I’m trying to fix the blog software issues. Hopefully, I’ll have a newly minted, fast blog up and running. Hopefully it will all work at this same address, so you won’t miss a thing. Wish me luck.
March 2008
Monthly Archive
Misc18 Mar 2008 09:15 am
Photography16 Mar 2008 03:10 pm
Aloe striata
Also known as the Coral Aloe
Blogs16 Mar 2008 09:41 am
Desert Wildflowers Link of the Day
Water When Dry’s cactus garden is in full wildflower bloom, and she’s got great pictures to prove it.
Photography15 Mar 2008 04:23 pm
Euphorbia milii “Salmon Dome”
Yeah, that’s definitely a “salmon” color for the bracts.
Photography15 Mar 2008 10:21 am
Euphorbia milii “Salmon Dome”
Stay tuned for a close closeup later today.
Whippets15 Mar 2008 05:05 am
I forgot to whippet-blog yesterday, so Danielle sent us this lovely and lively photo of Amica in repose.
Photography14 Mar 2008 02:12 pm
Albuca namaquensis
Winter growing bulb with curly leaves. The sun was very bright when I took this photo. Maybe too bright for the delicate petals.
News14 Mar 2008 08:08 am
Garden Show Cactus and Succulent Schedule
The classes at the SF Garden Show this weekend look good. We’d be there but we can’t because, well, the store is open and all, and people will be coming after visiting the garden show.
(Photo provided by Saxon Holt) Saxon Holt discusses succulents, such as opuntia cactus with veronica and centranthus in the background, at the San Francisco Flower & Garden Show….
Debra Lee Baldwin, garden photojournalist and author of the nationwide best seller, “Designing with Succulents,” will be discussing her book at 5:30 p.m. Saturday in the Tamalpais Room and will be available for book signing at 6:15 p.m..
Award-winning garden photographer and Marin resident Saxon Holt will cover more details of succulent gardening with “The Beauty of Succulent Gardening: The Hottest Plants for Today’s Hot Climes” at 1:45 p.m. Sunday.
Debra Baldwin may also be coming by our nursery to see some of our container gardens. She’s writing a new book.
Quotes14 Mar 2008 08:02 am
Democratic Response Video Quote of the Day
News13 Mar 2008 04:41 pm
That’s the headline on the Palm Springs Desert Sun article about a mammilaria in bloom.
(Photo: Jim Cornett, The Desert Sun)
The nipple cactus, or Mammillaria dioica, is often unnoticed unless it’s in bloom.
Now that’s what I call a cactus.
Nursery13 Mar 2008 01:42 pm
*** Chartreuse Bloom ALERT *** (spurge edition)
Euphorbia characias c.v. “Bruce’s Dwarf”
It’s the dreaded chartreuse blooms. Everybody asks if there really are any chartreuse blooms, and I always tell them no. No there aren’t any chartreuse blooms. But I’m lying. Not only does this spurge bloom chartreuse, but so does the Echinocereus viridiflorus.
In case you were wondering what chartreuse really means, considering that there’s a picture right above that you might not believe your own eyes, here’s the wikipedia traditional chartreuse sample for your perusal.
Berkeley Succulents13 Mar 2008 09:40 am
Oxford Street
Dasylirion longissisimum
I don’t know if I spelled that right. I should probably look it up. What do you think, should I spell check plant names before posting them?
News13 Mar 2008 08:39 am
At the SF Garden Show this week
Asian Americans make art with recycled glass and plastic
A bottle cap doesnt have to be garbage it can be a piece inspiring a gardeners artistic vision, said Greg Lum, a landscaper who is currently designing a garden from recycled plastic products, including a bottle cap mosaic, a landscape featuring low water-usage plants, and life-size mannequins fashioned out of moss and succulents.
News12 Mar 2008 03:23 pm
Cacti of rarest kind in Howrah hamlet
It all started with my mother’s need for flowers for her daily prayers. I stepped in by helping her grow different varieties of marigold and hibiscus and this planted the passion for growing flowers in me, Aditya said….
37-Year-old Aditya also possesses some rare Indian cacti like the Freria Indica, seen only in the Western Ghats and classified by the botanical survey of India among the endangered Palaeoendemic species….
One of the prized possessions of Aditya is Hydnophytum Formicurum, a lowland species native to southern Thailand and Malaysia but also found in the Andamans.
One of my rarest succulents is Ceropigia Hirsuta- a rare succulent found in Mahabaleswar. The specialty of this succulent is that it stays seven months under the soil and sprouts after the first rain, said Aditya.
Aditya, who has not studied beyond the tenth standard, works as a garden consultant.
It’s a nice story of a local boy who made his community proud.
Photography12 Mar 2008 12:27 pm
Bulbinella robusta
A grassy relative of aloes, forms mounds of narrow succulent leaves with bloom stalks as tall as 30″. From South Africa, where it is known as Cat’s Tail. Propagates easily by division in the fall.
Blogs12 Mar 2008 10:40 am
Steer Forth! has posted a poem, illustrated by one of my photos.
It’s called Happy poem #4
News12 Mar 2008 08:23 am
CBS News’ The Early Show featured some cactus and succulents in a mixed container garden for spring.
Shirley Bovshow, garden designer and co-host of “Garden Police” on the Discovery Home Channel, says playing in the dirt now will get your plants AND your spirits ready for the sunny days ahead!…
On The Early Show Thursday, Bovshow offered some creative ideas…
Her next pot is full of succulents — the hot plants of the gardening world right now. Succulents are smooth, plump plants full of moisture. Because they store so much moisture in their leaves, stems or roots, they can survive periods of drought much better than other plants. A cactus is an example, but there are many different types, and they can be quite beautiful. By adding a simple statue to her plantings, Bovshow’s arrangement becomes a piece of art.
I think they may be defining art down. Now why couldn’t they recommend some spinier plants? I think CBS’ older demographic is ready for spinier plants. But I do like this adding of statuary idea. My grandmother always had small statues hanging around on the side tables and they would have looked very festive in a pot of cactus. Send us your photos and I’ll post them here.
Blogs11 Mar 2008 03:47 pm
Singapore Cactus Link of the Day
Gardening with Wilson links to an article in the latest edition of Home Concepts that he wrote about gardening in Singapore.
We contributed an article for the local home decor magazine, Home Concepts.
In this March 08 issue, in the Garden Treats column, we wrote about how we can have a xeriscaped garden consisting of cacti and succulents, with inspiration from the Sun Garden in the Singapore Botanic Gardens.
And here’s a photo from the SBG Sun Garden website.
Nice.
Questions11 Mar 2008 12:04 pm
Q: Hello
I am trying to find out what is the problem with my 6 foot cactus. Started to turn black on the top 4 days ago and is growing down. I had another cactus in the same pot, but died like 2 years ago and started to die the same way. I live in New York and is beeing very cold the last 2 weeks. I also watered the cactus on april 19 and because I was out of the country I watered an extra half of cup. I usually watered every 2 months with no problem. I hope the pictures can talk by themself.
Please give any advise because I don’t want to cut it if is no necesary.
Thank you so much.
Carmiña
A: Carmina,
Sorry to be the one to bring you the bad news, but the tip of the cactus needs to be cut off. It is rotting from the top. Cut well below the infected part, look at the tissue and make sure there’s no sign of infection (brown/yellow/orange) and then spray the tip with household peroxide every day for 3-4 days. In a month or 2 after it’s healed I recommend repotting in fresh well-draining cactus soil. Do not reuse the pot without sterilizing.
We usually water cacti every 3-4 weeks, drenching the soil and letting it drain completely away, never letting it sit in water. It is OK to let it go up to 2 months without watering on occasion.
Good Luck,
Peter
News11 Mar 2008 09:54 am
The Philadelphia Garden Show has stories to tell. The Philly Inquirer shares with us the yearly trek of Nona Begonia.
Sylvia Lin, 79, already has her white hair brushed and pulled into her signature bun. I know without asking that she’s been up for at least a half hour and didn’t go to bed until well after midnight. I know without even saying “Good morning” that she’s revving in high gear, ready to pack up three carloads of succulents, cacti and begonias for the drive from Ambler to Center City.
It has been this way on this weekend of the Philadelphia Flower Show every year for the last 30 or so. I am part of a small tag team that gets “Nona Begonia” to the show.
Now I wanted to go to Philadelphia last year, but it was a little farther out of the way from California than I would have expected.