Cactus Blog

The Abutilon palmeri in the backyard pond area is blooming.

From a website called Today comes a bloggable photo.

A lone cactus stands on the vast, empty hills of the Andean Altiplano.

The article may be bloggable too, but I didn’t read it, so I wouldn’t know. If you think I should go ahead and read the article and write something about it, let me know in the comments.

Echinopsis pachanoi

Normally these are wide open. In fact, I’ve never seen them like this, but they all were doing this earlier this summer. This photo was taken 2 weeks ago, before the warm weather, and it appears that it just isn’t going to open any wider. The parts are all there, and the bees are able to find them and get busy and all.

L.A. style indeed.

Nopalitos y chapulines, a salad of prickly pear and grasshoppers, as served at La Huasteca in Lynwood. (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)

La Huasteca in Lynwood. Chef Rocio Camacho, who made her mark at Moles La Tia, is focusing on pre-Columbian cuisine.

Pre-Columbian indeed. Cactus and crickets! Ooh boy. What would my mother say.

Aloinopsis schoonesii in summer bloom. Usually blooms in spring, but with the cold foggy year, it was late.

Click the photo for a closeup of the very bright yellow flower.

A wacky bonsai version of this plant can be seen here.

The photos Matt sent were corrupted (I wonder who did that, and if it hurt?) but the letter is a fine blog item anyway. I’ll let you all know if Matt sends along any photos later.

Hola,

I have a melocactus, my second one actually. The first sadly died early
spring in a weird brown rotting/rust/fungus event after a long winter.
Granted it wasn’t in the most drain worthy pot…but I did take good care of
it and watched it closely. (see striped pot photo). It is deceased now.

Anyway, I read somewhere that transplanting Melocactus is not a good idea
after maturity or something like this??? The striped pot one was
transplanted right away after I got it.
It didn’t fare so well after a year of warm filtered greenhouse light, and
well draining soil.

Anyway, the new one (green plastic pot attached )seems to be wanting a
transplant, although im waiting to do so due to past experience.

Any truth that transplanting a Melocactus is a bad idea or am I just a bad
Melocactus owner?

THANKS
Oh yeh, Matt from PDX

Matt,

I can’t get your photo files to open, they seem to be “corrupted”. Could you please resend?

Melocactus are a bit fussy and easy to lose. I killed them regularly until I saw them growing on the beach-side cliffs of Saint Martin and realized they were tropical cactus and need to be kept warm in winter. Since then I have much better luck, at least if they don’t get forgotten and left outside after summering in the sun…. They turn to mush if too cold, even if kept dry. Since I haven’t seen the photos I can’t tell if you should repot or not, but I have repotted adult Melo’s just fine, by keeping them dry and warm after the root trauma.

Hap

Dear Cactusblogger,

I live in South America, Surinam and work in a tropcal plants nursery
(family owned). I’ve been making a catalog of our plant for years now
(what can i say, grandpa’s been negligant), as we have well over a
million plants. I’m constanty running into a dilemma about an agave we
have. Whenever i try to categorize it i basically flip out!Is it an
americana, is it not an americana. Some sites say it’s an americana
others say it’s not. So, my thought was, perhaps you could help me. I’m
sending you a picture!Please help!Do you know the real botanical name?

Many thanks in advance,
Ira

Our answer after the break… (more…)

I highly recommend clicking the photo to see the full sized photo.

Yay!

Near Needles, CA, there is a new blue cactus mural in a VFW hall.

The U.S. Census Bureau used it as a training center for area workers earlier this year. The Audubon Society uses it as a temporary headquarters during bird counts at nearby Topock Marsh.

Artist Myke Burkhart works on a mural. BILL McMILLEN/The Daily News

“It’s a multipurpose room,” agreed Auxiliary President Deborah Blizzard.

Soon, it will look like a new facility, thanks to some major facelifting.

I spent the first part of this week in Vancouver with my daughter and design partner, Sam, and a big shopping list….

Sam and I love succulents for their architectural structure, cool colour palette and low-maintenance nature – we travel a lot, so only having to water them once or twice a month is brilliant.

My comments about this fabulous designer trip to the succulent markets of Vancouver? I would say they should have purchased more sedums. Really now, sedums are going to be the hot plant in interior decorating next year, and the whole aeonium craze is just so 2006. If you want to show how dated your palette is, just add a cabbagy echeveria to the dining room!

Epiphyllums are popular wherever they can be found. I would suggest, humbly, that it is because of the amazing flowers.

Cuttings from the plants are easily rooted. From spring until fall, the plants can grow outdoors in hanging baskets attached to tree branches, providing filtered light. The baskets can be lined with coconut fiber and filled with cactus soil, both to ensure excellent drainage….

When temperatures drop, baskets need to be moved to a protected location that has bright natural light.

I don’t recommend that you click through to the article that this lovely photo comes from. I have safely excerpted as much as you need to know about epi’s. Whatever you do, don’t read the part about how they fertilize. Noooo!!!!! Oh, the humanity.

We use a well balanced slow-release cactus fertilizer, and add extra fish bone meal to encourage blooming. If you want to use a liquid fertilizer, only use a low-strength organic product for strong healthy growth.

We water them once a week, and plant them in our jungle cactus/orchid mix soil which is very similar to a cactus soil, but has chunks of coconut husk chips in it, and extra slow-release organic fertilizers.

Definitely use a hanging basket, coir-lined if possible. And don’t forget to share your cuttings with your friends.

I googled for a cactus recipe, and jumped forward to the 100th page, and came up with this.

Queso Fundido de Nopales
2 cups nopales, scraped, washed and cut into strips
1 cup ground chorizo sausage
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cups Chihuahua cheese, grated (available in Mexican food stores, or substitute shredded Monterey Jack)
1/2 of an avocado, sliced

That sounds delicious. I may actually have to try one of these recipes someday, and this sounds like a good one to start with.

Click through for the instructions.

Spooning amongst slugs- photographic evidence.

Have you noticed how most cactus cartoons aren’t funny? I wonder why that is. Maybe the desert makes for dry humor.

And Tom J in Denver is the winner.

People found way more errors in that tiny article than even I had imagined. Wow!

And that had come from the BBC, no less.

It’s a contest! But first, an article for you to read.

Usually these are just local stories in local papers around the world. But apparently this one made the BBC.

Rare cactus flowers after 50 years

An Agave Victorinae Reginae cactus has flowered in a UK garden after 50 years of growth.

The plant, which belongs to Barbara and John Long, recently grew to more than nine ft… according to the BBC.

I don’t know if the errors are the BBC’s or the local newspaper’s.

Now the CONTEST part:

Shall we catalog? I count 4 major errors in this excerpt alone. Add your guesses to the comments. One lucky winner correctly naming a botanical error, chosen at random, will win a free cactus greeting card from my collection of cactus greeting cards. Cactus Jungle employees not eligible, Keith.

I’ve been blogging a lot recently about the fruit of the cactus. The cactus fruit! Tunas and Dragonfruits etc.

Now the domesticated desert pitaya, from Stenocereus pruinosus, has been tracked back to original populations in the wild.

“What we found is that the people of the Tehuacan Valley are carefully selecting and cultivating cacti to produce the pitaya they want,” says Dr. Alejandro Casas, who was a member of the research team.

“They’re not attempting to produce one type of pitaya. They have a rich understanding of the cacti and are able to produce fruits with a variety of colors and tastes,” adds the expert, which is an ethnobotanist.

Pitaya are the fruit of cacti, and the main reason they were domesticated in prehistory in the first place.

“We found that the forest cacti showed more diversity in their genes than expected. It is not a case of finding a simple transition from wild to domesticated plants,” the team member argues.

“The methods of propagation of cacti by the traditional farmers, including the production of a variety of fruits, help increase the genetic diversity of the cacti. This is a crucial strategy in conserving the genetic resources of Mesoamerica,” he adds.

Science!

Unfortunately they included a Ferocactus picture with the article.

And we all know now that ferocactus fruit is small and not as delicious.

Here’s the delicious desert pitaya, not to be confused with the jungle pitaya, also known as the dragon fruit, or the mountain pitaya, also known as the cactus apple.

The Manila Times, or some such newspaper, reports the diet and beauty secrets of the local celebrities. And not to ruin the surprise, or anything, but it’s cactus.

Ilocos Norte Governor Imee Marcos, whose svelte figure and flawless skin are the envy of women half her age. Known to be a health buff, she uses exercise facilities at home to squeeze workouts in between official appointments and inspection trips. Vegetables and fruits are the mainstay of her daily fare. This diet includes a colorful exotic fruit that will soon be one of her province’s major crops: dragon fruit.

Dragon fruit, that is the fruit of the mysterious jungle cactus, Hylocereus. Unlike ferocactus, hylocereus fruit is delicious.

I love local news reports like this. It really makes no sense, and yet that’s my sense of humor for you.

Mystery!

And not really all that mysterious since it’s available in grocery stores around the world, apparently. Maybe not Iowa, but we could all go over to Plants are the Strangest People and ask.

Ever have a hankering for caramel cactus? Didn’t even know it was possible?

Create an exotic dessert with grilled cactus chunks over vanilla ice cream. Toss 2 cups cactus chunks with ¼ cup sugar and grill over medium-high heat. Serve over ice cream and drizzle with caramel sauce, if desired.