Cactus Blog

It’s our newest Echeveria cultivar and you’re the first to know!

We are calling it Echeveria “Smoglight”. We were going to call it “White Cloud” but that was already taken. It will be another year or two before we have sufficient stock to bring any of for sale. Can you wait that long?!?

Cyphostemma juttae with bright red leaves and a cluster of small blooms getting ready to open.

Will form a giant caudex to 6ft w/thick branches at top and peeling bark. Hardy to 28F when older. Can be grown in full sun for the full bright red leaf effect, or in light shade and you will get much larger and very greener leaves.

The fruit, or berries, are bright orange, and grape-like. Did I mention that this is in the grape family (Vitaceae). But don’t eat those attractive berries since they are quite poisonous.

Closeup of the blooms. They’re tiny!

Aporocactus flagelliformis is a South America epiphytic cactus, pendant to 4ft. long or so, that grows particularly well in cactus soil in a hanging basket. This one is covered with a lot of pink flowers right now. And a few weeds poking through that are hard to get out of the pot since these stems are very spiny.

Helianthemum nummularium are a pretty flowering and tough groundcover. Most grow only 2″ to 6″ tall, some flatter than others. Leaf color varies from grey to green. As can be expected from a name like Sun Rose they like a lot of sun. And they come in a lot of colors too.

I don’t actually know if these are all H. nummularium cultivars, or hybrids, or from a different species entirely. I should look it up.

Helianthemum “Ben Nevis”

Helianthemum “Dazzler”

Helianthemum “Henfield Brilliant”

Helianthemum “Mesa Wine” is our most popular Sunrose, when we can find it to stock it.

Helianthemum “Wisley Primrose”

So I checked, and these are all H. nummularium cultivars. Pretty!

It’s the continuation of cactus bloom season around here, i.e. Spring!

Opuntia basilaris x santa-rita is a nice low spine hybrid that has remarkable fully saturated flower colors. We have a number of very nice plants out right now. Enjoy them!

These are going to grow about 2 feet tall, and spread quite a bit wider if you let them. We find they are hardy down at least into the mid-20s, and lower if you keep them really dry. These are very popular with the pollinators as they have a lot of pollen. Bees appreciate them.

Parodia leninghausii is the Golden Ball Cactus from Brazil. Central stems can grow as tall as 24″, surrounded by a host of smaller golden balls. While small the form is clearly ball shaped, but when taller they are slanted apically which is different than most other cacti. Unique! Also hardy into the mid 20s or so.

Delosperma “Fire Spinner” is a very low growing, slowly creeping, member of the hardy Ice Plant Family, i.e. Aizoaceae. In case you were wondering why they are called “Mesembs” along with the Lithops and such, they are part of the Subfamily Mesembryanthemoideae. That’s a mouthful.

While a mat-forming groundcover may not be the most unique plant in the plant world, they do have a sparkly glistening coating on their green leaves. So that’s cool.

For some reason the “Fire Spinner” name is a registered trademark, so I probably should figure out how to include one of those r in a circle thingy’s appended to the name. But on the other hand this plant also seems to be called Delosperma “P001S” with the Fire Spinner part not even being part of the official name of the plant at all. Hard to know! This may mean something to someone or not.

As might be expected, these are hardy below 0F.

Oooohh!!! Nice Echeveria “Violet Queen” hiding in that mixed wall panel with the yellow flowers poking out.

Aaaahhh!! Nice Sedeveria, an interesting enough intergenic hybrid, hiding in that mixed succulent pot with the yellow flowers peeking out. Hypertufa pot by Urban Farmgirls of San Francisco.

It can be tricky to ID Aeoniums since they look different in summer and winter, shade and sun, and one species can look just like another at a different time of year. For example…

Aeonium “Ballerina”

Aeonium “Frosty”

I believe these two are actually the same plant, and some books list them as synonyms. But they look very different! On the other hand, one has been growing in sun and the other in shade. There’s no question that they are correctly labeled based on books and such, but is that enough to know for sure? No!

Parodia crassigibba flowers are highly variable – some are yellow some are pink and some are even white. These are pink.

And these are yellow.

These are from the same seed crop. That’s how variable they can be!

Side by Side! So different and yet so similar!

Here, have some pretty Agaves for the weekend.

Agave “Kichiokan Marginata”

Agave “Quadricolor”

Agave parrasana

Agave filifera

That’s a lot of pretty Agaves.

Step one on the long and arduous journey for our favorite Euphorbia obesa. That’s a tray of the little guys.

And now for step two:

Pots!

Zinnia acerosa

Native to Arizona, Texas
Evergreen Perennial

Sun: Full Sun
Water: Moderate to Low
Size: 1ft.

Semi-woody perennial with many small white flowers through spring and summer. Makes for good dried flowers. Hardy to below 0F.

A couple caudiciform succulents in the Dogbane (Apocynaceae) family.

From the East Coast of Africa we have Pachypodium saundersii, also known as the Kudu Lily (I wonder if that’s because there are Kudus nearby? Probably.) Shrubby, 3 to 5 feet tall max., and very spiny. But those pretty pretty flowers….

And here we have a gorgeous Desert Rose, Adenium obesum. Ohhhhh….. sooo pretty…… nearly brings me to tears….

Finally, we have a grafted Thai Hybrid of the Adenium obesums. They really do have a lot of crazy colors in Thailand. I wonder how they get them to do that? Anyway, while interesting, I don’t find these to be as beautiful as the ones above.

Cactus bloom season has begun and first up are a couple of whitish-yellowish flowers.

Parodia crassigibba has highly variable flowers, as you can tell if you click the link. Maybe this is a different Parodia? Maybe it is the same?They do vary from White to Yellow to Pink, so it is quite possible

Parodia sellowii on the other hand is only supposed to get yellow flowers. So I must have it mislabeled. What shall I do to try to correct this horrible mistake? Obviously nothing before I post this. [Editor: It's Gymnocalycium uruguayense.]

Euphorbia characias “Portuguese Velvet”

European hybrid
Evergreen spurge

Sun: Moderate
Water: Drought tolerant
Size: 12″ to 18″ tall w/24″ tall bloom stalks

Thick velvety grey green leaves on full stems. Large bloom sprays of green bracts and mixed brightly-colored blooms. Grow from seed and offsets. Deer-resistant.

Aeonium “Whippet” is our own cultivar from Aeonium atropurpureum. It looks a lot like A. “Schwartzkopf” this time if year, but it us lower growing, faster growing (hence the reason for the whippet name) and much branchier too.

Agave “Black Widow” is our newest addition to our Agave family. It comes to us as a cultivar of Agave schidigera. Yay! Generally solitary, these might get close to 24″ across. More likely 18″. They are quite filiferous and strongly variegated.

And I found this strange music video from a company that produces this agave.

Nice!

People usually like to see Hoya photos that feature the wax flowers since the wax flowers are always so pretty. But I like to feature photos of the leaves.

That’s just the way I am.

Hoya macrophylla “Variegata”

Hoya nicholsoniae

I don’t know why I am posting these on Cactus Blog.

Leucanthemum “Darling Daisy”
They’re not succulents, they’re not California natives, they’re not drought tolerant. What was I thinking????

Pelargonium ferulaceum is a shrubby member of the Geranium family that will form a twisty caudex and get sweet little flowers. Easy to grow, hardy to around 30F, this plant is now on your list of favorites. You can thank me later.