep and cattle grazing…

Every year I feature cactus costumes in October on the blog. This year I’ve decided to do something different. This year I am going to pass judgement on these things.

For you, I offer the best and worst of the year in cactus costumes.

1. The Best for 2010

This one is handmade by Cyndi in Meridian, ID. She says, “The homemade cactus costume was a complete original design and was sewn from fleece, twine, fake flowers, and pot from the dollar store.”

Excellent!

2. The Worst for this year, and maybe some other years too.

This one comes from City Fancy Dress in Brisbane (presumably in Australia) under their category, “Something Different.” Indeed. Different does not mean better, clearly.

Interesting look at the Pitaya market and new varieties being developed to be tastier and use even less water. These are from the night-blooming Hylocereus from Central America, although the Pitaya name can also be applied to many different cactus fruit. The more common name around here is Dragon Fruit.

The most interesting part is the difficulties with pollinating a night-blooming plant when it’s been taken out of it’s native habitat, away from it’s night-pollinator.

Maybe I should add a margarita recipe to this post. What do you think?

Well, this is what I found:

Red Dragon Cocktail

*Vanilla Vodka
*Stawberry Liqueur
*Dragon fruit
*strawberry
*Vanilla syrup

You should click through for the instructions, but the instructions are really just to pour it all together and stir. Easy enough.

From Alex’s Cocktails in the UK.

…in Hong Kong, where it’s not technically illegal.

A 61-year-old florist and his middle- aged assistant have been arrested for allegedly promoting the sale of a cactus plant as an alternative to the mind- bending drug ketamine.

The Lophophora williamsii cactus, pictured, is not on Hong Kong’s dangerous drugs list but has for centuries been linked with transcendence practices and psychedelic psychotherapy. It is commonly known as peyote.

Narcotics Bureau officers raided Exland Nursery on Flower Market Road on Sunday afternoon and seized 34 pots of the plant for testing. A label saying “Lophophora Williamsii = Ketamine” was attached to the plants at the nursery.

The lesson is clear – don’t sell peyote in Hong Kong as a substitute for an illegal drug. I would add that this is a good policy in the US too, where peyote is specifically illegal.

The website doesn’t have a picture of the florist or the peyote but for some reason there is this image on the page.

From a newspaper called the Gaston Gazette comes this local story of a local woman who made it into her local newspaper for getting a cactus to bloom!

Hilda Olive with a blooming ‘Epiphyllum oxypetalum,’ commonly known as an orchid cactus, that she has been plant-sitting for her niece at her Gastonia home on Saturday October 16, 2010. The plant rarely blooms, and only at night, with flowers wilting before dawn.
Photo: Ben Goff / The Gazette

I wonder where this Gaston place is? I don’t know, but searching around their website, I found this reference to a local Scottish Heritage Day, with video of bagpipers at work (NSFW if your place of business doesn’t allow bagpipers).

Make sure you click the photo for the full size version. It gets a lot bigger…

Here’s an interesting story of cactus being used as part of the admissions process to Oxford. I assume its a good subject because the information is readily deducible and yet most applicants don’t already have a prior knowledge of the inner workings of the cactus.

Teenagers being interviewed for a place at Oxford might be handed a cactus and asked to describe it… according to sample questions released by the university today in an attempt to demystify its admissions procedure….

The interviewer who set the cactus question, Martin Speight, of St Anne’s College, said: “We give the student a cactus in a pot and a close-up photo of the cactus’s surface structure and ask them to describe the object in as much detail as possible using the plant and the photo. We are looking for observation, attention to detail, both at the large and micro scale.”

Candidates seeking a place on an undergraduate degree in biological sciences are expected to deduce why the cactus is bulbous, or why it has a particular array of spines.

“There will frequently be more than one logical answer to these questions, and we are likely to follow one answer with another question – for example: ‘The big spines are to stop the cactus being eaten, yes, but by what sort of animals?’,” Speight said.

“We would also bring in more general questions at the end of the cactus discussion such as what are the problems faced by plants and animals living in very dry habitats such as deserts.”

As a followup I would ask: if the challenges of the animals living in the desert include dealing with the spines on the cactus, and the challenges of the cactus include animals that want to get past the spines and eat it, how has this particular balance been maintained for so long?

However for today’s class we’re asking all of you loyal readers to describe everything you see in the above photo, using as many botanical terms as possible. Extra points for correct use of the word “Aureoles” and double scores for use of the phrase “Ripped apart by a javelina in heat”.

The Baltimore Sun apparently interviewed Debra Lee Baldwin about her book, Succulent Container Gardens. I say apparently, because there’s no interview posted. Who knows what’s going on in Baltimore.

But anyway, they recommend the book, so that’s enough!

And they have a succulent photo too.

Cactus, of course. It’s the Southern California way.

The Palomar Cactus & Succulent Society will hold a plant show and sale from 9 a.m to 5 p.m. Oct. 23 and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 24 at the San Diego Botanic Garden, 230 Quail Gardens Drive, Encinitas. The opening judging is from noon to 3 p.m. The public will be able to follow along as the judges comment on entries and make their selections in seven divisions of cacti and succulents for both novice and advanced participants. The judges also will announce the best cactus, best succulent and best in show winners. The plant vendors will have specimens for collectors as well as beginners.

In case anyone was wondering, my brother in law who lives in Austin was attacked by a serial killer 30 years ago and lived to tell about it, right here on the radio from earlier today.

New Jersey resident writes in to her local newspaper, and they print her story and a photo too.

I do not know the technical name for this cactus plant, but my dad called it a prickly pear cactus. He owned a home in Westwood. I transplanted a couple of cuttings and it has thrived — with bright yellow flowers — every year in front of my home for 20 years.

— Donna Keith, Park Ridge

Anyone want to help Donna out with a species name?

In Capalaba, QLD there’s a garden that just blows away the local neighbors. It’s Anne’s garden and she is so much in demand she opened her garden to tourists this past weekend. I hope they had a lovely garden party for all.

Avid gardener Anne McBurnie (opened) her Capalaba garden (last) weekend. Bromeliad gardens are featured on Anne’s property. Photos: Chris McCormack

From Anne’s grandmother’s garden came the cactus and succulents. But if you were there, you also got to enjoy this:

Entry fee is $7 and includes a Devonshire tea on the shaded back porch.

Outstanding.

8 foot plastic cactus is up for auction in the Hudson Valley.

I’ll be there! How about you?

SPECIAL: Approximately 15 lots from the original Broadway production of the “Producers” including Russian Ural motorcycle w/sidecar, stage piano, stage side cabinet, 2 water coolers, various other pieces – not to mention the 8 foot plastic cactus.

I love that show! It’s a steal, at half the price!

Oops, I forgot to post this, but in about an hour there’s a succulent container class in Lake Forest, CA, if you happen to be over there, that is, at the last minute and needed something to do.

at Living Green Nursery, find out all about succulents with horticulturist Erick Lux, and learn how to design and plant succulent container gardens with Dee McCartan. Then after class, you are invited to build your own succulent container at the nursery…. Join us Saturday the 16th at 10:00 am

If you missed out on the class, Lake Forest is also famously proud of their July 4th parade, and that’s still coming up in a few more months or so.

In case you didn’t know, Palomar College in San Marcos (CA) near Oceanside, also known as North of San Diego, has a cactus garden, and it’s well tended by a volunteer. Also, the local newspaper there is called the Telescope.

Media Credit: Deb Hellman
One of the flowering cactuses in the college’s extensive cactus and succulent collection tended by Richard Henderson year round.

If you were hanging out on your balcony and it started to wobble a bit, what would you do? Karl Schmidt of Munich decided to save his cactus. Nice!

Karl Schmidt… popped onto the balcony… and it collapsed under him in Munich, Germany.

He said: “I felt it moving so I grabbed my cactus and dashed back into the flat just as it tipped over….”

And here’s the photo of the collapsed balcony.

No word on how the cactus is doing.

I’ll be taking a break from the blog for a week, with some light posting only.

Lots of new plants at the store for October, here.

The Pittsburgh Gazette, or Tribune, I forget which, is recommending Sedums to their readers this year.

Here’s a photo of Sedum “Angelina”. Just don’t try to take a cutting of this fast grower and trade it with your neighbor – it’s patented and they could sue your pants off.

A recommendation to plant this amazing scrabbling cactus in Ft. Myers Florida, from the Ft. Myers News-Press, Selenicereus grandiflorus.

It’s a cactus, all right, but parched desert is not required. In fact, this nocturnal beauty is entirely at home in the subtropics. A robust climber, cereus will happily vine its way up trees (sabal palms work particularly well) or spill from hanging pots. Once or twice a year, it blooms. Each starry flower lasts just one night, and is followed by an edible, egg-shaped crimson fruit. When they’re open, the blossoms have a sweet, floral/vanilla scent. The green ribbed stem is segmented and sometimes covered with white fur. Near the blossom, the stem takes on a reddish color.

Very pretty.

Turns out it includes steel planters and succulents. My favorite combination! Either that or a combination of vodka and, well, no need for anything else really, just the vodka will do. Anyway, here’s the garden in question.

Everything changed for designer Dustin Gimbel when his client Linda Sackin in Huntington Harbor spotted the sleek metal planters that Gimbel installed her in son’s landscape.

Before, Gimbel had lovingly designed and cared for a formal garden in Sackin’s Victorian-esque home. “It was all black slate, cottage flowers and boxwoods,” said Gimbel of the symmetrical garden he tended for two years.

Lots more modern planters and succulent photos if you click through. Look for the Squid Agaves!

This weekend.

The Fort Worth Cactus and Succulent Society’s show and sale continues Saturday at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden. You can choose from thousands of succulents that usually aren’t sold in this area. It’s 8 a.m.-5 p.m. at 3220 Botanic Garden Blvd., Fort Worth.

Do you think anyone reads these notices I post and didn’t already know about these things and goes?

It turns out that the key to growing succulents in the UK is to get them under a cold frame before winter while they’re still dry. And I thought the key was to bring them indoors by the fire while you’re sipping tea.

They overwintered in pots in the cold frame. All the succulents survived the winter in that same completely unheated cold frame. The secret is to get them under cover while the pots are still quite dry. In winter, succulents are more likely to rot off because of damp, than shrivel because of cold.

The Cotswold Wildlife Park and Garden, Burford, Oxfordshire OX18 4JW is open daily (10am-6pm, last admission 4.30pm); admission £11.60. For more information go to cotswoldwildlifepark.co.uk

Apparently the succulent bouquet idea for weddings isn’t going away anytime soon. The hot trend from 3 years ago is still the hot trend.

Succulents are always in style, but their deep, rich colors are a natural fit for Fall weddings. Luscious centerpieces filled with these hearty plants will look sophisticated set in vintage silver vases and pails scoured from flea markets and thrift shops.

For bouquets, compliment your succulents with vibrant flowers in purples, magentas, and blues, from organic and local growers.

We do centerpieces for a lot of weddings these days, but always potted, never cut. People come to us because we’ll pot up hundreds of little succulents for them in their own special little pot, and then they group them as centerpieces and everybody gets to take one home. Sometimes we even plant up larger mixed succulent pots for a special centerpiece too.