Cactus Blog

One of our readers won 1st prize in the Parodia Group at their local British Cactus and Succulent Society Show.

Mark Cowley
“Kings Lynn, Norfolk Branch” U.K. ( Derek Bowdery)
With a ‘Big Old Monster Notocactus’. Also got a couple of other prizes…

Have been collecting 2-3 years, 500-600 plants. Have New Greenhouse,
NEED ANOTHER…OOPS !

That is an amazing large Parodia/Notocactus. Thanks for sharing, Mark.

The South of France is apparently a nice place for agaves to grow. This agave is about to bloom, so you can say goodbye to the nice plant while you have the chance.

Photo sent in by Dorena, who lives in Alaska, and took the photo in a garden in Nice if you hadn’t figured that out yet.

Grant and Paula send along a photo of an amazing set of blooms on what looks like an Echinopsis subdenudata.

Hi Peter,

Although we’ve probably bought (so far) 30-40 plants at Cactus Jungle, this isn’t one of them. Just thought you’d enjoy the flowers this morning, as we are.

Best,

Grant & Paula

Thanks!

Would you kindly identify this cactus for me?
I have included several shots.
Thank you..
RObert

Echinopsis thelegonoides

David Lindberg sent along photos of a gorgeous Epiphyllum in bloom that he rescued from the woman whose house he bought.

He wants to name the plant after her, but he can’t remember her name. If she happens to read this, maybe she could clue us in, please? Thank you.

[Update 6/21: The plant is now called Hillred, as noted below in comments.]

Phyllis sends along her Oscularia deltoides in bloom. I think she’s in Berkeley, maybe Oakland.

It really dominates the garden, no? Lot’s of pretty things, and a giant mass of pink flowers in the center which won’t last long but is astounding nonetheless. I bet the butterflies and bees are going wild.

Aimee came into the nursery looking for plants to use in her underwater fantasies. And here’s a photo she sent us of one now:

Plus, she creatively rethinks kitchen planters too:

I hope the baking dish has holes in the bottom.

These are fantastic.

Reader Anthony B. sent in this link to a video.

Oy.

Chris sent us photos of the Echinocereus grandiflora he got from us.

Before and after. I like the “before” pic — the cactus looks ready to explode. And it did, the next day!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Oy, that’s amazing.

One of our customers sent us this photo of a green roof they made. And just 2 days ago I mentioned we like getting these photos, in a post featuring another customer’s photo!

Woohoo! We also love green roofs!

Goat house with plants from Cactus Jungle. It has been a year. Sorry I meant to send sooner. I lost the name of the gal that works there that helped me. She wanted to see it complete. This photo does not do it justice. I love it!

Thank you for your help with this,

Susan Nightingale

We like it when you send us your photos.

Here we have a friendly couple, with a couple of friendly dogs, who came into the nursery with a large trough to fill, and they picked out some lovely cacti. Spiny cacti, even. Poor dog. Well, the blooms are going crazy all over.

I’ll feature my own photo of the mammillaria (the one on the left) tomorrow, from before they planted it.

Hi Peter, Hi Hap:

Attached please find pictures of our antique Chinese water trough filled with your beautiful cacti!
Check out the blooms on the tall one!!

You may remember us from the pottery art show, and due to our little dogs.
Also, my orchid is blooming again thanks to your help.

Best,

The Bingleys

Q: We planted this cactus over 10 years ago, and the other day were surprised to see a stalk growing out of it. Do you know what types of cactus this is? And is it likely to ever do this again? We live in San Carlos. I would be interested in getting another one.

Many thanks!
Colleen

A: Colleen,

Your “cactus” is actually a Yucca, most likely Yucca whipplei (a wonderful California native) or perhaps Yucca rostrata. They look very similar and there is not enough detail in you photos for me to be sure… however my guess is yours is Yucca whipplei. If it is, this bloom will be it’s last, as the rosette that blooms dies after it is done blooming and hopefully setting seed (like it’s relatives Agave’s).

It will sometimes “pup” around the base and those will grow in to replace the “mother” rosette, but not always. If it is Yucca rostrata, it will not die, but will grow several new rosettes and eventually become a multibranched tree yucca and will bloom again when it has enough energy stored up to do so. Either way yours is a great looking plant and congratulations in getting it to bloom! It should bloom over the next few months and will look spectacular!

Take care,
Hap

In which it is revealed that Chris is one of the nursery’s customers.

Now what did Chris say about this one? He claims we had it mislabeled! Actually, we never labeled it in the first place, since we weren’t sure, but we did bring out the big book of cactus when he bought it and picked out a mamillaria that we thought it might be. But now that the bloom is open it appears we were wrong. It…

is a picture of that “mammilaria” I bought a few weeks ago in bloom. I think it’s Thelocactus conothelos (I found a copy of Preston-Mafham’s “Cactus: The Illustrated Dictionary” at Moe’s — woo hoo!).

That’s not fair, I went to Moe’s on Tuesday and found nothing. However, looking in Anderson’s The Cactus Family, it certainly seems possible that Chris is correct! And I love the lemon yellow.

OLETE MAIA from Brasil sent me a published report from 1977 on the nutritional content of Pereskia leaves, among some other documents I’ll be looking through too. On the other hand, I’m not a scientist, so at best I can read the abstracts. But this one has a picture to go with it, and a lovely picture it is.

It seems that Brasilians have been eating the leaves of the Pereskia aculeata and nobody had bothered to check on their nutritional value before 1977. After checking,

Food efficiency, apparent net protein utilization and apparent digestibility were also determined. The fibrous residue showed a high digestibility…

It’s protein content is 25.4%… suggests it is a good protein source…. On the other hand some leaves do not yield protein concentrate of good quality.

The rest of it is equations and tables and percentages.

I turn the photography of the blog over to Chris again today.

Now, clearly this needs some explanation. So Chris says this,

is the front yard of the house immediately adjacent to the previous house with the grusonii/concrete balls combo. I call it “Cactus-henge.” I think the cacti are S. pringlei. The sad background is that in the space where “Cactus-henge” now sits, the prior owner had a wonderful cactus garden with many interesting cacti and other succulents. My friend said that a few specimens were saved prior to the move-out, but most of the garden was “bulldozed.” Anyway, I guess Cactus-henge is the coolest thing ever if you are really into S. pringlei …