It’s an unnamed Hoya species. The flowers are pretty, if mostly white. The leaves are pretty standard Hoya, medium sized ovoid. Any ideas? Here’s a good place to look.

Of course, it’s probably one of the H. carnosa hybrids, but I refuse to stick my neck out for this guy.

Almost yellow flower.

Adenium somalense is from Somalia, Kenya and Tanzania and will grow a caudex to about 20″ It looks superficially like the more common A. obesum, but it’s smaller and the leaves are distinct and if you know the A. obesum flowers, you can tell that the petals on this one are also pretty distinct, although clearly an Adenium.

Unknown Gymnocalycium, also known as gymno’s.

Aloe somaliensis blooms are subtly colored and best viewed by holding the pot up high against the blue sky backdrop. A corner of a building looks good too. Make sure the wires are out of focus.

Bowiea volubilis in bloom. These are very small, hard to see and hard to photograph. You can see the lumpy discolored mass below that is the bulb. Exciting!

The Hatioras are finally blooming and just in time for Easter.

Mammillaria perbella is like an amoeba – it divides. And then it divides again. Nifty! We can see the two major lobes are dividing again into what will be four lobes. Sometimes they do a trick and divide into three lobes. Would that be called trivide?

Parodia rutilans from Uruguay is generally solitary, and only a few inches tall. But the stunning pale yellow Parodia blooms with the bright red pistil is pretty much standard on all the Parodias, formerly known as Notocactus.

Pelargonium ferulaceum is low shrubby, can handle full sun to light shade, and can be grown from cuttings or seed. Hardy in Berkeley.

You can see the out-of-focus caudex in the background of the picture. Should I show you a less fuzzy picture?

Another one of the brilliantly colored California Native succulent Lewisia cotyledons, this one is from the “Sunset Strain” family of cultivars.

Leucadendron “Pisa” is a vertically branched shrub that will get about 6ft. tall. Hardy down to the mid 20s, great for coastal gardens, and pretty as all get-out.

It’s pretty easy to prune the fresh branches if you need, though why you would want to deprive yourself of another cone flower is beyond my ken.

This Adenium arabicum “Shada” comes from Jebel Shada in Saudi Arabia.

Shada is also the name of an unaired episode of Dr. Who from the 70s written by Douglas Adams. No way!

The Echinocereus grandiflora hybrids are popping out all over.

It’s still a little early for the bees, but in the next couple weeks they’ll be getting drunk on these flowers by the gross.

Also known as the Zig Zag Plant. Selenicereus anthonyanus is often thought to be one of the Epiphyllums, or Orchid Cactus, because it’s a Central American jungle cactus that looks a lot like an epi. But it’s not. However it does have beautiful large amazing flowers. Night-blooming, which means it’s a Night-Blooming Cereus. In fact many people think the Epiphyllum is a Night-Blooming Cereus, but it’s not – This is the jungle version of the Night-Blooming Cereus right here!

Too bad it’s not in bloom right now.

Our first Echinocereus grandiflora blooms of the year. It must be spring! And the flowers are so big you can’t even see the cactus underneath.

The Euphorbia-naming contest Friday was a lot of fun, don’t you think?

Here’s another variegated spurge that we have but this one’s name is better than the last one’s, so no contest today. Sorry.

Euphorbia “Silver Swan”

It’s still kind of stupid, but not the end of the world.

Anigozanthos “Tequila Sunrise” is very orange. Here we see the beautiful colorful paws not yet open. Still sunny out for the photo though. Imagine that! Stupid rain.

Euphorbia “Ascot Rainbow” is one of the Euphorbia x martinii hybrids, and a patented one at that (PP21401).

I don’t know how this one got past Hap since he doesn’t like for us to carry the variegated spurges.

I also don’t know what the name “Ascot Rainbow” means. I don’t see any ascots here, and I don’t see no stinkin’ rainbow.

Personally, I would like to call this one, “Prim Morning” but then I’m an idiot. Sounds like a contest time! Best new name for this patented variegated spurge wins something! If you’re local, a really nice water wand. If you’re not local, how about a box of biodegradeable kitchen bags? Or if you prefer, a Cactus Pup.

More info about it if you care to keep digging before coming up with a better name.

Anigozanthos “Yellow Gem”

I love the closeups of these little open paws. They’re very pretty even when the blooms are not open as they stay very colorful for quite awhile. And then they pop open and POW, kangaroo paw punch in the nose.

It’s a good thing I stock up on photos when it’s sunny out, because it’s not sunny out at all right now. Very stormy. Today is a good day to come by the nursery and get lots of personal service since I don’t suspect there’ll be too many people braving the storms.

Lewisia cotyledon “Sunset Strain”

Lewisia longipetala “Plum”

Kalanchoe pumila

Low shrubby succulent with sprawling stems to 18″. The real interest is in the dusted scalloped leaves – purple under a white dusting. Will make a great hanging basket. And then there are these pretty purple flowers, small but profuse. Did I say purple? I meant pink. Wait, no, that’s more like a puce, or maybe a lavender. Magenta? Cerise?

Hardy to 28F is generally good enough for Berkeley.

Pelargonium x hortum cv ‘Vancouver Centennial’ has stunning foliage that outshine those simple orange flowers. Hardy around these parts too.

Cymbidium in bloom for the miserable weather we’re having. And not one of those fancy hybrids with all those pretty colors that people love. This one is white.

Oreocereus celsianus in bloom

Rebutia fabrisii

Rebutias were named for Monsieur Rebut. He was a vintner in France, of course, and he also sold cactus on the side. So his friend, a certain Karl Schumann, in 1895 named this genus of small South American globular cacti after Monsieur Rebut. But something happened in their relationship and a few years later he moved these lovely blooming little plants into the larger genus of Echinocactus.

However, they are so bloomful that the popular culture just wouldn’t accept this lowering of the Rebutia into Echinocactus, and so on a fine spring day in 1923 the famed naturalist Spegazzini reclassified them back into their own genus.

This particular species from Argentina will form clusters of these 1″ diameter white blobs.

Science!

Another early blooming cactus. These usually don’t bloom this small, but here you go.

Stenocactus crispatus

I wish my cell phone camera were better. It’s so much easier blogging from the droid but the quality suffers. (The picture quality, not the writing. As if there’s ever quality writing on the Cactus Blog!

Senecio rowleyanus have such happy funny inflorescences! Senecios are in the Asteraceae (Daisy) family and there’s a lot of different types. Rare caudiciforms. Daisy flowers. Landscape succulents. And bsides these String of Pearls, there’s also the famously unusual String of Bananas. Any other types?

How about all of these!

And don’t forget this one.