Echinopsis grandiflora “Tropical Pink” for the win! First out of the gate for giant Cactus flowers for spring. We have had some Rebutia flowers already, and of course Mammilaria too, but these are the winners.
Cactus Flowers for Spring!
Ice Plants, Marin County
Peacock Drive, San Rafael
It’s a massive cluster of Delosperma in San Rafael. I think it’s Delosperma cooperi, but maybe a cultivar of cooperi like “Jewel of Desert Rosequartz”. Either way, it’s a little bit stunning.
Giant Yellow Cactus Flower
Common Name: Purple Prickly Pear
Origin: Arizona, New Mexico, Texas; Mexico
Large round pads covered in glochids, blue-grey in summer turn purple in cold. Yellow flowers.
Hardy to 15F
Full Sun to Part Shade
Low Water
Titanopsis
Titanopsis calcareum is the knobbly little mesemb with the big dreams. They dream of living their best life in the city on a sunny windowsill in a small apartment where they can get the best care from you that your limited attention can give them. And nothing more! It’s enough!
Sunrise Pincushion
Leucospermum “Sunrise”
South Africa
Evergreen Shrub
Medium sized shrub with serrated leaves and red tips. Gorgeous multicolored pincushion flowers of salmon, yellow, orange, and red. Tolerates a wider range of soils than most Leucospermums.
Hardy to 25-30F
Full to Part Sun
Low Water
5-6ft
Blooming Airplants
Giant Airplants Specimen in Bloom
Tillandsia aeranthos hybrid
Portuguese Squill
Scilla peruviana is busting out in blooms all over.
Giant Scilla
Mediterranean
Deciduous Bulb
Summer dormant bulb in the Hyacinth family, in fall develops a compact rosette of 18″ long leaves. In spring, forms 6″-12″ tall flower stalks densely topped with numerous small lavendar flowers.
Temperature: Hardy to 10F
Sun: Full Sun
Dry Shade Lenten Rose
Gorgeous winter flowers, shade tolerant! Dry in summer! Hellebores are the best.
Helleborus “Sparkling Diamond”
Lenten Rose
Eurasian Hybrid
Evergreen Perennial
Great for dry shade. Long-lasting sparkling white flowers with green centers. Deer resistant.
Hardy to below 0F
Part Shade to Shade
Water Moderate; Drought Tolerant
1ft
Caudiciform Spurge
Fancy bloom there in the fork of the leaves! Euphorbia trichadenia is South African. Caudex, branches, blooms in the fork of the leaves. Nice!
Buddha’s Stacked Succulents
We’ve been growing some beautiful specimens of Crassula “Buddha’s Temple” are ready. We’ll keep growing these slow-growing succulents until we have a giant specimen, large enough to form the pillars of a doll-house sized temple. That’s big! I think. I’ve never seen a doll-house sized temple so I’m not really sure.
More Blooming Cacti
A late blooming Echinopsis grandiflora hybrid that we like to call “Tropical Pink”. Nice!
Green Spaghetti Plant
Common Name: Green Spaghetti Plant
Origin: Madagascar
Pendant “stick” plant, minimal leaves. Striped flowers.
No Frost
Part Shade
Low Water
Jester
Sunshine Conebush
Origin: South Africa
L. salignum “Jester”
Evergreen Shrub
Dense, vigorous growing shrub with strongly, brightly, visibly variegated leaves. Red bracts are great for arrangements. Good for coastal gardens.
Temperature: Hardy to 25°F
Sun: Full Sun
Water: Low
Gumby Plant
South Africa
Stemless, clumping, flattened rosettes. Yellow flowers
Part Sun
Extra Chunky Soil
Keep dry, water sparingly
Tiny Flowers
Those are some very small, tiny, Crassula perforata flowers. So small that in person they just look like dead flowers. But no, up close they are alive. ALIVE!
Interesting Framing
Aloe ferox at the Cactus Jungle on a sunny day.
It’s all good.
Common Name: Cape Aloe
Single large toothy rosette on tall stalk, outdoor up to 8ft.
Hardy to 20-25F
Full Sun to Part Sun
Saturday Morning Succulents
What’s the best succulent for a Saturday morning? Some might say a Euphorbia anoplia is appropriate for a Saturday morning.
Gorgeous Tiny Stapeliad Flowers
Cynanchum marnierianum
Amazing little flower, but look there’s 8 more buds too!
The plant itself is all hanging bare stems. Practically a “stick plant” I’d you ask me.
Star Cactus
Ariocarpus fissuratus vibrantly blooming in autumn.
Common Name: Star Rock, Chaute
Origin: Big Bend, Texas; Mexico
Description: Slow-growing to 10″d; hairy center; summer blooms; keep dry in winter
Hardy to 25F
Full Sun
Extra Chunky Cactus Soil
Low Water
Umbrella Flower
Ceropegia sandersonii has giant umbrealla, or parachute-like flowers! Very unusual vining Stapeliad.
Common Name: Parachute Plant, Umbrella Flower
Origin: Mozambique, South Africa, and Swaziland
Description: Vining Stapeliad with massive unusual parachute-like flowers.
Characteristics:
Hardy to 45F
Part Sun
Low Water
Blooming Cactus Flowers
Beautiful Ariocarpus retusus flowers!
Common Name: Living Rock Cactus, Seven Stars, Chaute
Origin: Mexico
Description: Highly variable, possibly through hybridizing. Slow-growing to 10″d; hairy center; summer blooms. Keep dry in winter
Temperature: Hardy to 15F
Arizona Star
Common Name: Weber’s Agave, Maguey Liso
Origin: Mexico, Cultivar From Arizona
Description: 6ft. rosette, striped leaves curve outward
Temperature: Hardy to 15F
Echinopsis Flower
Echinopsis x grandiflora hybrid “Butterfly Mango” showing off.
Summer Cactus Flower
It’s a cholla in full bloom! Well, it’s a single cholla flower. At least! Maybe I could zoom out and we’d see if there are more flowers.
And it’s a California native cactus too.
Chain-Fruit Cholla, Boxing glove Cholla
Origin: California, Arizona, New Mexico, Baja California
Medium height tree cholla, to 6ft tall. Flowers in summer.
Hardy to 5F.
Easter Lily Cactus
Origin: South America
Description: Forms clumps. Stems are variable – 2-10″ diameter; spines are variable, not always present. Large tubular showy flowers range from pinkish white to lavender, sometimes light red.
Temperature: Hardy to 20F
Full Sun to Part Sun
Pincushion Protea, Berkeley
Leucospermum “Scarlet Ribbons”
Common Name: Nodding Pincushion
Origin: South Africa
Description: Evergreen Shrub
Medium sized shrub with serrated leaves and red tips. Gorgeous multicolored pincushion flowers in yellow, orange, pink, and scarlet. Tolerates a wider range of soils than most Leucospermums.
Temperature: Hardy to 25-30F
Sun: Full Sun
Water: Low
Size: 5ft
Another Cute Mesemb
Smooth skin, not knobbly.
Gibbeum dispar
Knobbly Mesembs
Cute South African succulents in the Mesemb Family, also known as the Iceplant Family, also known as the Living Stone Family. Indeed! To be clear the actual family name is Aizoaceae, Sub-Family Ruschioideae. And yet they’re called Mesembs because at some point in the past the family was called Mesembryanthemaceae. And some will dispute the current family name anyway, and insist these all belong under Ficoidaceae instead. Don’t get me started!
Small dense clumps of speckled blue-green leaves sit on large tuberous roots, which can be esposed over time to form an unusual bonsai. Yellow flowers in spring.
Small clumper forms dense mats of thick open leaves. Winter-growing, keep dry in summer. Grows in limestone strewn areas.
Ceropegia Flower Just Starting to Open
Ceropegia serpentina is one of the strangest succulents with a basically bare stem that travels in weird directions. Until it blooms. Here it is just starting to open. And there are more than a dozen more buds still to come!
Stapeliads for everyone!
Carrion Flowers
These are among the stinkiest carrion flowers ever!
Orbea lutea ssp vaga
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