It’s always about the golfing here on the blog, since they don’t play football among the cactus.

HENRIK STENSON: It was a really tough day. Lot of desert visits and picking up cactus. Bit painful at times up the back, especially on the second extra hole. I had to back up into the cactus.

Ouch, indeed. Those golfers really have to be tough these days, especially with the Tiger coming back.

For sansevierias.

Hot dry rooms: Central heating is the kiss of death for many house plants, but heavenly for those that like dry conditions, such as Sansevieria trifasciata.

We want pictures!

OK, here’s one for you, and I didn’t steal it from the Times of London. It’s my own lovely picture.

This one’s called “Hahnii” and I blogged it as recently as back in December, or so. I don’t have anything to add, except to note that in the UK they seem to recommend it for hot dry rooms, and I will tell you right now it also doesn’t need a lot of light, another reason it is favored in the UK.

I don’t know what that is. I don’t know what that means. Apparently in Oregon they plant pizzas. I don’t know why. It’s a good thing there’s an article to go with this whole concept in the Oregonian. Now if only I would read it, but well, you know me and my laziness. In fact, it seems to have become a rule. An interesting choice of rules for a daily blogger.

The Oregonian
My plant “pizzas” aren’t this appealing after a winter in the greenhouse.

It certainly is a nice picture of a plant pizza. I wonder if the plant pizza movement is related to the green roof movement, since it seems they use a lot of the same plants? Ah well, I’ll never know now.

(Christina House / For The Times)

A tour of historical gardens

The conservancy’s two-day program, “Gardens That Re-Make Themselves: A Discourse on Regeneration, Sustainability, and Preservation,” will feature lectures by local designers, landscape architects, botanists, architects and historians. Home tours will include several gardens in Pasadena, including this private residence.

I don’t know what they’re talking about. It’s a mystery to me. But it’s pretty, so who am I to argue. Maybe you can figure it out.

Man, this is some lazy blogging from me. I really should figure out what this is about, go down there myself and interview the participants, take my own photos rather than steal the LA Times’, and do some work for you, my patient and understanding readers.

Yes, I should do all that.

Tomorrow in Los Angeles! Hurry!

Succulents peek out the sides of their containers in one garden to be featured in the Garden Conservancy event… Feb. 28.

Oops, we’re  going to miss it.  You don’t have to. Maybe they’ll have another one soon? We can hope.

I’m feeling jaded these days; reading so many newspaper articles about cactus and succulents over the years has me bored. I want better pictures, more species featured. Hard-hitting news about cactus. You know what I mean?

Whispering Meadows Garden Club had its February meeting at the home of member Donna….

Valentine’s refreshments were served after Donna gave an interesting program on succulents she displayed in her sun-room.

Now that’s some news I can use, straight out of Fremont.

Yes, yes, we all have travel woes, like the time I forgot to take my tiny keychain knife off my keychain before flying (more below). So here’s someone with a column who has a cactus jelly tale to tell, a prickly run-in with the TSA.

Given the throngs of shoeless penitents getting themselves processed like so many heads of cattle, and the $15 check-in fee per bag, I opted for the TSA confiscating my prickly pear jelly.

I’m sure those TSAers had some nice toast for lunch.

As I was saying above, they were going to confiscate my small knife, which cost about $25, so I went to the newsstand, bought an envelope and put the knife in and gave the woman there $10 and asked her to mail it to me. And she did! Woohoo!

You wouldn’t think residents of Phoenix would need to be told to plant desert plants to save water, but then if you thought that you clearly haven’t been to Phoenix. From ABC’s KNXV-TV

A desert landscape can save hundreds of dollars a year

“After a few once-a-month waterings, a cactus will take care of itself,” says Rilé Leblanc, otherwise known as the Cactus Doctor.

I find such advice to be quite astute.

in the UK. Same as always, I always say.

South-west England’s usually-mild climate allows Mediterranean and southern hemisphere plants to grow.

But after the coldest January in Devon and Cornwall for more than a decade…  At the sub-tropical Glendurgan gardens, near Falmouth, a third of the plants have been lost or damaged. Succulents… were worst hit.

Well then, maybe they should be growing more of the cold hardy succulents like sempervivums and delospermas and fewer of the aloes and aeoniums. Did they ever think of that?

That was pretty rude of me. I apologize to all who were offended. And if you weren’t offended, then what were you thinking!?!

iZen Garden Version 1.7… users can now place… butterflies, cacti, and succulents into their gardens.

Good to know. Now you know. See, we provide quite the hi-tech service here at the cactusblog. I feel like patting myself on the back a little for this wonderful little gem of a news story that I am rambling on about right here, right now.

From Channel 9 News in Denver

There are many dozens of fascinating succulents native to Africa. 

Indeed there are. However, I would recommend repotting that lovely Pachypodium into a terra cotta pot that will breath better than a glazed pot with attached saucer, and never use green moss as a top dressing! What are you thinking!

In Colorado.

Then I added some lovely sage green tile to the floor and began growing succulents and cacti out on my new sun porch because they could handle the lower night temperatures.

Truly a lesson for us all.

The rich and fascinating variety of living things in the Galapagos islands has been revealed in its greatest-ever detail by researchers who, for the first time, have compiled a list of all the islands’ 4,388 species….

They include unique types of prickly pear cactus, which have developed into bizarre shapes and sizes in response to their location on the cut-off islands.

Some have evolved into trees, up to 12 metres high, and others have grown spines as soft as hair. Their fruits and flowers provide an important food for Darwin’s famous finches….

There is also Lonesome George – the sole remaining Pinta tortoise.

In New Zealand? But I thought they were all mild mannered there, judging from that zany show Flight of the Conchords.

It was interesting to see the spin they put out on the latest draft management plan for the Botanical Gardens in Saturday’s paper….

Apparently they will remove a lot of the cacti and replace them with succulents at a cost of approximately $75,000. Can we afford this?

A hot and heated discussion indeed. Oh wait…

If this is what you want, then you should tell the Gisborne District Council.

But if it is not what you want, then you should tell them that as well.

Well, that was pretty polite of them. Nevermind.

Flora Filipina 2009, the Philippine Orchid Society’s international horticultural and garden show, was last week at the Orchidarium Park in Quezon City Hall and I missed it. So did you, I suspect.

Cora and Anna Purificacion’s beautifully landscaped cactus and succulent exhibit, with huge Ferocacti in the background, a snaking Mammillaria species in the middle, and very creative utilization of Haworthia limifolia v. ubomboensis as ground cover.

Is that a blue ribbon I see?

Cactus, like people, can sunburn. But unlike people, the plant’s burn never goes away. It may seem odd that the heat-loving, desert-dwelling plants can be so sensitive, but that was just one of the tidbits of information offered Saturday during the weekly discussion at Green Things nursery’s winter horticulture series (AZ).

Well…. If it’s just a minor burn, the plant can heal over. Major burns can kill the plant, or cause permanent damage.

The University of South Florida has a lovely Botanic Garden, and the good people at the Tampa Tribune think the best part about it is the succulent house.

Take a stroll through the Botanical Gardens at USF and you’ll likely fall in love… Unrequited plant love is one of the top five causes of gardener heartache.

Angel wing begonia

There are several cultivars of angel wing, which takes its name from the shape of its leaves.

Hoya carnosa

Tribune photo by PENNY CARNATHAN
One of (our) favorite plant genera is hoya, which includes about 300 species of tropical climbers, many of them epiphytic vines.

Sometimes I  like to make up things about the articles I post. Like in this case, I’d like to imagine that the writer is actually a WWII bomber pilot from Connecticut who recently built a new greenhouse outside the kitchen backdoor, but it’s still too cold out there for the hoyas and begonias, so they’re languishing in the garage.

The Northwest Flower & Garden Show starts today.

Kevin Nortz / The Herald
Crassula (left), Echeveria ‘Metallica’ and Sedum ‘Angelina’ (right) are part of a 3-foot-by-5-foot living wall that will be featured in the “Sky’s the Limit” garden at the Northwest Flower & Garden Show.

They’re showing off green roofs.

Green roofing squares planted with sedums, solar panels and living walls, painstakingly built and crafted… with sedums and succulents forced into summer glory by T&L Nursery in Redmond.

We’re going this year, so look for us there. Hah! Just kidding. The nursery is buzzing with pre-spring activity so we’re staying put.

So this season of  Survivor is in the desert highlands of  Brazil, so they were bound to run into some cactus. Here’s one description of the upcoming season from Metro, which appears to be some kind of website, so you know they have good info.

“Survivor Tocantins” takes place in brutal high desert conditions…

Contestants have access to Cactus Juice (a combination of sunscreen and bug repellent) and essential medication (such as malaria pills), but no other personal items.

Wait, this so-called cactus juice is not the juice they personally squeeze out of a cactus, it’s a sunscreen product for sale? Why didn’t anyone tell me this? So let’s do the google and see what we come up with.

It’s true! Well this blog post has taken a turn. But back to Survivor. They’re bound to run into some cactus. So if you watch the show, let me know what they run into.

Just in time for V-Day

Courtesy of Maureen Gilmer
Older star cactus will produce many yellow flowers in spring when grown indoors or out.

Turns out it isn’t such a successful idea after all.

The (Hawaii) DOT… consider(ed) using the “ice plant”… which had (been) used (in California) along its roadsides.

The plant, originally from South Africa, proved to be highly invasive, forcing CalTrans to spend millions of dollars removing it…

Generally, the succulents and cactuses considered for use along state roadways do poorly when it comes to preventing erosion, he said.

However, the future of the barren roadsides is not necessarily bleak.

Think native plants.

That’s certainly reasonable.

I occasionally reprint articles from Austin, especially when it concerns a certain art car filled with cactus that the legal system has deemed a public nuisance. No cactus news today, but yesterday they quoted my sister about a bicycle thief. Woohoo!

In February 2008, Clayton had caught the attention of Abigail Mahnke, host of the KOOP radio show “Inner Views.” The weekly program focuses on “everyday people with extraordinary stories.” Clayton seemed to fit the bill.

The theme of (last) weekend’s Garden Show at Two Rivers Convention Center (wa)s “The Backyard Garden.”

Did I forget to mention this in advance? Oops.

If you need… advice on cactus, succulents, backflow prevention devices, (and) how to grow and use lavender… you can get all of these questions and more answered at the Garden Show. These are just a few of the exhibitors who will fill Two Rivers Convention Center in downtown Grand Junction.

Oops, too late. That was last weekend.

Saturday… 3 p.m., Winton Brophy, Chinle Cactus and Succulent Society, “Creating Unusual Dish Gardens.”

Well, I’m sure it was a good time for all who went.

Channel 9 News is on the story.

Mealy bugs can infest both indoor and outdoor plants, though I have the most difficulty with them in winter. The range of houseplants they attack range from African violets and orchids to cacti and succulents. They can be particularly difficult to eradicate because they congregate in hard-to-reach nooks and crannies.

Common control methods call for a Q-tip and rubbing alcohol, painstakingly swabbing each one.

That’ll keep you busy all winter long. You’ll forget the storms outside while sipping a little of your own alcohol too. I prefer limoncello. For me, not the plants.

I can’t recommend this online posting. I am not suggesting you do anything. This post, like the whole blog thing, is for entertainment purposes only.

CACTUS AND SUCCULENTS SOON TO BE PLOWED!

As many of us know, Eternal Hills has had their plan for expansion approved by the City of Oceanside and a number of State and Federal agencies….

This will be the last chance for you to cut or dig up many species of cactus and succulents that will be plowed under. There is access at the end of Dunstan and Eldean as well as a hole in the fence at the gate near the Fire Mountain reservoir. It is private property, so proceed at your own risk.

It doesn’t happen often, but last week a cactus changed the outcome of a major sporting event. And I’m not talking about Pittsburgh getting a cactus from Glendale, AZ for winning the Superbowl, though I hear that was incentive enough for Big Ben.

The thorns of the cactus that attached themselves to the fleshy side of Camilo Villegas‘ hand only added insult to injury….

Villegas’s adventure with the desert fauna happened on his next-to-last hole at the TPC Scottsdale. The towel his caddy was carrying caught some cactus and when Villegas reached out to clean his grip, his hand became a pin cushion.

For several minutes, Villegas tried in vain to pick the thorns out of his hand. One of his female fans offered a pair of tweezers that did the trick, though.

“I hit a great shot after that, and like I said, I missed the putt and then went on to bogey the last one and missed the cut by one,” Villegas said.

Oh, the humanity.

Gardening as an act of revolution? Believe it. Rogue planters push the law to sow the city.

Guerilla gardener “Scott” stops for a minute to lo(o)k over his median garden along Loynes Drive in Long Beach May 13, 2008. Scott has been tending the median garden since the 1990’s, planting succulents from his own home garden.

Some may ask if I approve of this outrageous and illegal and highly dangerous activity.

I do approve. Here, I wrote a poem about it:

Gardens appear
plantings in medians
trees in abandoned lots
making fresh air

From Science Daily, we find out that your alcohol consumption has contributed to the loss of traditional living in Mexico. How do you feel about that?

(T)equila’s surge in popularity over the past 15 years has been a boon for industry, but is triggering a significant hangover of social and environmental problems in the region of Mexico where the once-notorious liquor (distilled from the blue agave plant) is produced….

more after the break…. Read More…