Cactus Blog

It’s not good to have Pachypodium problems, I always say.

Hi Hap! What’s going on with my Lamerai’s?

Matt

Matt,

It looks like you have at least two insect problems: Scale, the brown and tan bumps here and there on the leaves, as well as spider-mites. The leaf burn and curl is a combination of not liking the brand of Neem Oil you used on the tender new leaves and the bugs draining too much sap. The good news is it should grow out of it, but if the first application of Neem did not kill all the bugs (watch for little crawlers) I would suggest using a lower dilution of your Neem oil and respraying in a week, so it does not burn the new crop of leaves. If that does not work we can discuss more drastic measures….

Take care,
Hap

Shaunie’s Happy Place has a very nice little strawberry pot filled to the brim with Sempervivums. I’m sufre they’re delicious.

Succulents have made it into the museum.

Palladium prints are beautiful and exotic entities — not unlike the succulents in Michael Eastman’s images. Palladium prints are characterized by their beautiful, soft, velvety shades of gray. Images made through this process are extremely rich and detailed; think of early Steichen, Stieglitz and Weston photographs.

Eastman is a well-known St. Louis photographer whose work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago, among others. Making a palladium print takes a lot of work — typically the process requires negatives the same size as the images — but Eastman overrides this cumbersome step by combining the vintage printing technique with digital imaging.

It’s good stuff. Go look at the photo.

Yesterday I posted on a report on the loss of desert habitat in Arizona and Nevada. Today the San Francisco Chronicle looks at soon to be lost habitat in California.

The Woolyleaf ceanothus would be at risk if California’s climate becomes much hotter, a study says. Photo by Michelle Cloud-Hughes, special to the Chronicle…

If temperatures rise rapidly in California this century, up to two-thirds of the state’s native plants might lose large swaths of suitable habitat, according to a new study….

“The pace of climate change in the next 100 years poses a very serious threat to California’s native plants,” said David Ackerly, a UC Berkeley biology professor and an author of the new study published in the PLoS One, the Public Library of Science.

Scientists know that plants can respond to changing climate over thousands of years, Ackerly said. “But in less than a century, there is very little chance for plants to establish new populations and to migrate to keep up with these dramatic changes.”

What can you do? Small - stuff and big stuff.

Interesting how such beautiful pictures can really change a discussion. Usually we see pictures of bears and tree frogs and other endangered animals. But plant pictures can be just as powerful. I’m really kind of dazzled by the blue.

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

Echinopsis thelegonoides

…There is only one issue here. Only one: the law issue.

Does the president serve the law, or does the law serve the president? Each insult to our Constitution comes from the same source; each springs from the same mindset; and if we attack this contempt for the law at any point, we will wound it at all points.

That is why I’m here today: Retroactive immunity is on the table today; but also at issue is the entire ideology that justifies it, the same ideology that defends torture and executive lawlessness. Immunity is a disgrace in itself, but it is far worse in what it represents. It tells us that some believe in the courts only so long as their verdict goes their way. That some only believe in the rule of law, so long as exceptions are made at their desire. It puts secrecy above sunshine and fiat above law.

Did the telecoms break the law? That, I don’t know.

But pass immunity…and we will never know. A handful of favored corporations will remain unchallenged. Their arguments will never be heard in a court of law. The truth behind this unprecedented domestic spying will never see light. And the cases will be closed forever.

“Law” is a word we barely hear from the supporters of immunity. They offer neither a deliberation about America’s difficult choices in the age of terrorism, nor a shared attempt to set for our times the excruciating balance between security and liberty. They merely promise a false debate on a false choice: security or liberty, but never, ever both….

Chris Dodd (D, CT) full video and text here.

It’s a recipe from Chef James. I don’t know who Chef James is. I don’t eat trout. I don’t know anything about anything. So here you go, you figure it out.

Orange Trout and Prickly Pear Cactus

The cactus might prickle at your touch, but it hides a succulent interior. Cactus leaves, or nopalitos, are available at Latino markets and in some grocery stores. They have a slightly tart taste that matches well with seafood and citrus. On the show, we served this with potatoes and sauteed mushrooms and spinach.

Ingredients
* 4 prickly pear cactus leaves
* 2 tablespoons butter, divided
* 4 whole trout (about 1 pound each), cleaned, boned, and scaled, with head and tail removed
(if you don’t know how, have the fishmonger do this when you buy the fish)
* 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
* Juice of 1/4 large orange
* 1 tablespoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

You’ll have to click through for the instructions. I wonder if you can substitute a nice duck breast for the trout?

I think this qualifies as lazy blogging. Search for a cactus recipe, don’t try it out, reprint it without any real comments, and then go take a nap with a job not-so-well done.

The only thing left is to go take a nap, so I’m off…

A cactus in Chico, CA threatens to topple over and is frightening the locals.

“I worry about it all the time. I worry about it falling over,” said Schroeder.
Because of its outlandish size, the cactus has become a land mark at Casa de Flores. Especially during the Spring time when it is in bloom.

“Oh we love it, we think it’s one of the most beautiful things we have in this park,” said resident Peggy Moak.

“Oh yes, it’s beautiful,” added Virginia Nolan.

Master Gardeners in Arizona teach classes on cactus.

Standing on a bed of mulch in his backyard, Bill Stillman examines the small green pads sprouting in clusters from the nopal cactus.

“So what I’ll do is, I’ll cut right here,” the gardener said as he began to trim off the excess growth, a gradual process that’ll eventually give his cactus a Mickey Mouse shape. “The rest I’ll leave alone for right now.”

Stillman, a master gardener with the University of Arizona’s Mohave County Cooperative Extension, is participating in a pilot gardening project through the University of Nevada-Reno, to determine whether the edible plant will take to the Mojave Desert’s arid climate.

Here we have our final pictures from our trip along the Sonoma Coast, not including some more shots of Benjamin that will appear on future Fridays I’m sure.

Dudleya farinosa

My favorite picture of them all. So bright, so exposed, so wind-swept and salt-sea-encrusted and yet, such a happy plant that it’s blushing for it’s good fortune.

The LA Times references a USDA Climate Change report in passing.

It was just a couple of weeks ago that the U.S. Department of Agriculture released a report that found that global warming could cause both the Joshua tree and the Sagauro cactus to disappear as desert ecosystems change.

Here’s the USDA’s summary from the report.

Arid Lands: The West’s arid lands comprise one of the nation’s fastest-growing regions, and include the cities of Las Vegas, Phoenix and Salt Lake City. Predicted impacts include “continental-scale impacts on downwind ecosystems, air quality, and human populations” from increased wind erosion; major losses of signature desert species, such as saguaro cactus and Joshua trees; and increased drought, severe rainstorms, and erosion, which will help spark widespread desertification.

I don’t understand this headline on an article from KTAR Phoenix.

Master gardener sees if cactus grows in Mohave Desert

Really? A “Master Gardener” doesn’t know if cacti grow in the desert? They have to go “see” if it’s true?

Maybe I should read the article and make sense of this. Maybe I should just click that little link and follow where it goes. Maybe.

Finally, we get to the Native succulent found in habitat along the Sonoma Coast that you knew was there, but just weren’t sure I had found. Well, now you know.

Dudleya farinosa, aka Sea Lettuce

This great plant looks quite different in our nursery, after years of cultivation. Larger leaves, don’t you know. But here you see that they’re sticklers for rocky surfaces. Rocks, even. Crevices with barely a dollop of soil to grow in.

Tomorrow I’ll post photos from a different stand of them. More exposed.

Or not, hard to say.

“It appears that the owners of the bar have known for a long time about the problems caused by the Cactus… but have chosen to ignore those problems because they are making too much money,” the Osadchuks’ attorney, Charlie Rice of South Bend, said in an e-mail. “A classic case of profits over people.”

What kind of problem could a cactus be causing to bar patrons? I don’t understand.

(P)olice responded to nearly 700 calls for service at the Neon Cactus.

Oooohhhhh…… It’s not a cactus, it’s a Neon Cactus. Now I understand. I have a neon cactus T-shirt for sale at Cafepress. I wonder if it’s the same thing? My T-shirts don’t cause bar fights, at least not that I am aware of. So much confusion in Indiana. And right here too - sometimes I wonder what this blog is all about. Ah well, on to the next misunderstanding…