Cactus Blog

We have the tortoises at the nursery today.

Mica laid 3 eggs this week. Now she’s eating high protein dog food to get her figure back.

Jacob, you dog.

Fremontodendron “San Gabriel”
The Flannel Bush gets a whole heck of a lot of these very graphic thick yellow flowers. And I mean that the color is thick, not the petals, although they are too.

These are a great plant to espalier if you have the right place for it. On the other hand, they are a definite allergen to about 1/2 the population if you rub up against them.

On the 3rd hand, there’s always a little brother who can be tossed into the flannel bush to see what reaction your family might have to it.

Echinopsis chiloensis

Cistus x purpureus

A lovely shrub with large purple flowers, blooms through the summer. Groovy gardens can feature them, while more sedate gardens might want to use them as a supplement only.

As you can tell, I’m working on my garden-writing skills. Here I’ve made up entire new categories of gardens: the “Groovy Garden” and the “Sedate Garden”. Interestingly, this plant will work well in both! It’s a miracle of garden writing style!

Sometimes I crack myself up.

Jacob and Mica are visiting the nursery today, and tomorrow too!

Yesterday we found three eggs in their pen. They’ve been very busy. I forgot to bring a cable to connect the camera to the computer, so you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to see them, unless you come in to visit.

Water When Dry has a recipe for Prickly Pear Vinaigrette.

You’ll need to click through to find the instructions. I wonder if I should try it before I repost it?

Ceanothus griseus “Kurt Zadnik”

We like the Ceanothuses. These California native shrubs range from 6″ tall to over 20 ft. Here we have a cultivar that gets 3ft. tall and can spread over 10 ft. wide if you let it. It was cultivated right here in Berkeley at the UC Botanic Gardens from a specimen found up in Sonoma, so you know it will do well in local gardens.

In El Paso they fret over wintering plants. So they build them a greenhouse or two. And you would do well to follow suit, so you too can have happy and healthy cactus this time of year. And hothouse tomatoes too. From the El Paso Times.

We just got a desert tortoise, sort of a rescue. I hope our red-foots like her.

Succulents and Art come together at a Brewery in Los Angeles, or something. The LA Times confuses me.

Holly Tempo’s small but aesthetically balanced and ordered garden of specimen plants in metallic containers. Her flowering palette begins with yellows and oranges and reds and moves to purple as the seasons change. (Photo: Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)

I see aloes. Do you see aloes? And crassulas too.

Echinocereus grandiflora hybrid

Part 4, the final part. Here we have a classic portait of a bloom. Notice the fluffy petals. Language fails.

Just be glad I’m not showing the full size photo.

Well, you can go here to view it, if you dare.

It doesn’t get any worse than this.

ABCNews, via Atrios. Who were they? Rice, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Powell, Tenet and Ashcroft.

The cactus quail return to Colorado, so it must be spring. While not as famous as the swallows who have already returned to Capistrano, it’s all good.

Via the Pueblo Chieftain

Now what I want to know is where to find a good jasmine tea in Wichita.

Lynn’s Garden has an inspirational photo of her winter greenhouse filled with cactus up to the rafters.

Echinocereus grandiflora hybrid

Here we have an artsy shot of this amazing spray of blooms at the top of a spiny cactus. A bit of the green undergirding the giant white blooms. Did I say they were about 8″ across? No? What was I thinking.

Fascicularia bicolor
A terrestrial bromeliad with small vibrant flowers. This specimen was at the UC Berkeley Botanic Garden where the plants are able to get really big - a large mass of them over 10 feet across.

Big News on the Marianas, according to the Marianas Variety:

There are no pictures to prove the truth of the three-flower claim.

Sometimes we reply to people’s questions even though we really don’t have an answer for them. And then I post them so the whole world can see my failures. Like this one:

Q: Good Morning. My name is Jennifer & I live in Wylie, TX a suburb of Dallas. I am interested in installing a cactus garden in my front yard, but I honestly don’t know anything about cacti. I searched online to try to locate a local landscape designer, but haven’t been able to find any that specialize in cacti and succulents. Do you happen to know anyone in the Dallas/ Fort Worth area?

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

Jen

A: Jen,

Sorry but we don’t have any good landscaping contacts in the Dallas area. You might want to try the Texas chapter of the Cactus and Succulent Society.

Peter

Echinocereus grandiflora hybrid
Here’s a closeup inside the first of the blooms to open. I could get even closer in, but then you’d faint. When the bees get near these, they flip out. They dance around inside there. It’s a bacchanalia.

They’re still wearing winter coats in Kansas, so the Wichita Eagle tells us.

I wish there were some way we could bring some of our California sunshine to those hardy souls in Kansas still wearing winter coats. I know, let’s vote for Obama!

Well, sure, Kansas already voted back in February, but what about Nebraska? They’re waiting for the good weather to arrive in May before voting. Smart move, Nebraskans.

They go for the experiments in Scottsdale, AZ, so I’m told, by the Scottsdale Tribune.

I don’t know what any of this means. It’s a deep and abiding mystery why General Petraeus is saying today that we still have to wait to see if the surge is working in Iraq.