…and it’s time to plant the cacti. I wonder if the plants can switch their internal yearly clock cycle around like that?

This comes from Otago, which may be a city in New Zealand, or the name of a newspaper, or a blogger, or a nursery or even a coffee house; who knows, I can’t be bothered to google it today.

Cacti and succulents can be raised from cuttings made during the next month. Photo by Gillian Vine.

Notice how they cleverly crop the photo to imply a cutting.

The drivers didn’t seem to notice, but they were being watched from a patrol car parked behind a cactus hedge just off Demaree Street. Visalia police Officer Jacob Heaton scanned the driver’s seat of each passing vehicle… looking for a driver passing by with his hand fixed to his ear, the telltale sign of a motorist flouting California’s 16-month-old law prohibiting adult drivers from talking on cell phones without hands-free devices.

Now you know: Don’t drive while talking on your cell phone… While driving past a cactus in Visalia. Actually, that’s probably good advice even if the police aren’t behind there, since that accident you are about to cause could land you in a cactus.

From one of the news sites I regularly read, Talking Points Memo, comes this insight about the failure that is Joe Lieberman, as told in a cactus joke.

But it became ever more clear yesterday that (Obama’s) “forgive and forget” policy toward Joe Lieberman was a big mistake.

I understand why Obama did what he did. It is summed up in (an) adage (that) states that the difference between a caucus and a cactus is that, on a cactus, the pricks are on the outside.

Oh, snap! See, that joke is funny because Joe Lieberman is a prick!

But unfortunately, any comparison between a cactus and Joe Lieberman would inherently be insulting to the cactus. He makes a jumping cholla seem friendly. Even a porcupine wouldn’t mate carefully with him (that’s another sophomoric spiny joke entirely. Sorry about that.)

Or Indian Summer, which is probably an offensive term. let me look it up. Seems safe.

So we’ll be doing some extra watering today. Or rather, Sam will.

The cactus thief is in prison.

A Tucson man was sentenced Tuesday to eight months in federal prison for stealing cacti from Saguaro National Park West.

And ABC15 was kind enough to include a stock photo of a saguaro with the article. This one looks too big to have been stolen with a pickup truck.

Now seems to be the time to bring your succulents indoor, if you live in Oregon, assuming they’re not alpine succulents, ’cause then you could leave them outside.

From the Oregonian:

Should I bring one more succulent indoors? I’m really tempted. Photo: Kym Pokorny

Kalanchoes should definitely come inside. They’re from Madagascar.

Beverly Hills home for sale, asking price only $3.5 mil.

Ellenbogen… had nearly 60 varieties of cactuses and succulents among the flowering plants.

“I have planted the garden so there is color 12 months a year,” he said.

OK, now it makes sense. A beautiful cactus and succulent garden will increase the value of any house, even in this tough market.

I wonder why they say “nearly 60 varieties.” Can’t they say “57 varieties” or whatever, and save a word? Newspapers are weird that way. Maybe he really does have 57 varieties, and they just didn’t want their readers to confuse this Beverly Hills doctor with ketchup.

Chehalem garden club meeting slated
The Chehalem Garden Club will meet at 7 p.m. Thursday in the meeting room at Coffee Cottage. The meeting will concentrate on cacti and succulents.

I wonder if that’s tonight? I wonder where Chehalem is? I love random bits. This one is from the Newberg Graphic. I wonder where Newberg is? Such mysteries that cannot ever be solved, except with the google. Except today – today we are to the Bing!

Well, that didn’t get me anything good. Lets try google after all.

It appears we could be talking about Chehalem Valley,  Oregon.

Pretty pastoral picture. So pretty…

I see the Ruth Bancroft Garden has declared Aloe greenii their Plant of the Month.

I don’t like Aloe greenii. I think you can see why in their photo.

The Burbank (CA) Leader has some simple advice for combating drought conditions.

plant succulents

Hurrah!

No photos, though.

In San Diego, only 1 in 20 have replaced water-intensive lawns with drought-tolerant gardens.

For every 20… front lawns… one homeowner… has put in something different — succulents, cactus, native shrubs….

I love picking quotes out of context from articles to prove my point. I mean, will you click through to the article at the Union-Tribune and check my math? I think not.

Wow! And what was San Diego like when first settled by Europeans in the 19th century?

“It was a most desolate looking landscape. The hills were brown and barren; not a tree or green thing was to be seen. Of all the dilapidated, miserable-looking places I had ever seen, this was the worst.”

Here’s the picture that went with the article.

The article included a caption that explains this dual photo, but I prefer to leave the impression that this is a before and after picture. It makes me feel naughty to recontextualize text and images so blatantly.

The Des Moines Register has the cutest photo ever.

First-grader Kael Carr carefully paints his Crazy Line Cactus. Students drew cacti to practice drawing their lines. (THANKS TO BETH COWELL FOR SUBMITTING THIS PHOTO)

From the New York Times, we find out that California growers are no longer being unfairly targeted by the Feds.

From the Sun-Times.

Succulents: Because these plants store water in their leaves, stems or roots, they can survive the winter with once-a-month watering as long as they are watered generously during the summer. Succulents favor bright spots, so place them in a south-[f]acing window. Aloe, agave and cacti are some of the more well-known succulents that make particularly great display plants.

Also, if you live in Chicago, don’t forget to take a vacation to a warmer spot. February is a good time of year to be leaving Chicago. And then you can leave your succulents behind in a sunny window while on vacation in a warmer climate and not have to worry about watering them. At that point, the real problem is the person you’ve got looking after your home will want to over-water them, and you’ll come back to some dead succulents. You can’t win. Pessimism will take hold in winter if you live in Chicago. So maybe you should think of moving to California. Preferably Southern California. Now that’s the ticket.

And all that from a tiny notice in the Chicago Sun-Times telling you to water less in winter.

Heavy rain at the nursery. There’s been a lot of early rain so far this season, so I am officially declaring the drought over. East Bay MUD, move over. Thank g-d, and just in time, too. Now let’s all have margaritas.

Details: Our average rain for October is 1.37 inches. We had 2.41 in. last week, and a couple more today. Yay!

New cactus chairs by Valentina Gonzalez from the Milan Design Week Preview, via Papermag.

I don’t think we will carry them at the store at this time.

The green roof phenomenon is spreading. Succulents are saving the day, yet again. The Phila. Inquirer writes about local college buildings that have gone green.

Princeton University’s first “green roof” on a dorm (in the newly rebuilt Butler College housing complex) includes monitors for students to track energy performance and storm water runoff compared with coventional roofs….

The sleek, 17-story Millennium Hall is Drexel University’s first green dorm. It features concrete walls that don’t need paint, windows that reflect heat but allow light indoors, and a lobby floor made of recycled tires. A “green roof” (actually on a one-story platform attached to the building) is planted with succulents.

The article doesn’t have pictures, but that won’t stop me. I’m armed with google, photoshop, a text editor, and the fastest fingers to type a blog post in Berkeley.

Engineer returns to lead Butler’s construction. Nick Caputo ’73 on a green roof of one of Butler College’s new dorms.

This residence hall… will incorporate many environmentally sustainable design features, including a 3,000 square-foot green roof to reduce storm-water run-off and heat-island effect and a rain screen panel system envelop to provide solar shading.

It is an extra muggy day here in Berkeley. All you people living in Florida probably think we’re wimps, but I don’t like this at all. It’s 66°F and 84% Humidity. Oh, the humanity.

And we’re busy setting up for our 2nd annual Native Plant Sale. (That’s 30% off all 1 and 5ga. natives 10/18-10/25) so you can imagine how muggy it must feel here.

…in Toronto.

Friends of Centennial Park Conservatory invite all to a special celebration to mark the 40th anniversary of their “treasure” in Etobicoke this month….

Meanwhile… the south wing arid house is filled with cacti, succulents and yuccas.

So there you go. Toronto wins. And what can you do to help celebrate?

On Sunday, Oct. 18, from 1 to 4 p.m. the Friends of Centennial Park Conservatory… will… (present) a framed print of a watercolour painting by Robert Hutchinson showing the Conservatory in its spring green glory…

The “Friends” will also be on hand with coffee and homemade apple pie, juice and cookies.

I love cookies! Maybe I should go. Let me check the airfares.

Oooooh…. not going this weekend to Toronto….

Toronto, ON Canada (YYZ)
7hrs 4min – 1 Stop
Change planes in Las Vegas, NV (LAS)

Flight #476 $1,017 per person

The latest addition to Mills College has a succulent green roof.

…sustainable design… succulents planted on the roof… a sculptural gesture at the end of the gathering hall…

The Lokey’s most important feature, though, is how it uses green design to make people feel at home.

And I do, I do feel at home.

Look, I’m feeling cynical right now, and nothing you can say can stop my cynic blogging. Maybe it’s the rain.

Florida cactus grow in the trees. It’s true! Tropical though it may be, jungle-like even, the cactus thrive in the trees.

Usually you think of giant saguaros and barrel cactus in the desert as being representative of the cactus family, but this is certainly not the case….

Here in South Florida, Pitaya (or as the old-timers call it, night-blooming cereus) was once fairly common on many residential properties. My old house had a huge live oak that hosted an immense amount of this thin, spiny cactus up to about 40 feet. Sometimes I would come home late at night and be greeted by the spectacle of hundreds of open, dinner-plate-size flowers and a delightful fragrance.

And they’re delicious! So many cactus to eat, so little time.

Saguaro National Park makes the news every ten years or so.

Saguaro National Park counts its saguaro cactus population every decade.

Good to know.

“In the past, we had more of the very tall ones, the older saguaros,” Swann said.  “But a lot of those older saguaros have died over the years.”

That can’t be good.

“The population seems to be coming back,” Swann said.

Yay!

(I)t will take time… “A saguaro that’s about an inch tall, is about seven years old,” Swann explained.

Indeed that is so. Sooooo slooooowwww….

When people used to regularly take saguaros out of the desert to put in their yard, they actually took a whole generation of medium-sized plants out. That’s why with the oldest saguaros dying, they’re not being replaced with new giants yet. It will take years for the newly protected babies to fill in behind that lost generation.

If you’ve got a big backyard, and landscape it well, then your local newspaper may do a feature story, like this one about a private backyard garden in San Jose,

…filled with a mix of bamboo, monkey paws, succulents and morning glories…

Including at least one Aeonium in a footed pot, judging by the picture.

It’s been 3+ years in the making, but it appears the cactus concept car may actually become a production car.

Citroën C-Cactus

I want one. I hope it’s electric. How do those headlights even work? They’ll probably only sell it in France.

But then again, since Obama won the Nobel, maybe it’s OK for the French to come to America again.

A cactus blooms in Decatur, and the newspaper is there to grab some photos. Six photos in fact, some of the bud, some of the bloom.

Jim and Judy Oettel watch one of two blooms on their night-blooming cereus slowly fade away. The plant hasn’t bloomed for five years, and the Decatur couple awoke Wednesday to see a flower that only lives for 12 hours. (Herald & Review/Kelly J. Huff)

This particular night-blooming cereus is an Epiphyllum. Interesting that there are Cereuses that are night-bloomers and are called night-blooming cereus, and then there are Epi’s that are day bloomers, and not cereuses, but are also called night-blooming cereus. In fact, I think all cactus with large white flowers are called night-blooming cereus. I do not know why. Maybe the Decatur Herald knows.

Wondering what to do in Texas today?

Those who want to plant this month can take advantage of the annual fall plant sale at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden. On Oct. 10, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., head to the Grove, the wooded area west of the Trial Garden and the Japanese Garden parking lot. You can choose from a wide assortment of trees, shrubs, grasses, groundcovers, perennials, vines and spring-flowering bulbs. The sale features many specialty plants grown at the Botanic Garden. In addition, rose, African violet, begonia, iris, daylily, cactus and succulent, and native plant societies will be selling plants.

Now you know. better hurry, or the best plants will be gone.

People ask us, and now we know the answer to this particular problem. Goes well with red wines, according to the wine-maker.

Cactus candles for the top of your cake, if you have a cake that is, that you’re decorating with an old west theme that is, for a young boy’s birthday.

Yay!