Cactus Blog

Yvonne and Herman post succulent photos, including some transplanted into South Africa Cactus, at Life in a village named Stanford. Nice selection.

However, I’m not sure I would click this link to the spider photo on their blog.

It’s been a busy spring here at the Cactus Jungle so I know I’ve been light in the blogging department lately. Mostly just pictures and stuff, easy stuff to blog. I’m not being lazy – really! However, we know we’ve hit a real low when I post this blurry photo of a flower bud.

Gymnocalycium stenopleurum v. friedrichii

As I was taking the picture someone came and bought the plant right out from under me, so I wasn’t able to get a clearer shot, and I won’t be able to get a picture of the bloom when it opens. If you click the link above you can see one open too.

And just so you know, as if you didn’t already, the genus name means naked bud. You can see very clearly in this less than perfect photo that there are no hairs or spines around that bud at all. Gymno’s!

That’s what the name means in latin. Echinocereus pulchellus. And it is! It is a pretty hedgehog! This is one of those cacti that will grow better indoor in a sunny window.

What else can I tell you? It’s from Mexico up to 6600ft. It’s generally solitary. Dozens of flowers every year. Under that flower you can barely see that the spines are short and white, but they become darker with age, a yellowish brown color. You can that the ribs are well spaced and the spines are short – that’s a sure indicator that this is a cactus that will shrink into the ground when cold and dry.

Air Plants are all the rage these days.

Tillandsia caput-medusae has the classic multi-colored blooms. Actually, the bloom itself is the very bright violet you see, while the red is the sepals. These grow fairly large, with twisting leaves tapered up to 10″ long. This will start offsetting new plants as soon as it’s done blooming and then if you wait a little while you can easily pull them off to propagate more.

Echinocereus adustus

Orchid week continues with a Phalaenopsis with lots of extra painted-on colors.

Echinopsis leucantha. Looks like a barrel cactus, blooms like a Lobivia.

The cell phone photo wasn’t so good, so I instagrammed it so hopefully you won’t notice the flaws.

Benjamin’s litter-mate and whippet brother Whylie comes to visit from Colorado. It’s the first time they’ve seen each other in 3 years.

Three whippets is a lot for one photograph. Hard to fit them all in. Benjamin is in back, Whylie is in the middle and that’s Jason in front. Jason is very happy to meet people and dogs that Benjamin knows and likes. If Benjamin knows someone Jason will act like he knows them too.

Here’s the whippet Whylie

As long as we’re talking about orchids on the blog just before Mother’s Day, we see that Plantgasm has had a Mother’s Day miracle!

It’s a Dendrobium seed pod, in a post called I Think I Impregnated My Dendrobium. Here’s the flowers.

My Solanum quitoense is fruiting. Very delicious juicing fruit, but the hairy outside of the fruit is difficult. Is it worth it?

Yes!

Today’s orchid is a Maxillaria. They come from South America.

I wonder if that’s true? Maybe I should look that up before I type it out on the blog, or rather maybe I should look it up after I type it up. Then I would have time to change it if I should so desire.

Hah! Never gonna happen.

Hi,
I have had this succulent for about 6-9 mos. After it was planted, I noticed some sand-like granules on some of the blooms. Sadly, it has spread, and the plant looks very sad now. Any suggestions to heal it? The whole plant appears to be turning a dark purple color. It is very beautiful when it’s healthy.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Thanks,
Kristie

Kristie,

The sand-like stuff on the blooms is Aphids, an insect that is feeding off the blooms. You can spray the blooms and try to get rid of them, but often the answer is to cut the blooms off. As for the rest of the plant, a Graptopetalum, it doesn’t look good. I think the plant may already be dead, though it’s hard to tell for sure from the photo. If it was the aphids, it would have to have been a major infestation to do that kind of damage. To me it actually looks like the plant may have suffered sun burn. Was it recently brought outside?

If it is still alive, the best thing you can do is get it afternoon shade, cut off all the bloom stalks, hose it off vigorously, and then spray it with an organic insecticide. We recommend Neem oil, diluted from 100%.

Peter

My Back 40 has been walking the Bernal Heights neighborhood recently and took a lot of pictures. Did I say a lot? I mean A LOT. Don’t click over unless you have a few minutes to stroll through the photos. Some nice succulents mixed in among all the other crazy plants and stuff.

Irises, Echiums, Aeoniums, Agaves, and a really giant Fremontodendron…

For some reason there’s even a Pittosporum.

Enough photos that all you people who have never walked through the gardens of a San Francisco neighborhood will get a really good idea of what that’s like.

Rikki and Hap have been very busy getting orchid arrangements together for Mother’s Day gifts.

This one has a Miltonia. And since we’re a real nursery and not a florist, all the plants along with the orchid are fully rooted in soil!

Now I’ve gone too far. Someone take away my filters.

This is Jacob. If it’s warm enough this weekend then he’ll be coming to the store, probably Saturday. I know a lot if you have wanted to know about it so here’s your fair warning. Tortoise weekend coming soon!

Now here’s something unusual for you.

A crested Aloe polyphylla. This is also known as the Spiral Aloe so I wonder if it will try to do some spiralling around the crest, and if so if it will form any interesting geometric patterns, like an oval spiral or a spiral dodecahedron?

What’s the latest trend in gardening? Growing your vegetables in the airport.

From Our Little Acre, pictures from O’Hare including ripe red tomatoes.

So do you agree that this is a trend? Am I on top of the trendspotting? Airport gardening?

This Cereus spegazzinii has the most unusual new branch started.

Funky!

Wanna know more about this plant? They’re sprawling, arching, spreading. Fast growing, they will climb up fenceposts if you have one or lie prostrate on the ground and root from the side of a stem. Night-blooming with giant white flowers, very pretty. They’ll turn a mottled purplish color if left outside in winter.

Dave sends along photos he took at the nursery last month.

Let’s see what we’ve got.

Yucca elephantipes

Nice color on the Aloe ferox

And finally that’s the nursery in bloom.

You can find him at Dave’s Photos.