Don't Turn Your Back on a Cactus Chrris Walken

Martha Stewart Barrel Cactus

Yes, I don't understand it any more than you do, but Martha Stewart is selling a barrel cactus.

Description

This unique, barrel-shaped cactus is said to grow towards the south, leading to its "compass cactus" nickname. A wonderful selection for the cactus aficionado or for the cacti novice.

Stately Barrel Cactus is traditionally fast-growing and can eventually yield small, pineapple-shaped yellow flowers around the crown.

Well, that's a whole lot of oddity. It's a golden barrel, not a compass barrel, so it won't "grow towards the south." It's nickname is "mother-in-law's seat" which is even more entertaining than the made-up "compass cactus". It's not fast growing, and it won't yield pineapple shaped yellow flowers. It will be at least 20 years before it flowers at all, and then they will be small yellow flowers like this.

If you have more than one of these 20 years from now and they are both in bloom at the same time, and they were cross-pollinated, then you may get pineapple-shaped fruits, like a pineapple is a pineapple-shaped fruit too.

How do I know all this? I bought one of these from Martha 15 years ago already and I still haven't had a single pineapple-shaped flower on my compass cactus that doesn't face south! I'm so mad I could steam an asparagus.

But I don't hold it against dear Martha. Oh no, I hold it against those minions of hers who have always been plotting against her, trying to ruin her, trying to bring down her empire. But they won't succeed! Not on my watch.

Red Torch

Posted July 28, 2008 9:06 am & filed under Photography, Science.

I previously blogged this plant in bloom and that bloom was a lot less red than this one, but taken at an angle that really showed the "torch" character of the flower.

Here we get to see the depth of the red.

Echinopsis huascha

I like to use this plant when in bloom as an example at the nursery for natural variations of a single species vs. labeling every cultivar with a "name". So I'm sure I could take the more orange one, and cultivate it for the orange blooms since they pup readily, propagate a whole messload of clones, and give it a name like, Echinopsis huascha "Fairy Tale Princess". But I prefer to see them all as individuals, even when cloned, and to respect the natural variations without resorting to separating them into new cultivars.

I suppose this means I see nature more as a continuity than as a series of discrete species. Botanists will be outraged! Does that make me bad?

Monday Gardens and Defensible Space

Posted July 28, 2008 7:04 am & filed under News.

It's a fine and clear but cloudy Monday morning. Today we're going to the SF Gift Show. I hate the gift show.

Anyway, the San Francisco Chronicle tells you how to plant not just plants for your drought tolerant garden, but ones that will be fire-safe in the hills as well. Because it is basically true that if you stop watering your garden, your plants are more likely to provide tinder for a fire. Except for succulents. And a few other plants too.

Keeping the fuel load away from your home – and that means trees, heavy shrubbery, wooden decks and fences – is important, he said, but that doesn't mean you have to sacrifice privacy and or go without a garden or patio….

Even in drought conditions, a garden maintained with mulching and careful water use can offer a good defense against an encroaching fire, Egbert said….

California native plants are good for the perimeter beyond the cottage garden, where they add to the buffer and attract birds and butterflies, he said, and he favors "low stone walls that host bowls of succulents like ruffled leaf echeverias, blooming sedums and native dudley(a)s.

"Succulents are ideal fire-safe landscape candidates, with their thick water-retentive leaves and often-colorful waxy surfaces. The walls themselves help to reduce the spread of low flames and blowing sparks as permanent firebreaks."

That was a large excerpt. I hope the writer, Laura Thomas, Chronicle Staff Writer, doesn't mind.

Today I Write Another Garden Limerick

Posted July 27, 2008 4:31 pm & filed under Poetry.

You're in luck!

There once was a lad with a cactus
On which he could waltz with some practice
He was waltzing one day
while his girl was away
When the cactus did practice spiny tactics

Well, maybe you weren't in luck after all. Sorry about that.

Cholla Flower

Posted July 27, 2008 11:59 am & filed under Photography.

So many flowers. So so many flowers. On this one plant, that is.

Opuntia imbricata, also known as Cylindropuntia imbricata, or even as the Chain-link Cholla.

I don't know why.

But it's a nice medium height shrubby cholla, not the most dangerous one around, but still pretty nasty.

Saturday Night Video Blogging

Posted July 26, 2008 9:13 pm & filed under Misc.

Ever felt fear of your cacti? Chris Walken has. He has a solution he wants to share with you.

Smoking Hot

Posted July 26, 2008 2:13 pm & filed under Misc.

It's a cactus pipe, or so the info says. I don't see it. It looks more like a frog pipe to me:

Why would you want a cactus pipe or a frog pipe anyway?

I like the old fashioned corncob pipe myself, not that I've ever used one.

The only pipe I've ever had use for is this one:

On the other hand, this one is an actual cactus pipe, by which I mean a peace pipe made from cactus:

I don't know what makes this one a pipe, since it looks more like a corndog, but you know, I don't need to know everything.

Gaze Deep into the Flower's Purple Throat

Posted July 26, 2008 10:37 am & filed under Photography.

Yesterday I blogged a purple-throated flower and wondered how deep in I could peer. Today we find out the answer.

Uncarina peltata

It turns out you can look pretty deep into that purple throated flower.

Gardening is Like Poetry…

Posted July 26, 2008 8:05 am & filed under Poetry.

Or garden-blogging is like digging with a spade. Or something. Anyway, here's a limerick for you:

There once was a girl name of Dotto
She planted a cactus named Noto
While watering one day
A bloom came her way
And also she won the State Lotto!

Another girl had a different experience:

There once was a girl name of Dottie
She planted a cactus very naughty
Her Mom looked away
Shocked in her own way
Cause the cactus was so very bawdy!

Wherein We Get Referenced in a News Article

Posted July 25, 2008 4:49 pm & filed under News.

Apparently we were a source of information for this article Cacti look sharp in local gardens from the Fort Myers (FL) News-Press.

It's a nice article about cactus in Florida, so we approve. It would have been nice if they had called us to ask us questions, but it's always nice to get credit when the website is used for an article. They also have some good pictures, so it wouldn't hurt to click through.

Which is to say that many cactus and succulents do every bit as well here as hibiscus and heliconias do.

In fact, Florida has a number of native cactus species, some of which are found nowhere else on Earth, such as the Keys' semaphore cactus. Plus, many exotic cactus and succulent species flourish here too….

They're very easy to propagate from cuttings, he says. "In other parts of the country, people have to buy special soil to root them, but here, we've got it made — just stick them into the ground (provided it's well-drained) and they grow."…

— Sources: Richard McConville; cactusjungle.com; The University of Florida

Now I've been to Florida, and I've seen a few scraggly cacti around, but with the humidity the jungle cacti and tillandsias do best.

Another Bloom Opens Too

Posted July 25, 2008 1:45 pm & filed under Photography.

I posted this cactus in bud earlier in the week, and now here's the bloom wide open.

Ferocactus pottsi

These don't seem to be opening fully this year. But they're kinda nice like this too. If they're pollinated they get little yellow fruit, and with the dead bloom still stuck on top look like little pineapples.

The Bud Opens and It's a Flower!

Posted July 25, 2008 10:33 am & filed under Photography.

Yesterday I blogged a rude bud.

Today the flower is open!

Uncarina peltata

And it is purple-throated! Just like the books said it would be! Can you tell how excited I am? I wonder if we can get a closer look deep into that purple throat….

Presidential Candidate Quote of the Day

Posted July 25, 2008 9:45 am & filed under Quotes.

"The greatest danger of all is to allow new walls to divide us from one another. The walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic cannot stand. The walls between the countries with the most and those with the least cannot stand. The walls between races and tribes; natives and immigrants; Christian and Muslim and Jew cannot stand. These now are the walls we must tear down." Barack Obama in Berlin

It's nice to be reminded that part of what it means to be an American is about inspiring the rest of the world to want to be more free, more open, more democratic.

Friday Whippet Blogging

Posted July 25, 2008 6:48 am & filed under Whippets.

Special Friday Cousin Edition

Did I mention that Jaxx is visiting for the summer? He and Benjamin are both at the nursery every day. He's a good boy.

Link of the Day

Posted July 24, 2008 4:13 pm & filed under Blogs.

Saipua has been mixing plants for clients. Here's a picture of a peony and a Kalanchoe fedtschenkoi and some other stuff too. A very particular style results.

Friday Whippet Blogging

Posted July 24, 2008 1:48 pm & filed under Whippets.

Special early Thursday edition.

The Rudest Bud I've Ever Seen

Posted July 24, 2008 10:37 am & filed under Photography.

And it's on such a soft and fuzzy plant, no less.

Uncarina peltata

It's a shrubby caudex that will grow to 10 ft. tall. It will have golden trumpet flowers with a spectacular purple throat, I assure you. Stayed tuned for more photos as this bud opens, petals wide open.

We grow these indoors here. Maybe you can have them outdoors where you are. Where are you? These Uncarinas look to me like they're from the Arabian peninsula. Maybe I'll go check that out for you. Hold on while I google it.

Nope! They're from Madagascar, like every other fantastical plant on the planet.

News of the Day Thursday Roundup Posting

Posted July 24, 2008 9:04 am & filed under News.

Here's some more news in digest form about the wide world of cactus and advertising and coin collecting and food coloring too. Something for everyone. Plus I relate a story from my youth.

The Tunica (MS) Times has a cooking column, with a chatty host. In this column, they're featuring pineapple chunks and sausage for something called "Hawaiian Combo." But first the writer tells us about her cacti.

Most of the plants I keep in the upstairs sunroom are cactus or succulents because I forget to water them.

Good to know. Next up, those "Cactus Kid" ads for a new soft drink I featured recently…. Turns out they're being protested for glamorizing teen pregnancy, or something.

The ASA has received 11 complaints that the ad is offensive because it normalises or glamourises teenage pregnancy and that it is also irresponsible for suggesting people should drink Oasis instead of water. There are also concerns about whether the female character is a minor and that the ad has been scheduled inappropriately.

Oy. Get a life.

Anyway, next on the agenda is nice. From France we read about antioxident food colorings in your diet.

The potent antioxidant activity of pigments from beet and cactus pears may be the key to their potential, suggests a new review from Brazil.

Red dyes in nature, don't you know.

Lastly, I would hope you're still with us, because this next one is super special to me, since I've been covering this story since the very beginning. Or else I'm just a little punchy putting together such a fabulous news roundup for you. Anyway, the Arizona State quarters with the Saguaros on them have an error.

So the next day, I decide what the heck, and have my local dealer pull a couple of rolls worth out of his mint bag. I got them home, and found about 1/3 had the "extra cactus" covering the designer's initials (JFM) and 13 out of the 80 had the "extra cactus" covering both the initials and the date.

Wow. Big news in the numismatist world, indeed. I remember back when I was 12 and started collecting stamps and there was an error on a stamp from Botswana, and the philatelist world was up in arms.

My Mom recently sent me a package that included some foreign stamps I had collected and forgot about a long time ago. I was only 12 at the time. She was cleaning out the last of my stuff at the house, and that was the end of it. Now what do I do with these?

We Get Quoted in a Real Newspaper

Posted July 24, 2008 7:25 am & filed under News, Quotes.

Partner and occasional co-blogger Hap got mentioned in a Houston, Texas newspaper. Here's the full quote:

In 2005, I wrote a similar column about a cactus in an oak tree. We saw it in Fredericksburg, Texas. Back then, I spoke with Hap Hollibaugh of Cactus Jungle in Berkeley, Calif., and he said most likely the prickly pear was "simply an advantageous grower." Seeds sometimes germinate in odd places if they find enough nutrients.

A Cactus Blooms in Florida

Posted July 23, 2008 5:27 pm & filed under Blogs.

Gardening in Central Florida shows what can happen to a cactus, even in central Florida: It Blooms! This is some type of Echinopsis. Hard to see the plant behind the flower to know for sure. But it's sure pretty.

People Ask Us…

Posted July 23, 2008 11:56 am & filed under Videos - Instructional.

…How do you repot a succulent?

It's my long-awaited and eagerly anticipated tour-de-force instructional video. 2 minutes long! Unfortunately, Brad begged out of playing the lead at the last minute, so I had to take over. And Bob was asking for too much to use one of his older songs, so the editors did the best they could, and I think they did a fantastic job with the material I gave them. Oy, the material I gave them…

And now you know.

Flower Opened Just Like I Promised

Posted July 23, 2008 9:12 am & filed under Photography.

Yesterday the flower almost opened, but not quite. Now it's fully open.

Echinopsis pachanoi

Pretty spectacular giant white blooms.

Link of the Day

Posted July 22, 2008 4:25 pm & filed under Blogs.

Danielle's little nopal grew an arm, as documented on Danielle's Garden Blog. It's very precious, so be careful not to disturb it, or the whole thing may break off and then where would we be?

Scalloped Sepals on a Glaucus Green Barrel

Posted July 22, 2008 2:32 pm & filed under Photography.

Ferocactus pottsi

These barrels are from Mexico and get around 16″ across, plus a whole lot taller eventually. We're not really sure what species this is, but we've done our best looking through all our sources to identify it as F. pottsi. We waited for the blooms, which are yellow thus ruling out F. diguetii, to be sure.

I like this picture of the buds better than the picture of the yellow blooms I have. Kind of looks Eastern Orthodox.

I may share the bloom photo too; who can tell for sure what I'm thinking.

Cactus in the News Roundup

Posted July 22, 2008 10:31 am & filed under News.

I've been remiss in bringing you the latest in cactus news, so here's a classy and informative roundup of all the latest.

A woman in Jackson, Michigan sees a prickly pear cactus bloom, right in her own front yard. Good times. The newspaper as always likes to cover the phenomenon of cactus in bloom for local color.

"Before this year I could count the blooms, there were so few of them. This year I can't keep up with it. One (petal) had 11 blooms all the way around the edge of it," she said.

Some good news for the cactus wren.

MARK RIGHTMIRE, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Olson, the science and stewardship director at the Irvine Ranch Conservancy, has helped build 14 structures out of plastic pipe, flat-headed needles and barbed wire that are meant to simulate the knotty, thorny, succulent clusters that the wrens call home.

Olson and a crew of staff and interns began erecting the structures around Irvine's foothill country Tuesday, close to real stands of cactus inhabited by the wrens.

"Half of it is getting the birds to nest in it," he said as he loaded the structures into trucks. "The other half is to get them to nest successfully. Between the wind and the heat and the snakes – I hope this works."

The El Paso Times, like other newspapers in Texas, likes to remind it's readers that you can legally buy peyote from some vendors.

A sign in front of Mauro Morales' Rio Grande City home announces his business for everyone to see. "Peyote Dealer," it proclaims in large block letters….The slight, 65-year-old Rio Grande City man is one of only three people in the United States — all in Starr and Webb counties — authorized to harvest and sell the psychedelic cactus.

But as overharvesting continues to threaten peyote's growth range in Starr County, he may not have much of a business for long — and Native Americans may lose their access to a substance that drives their religion.

Shall we try one more for today? How about a touching story about a woolly cactus in Santa Cruz?

This cactus can be made from fleece or felt, with pins doubling as cactus spines

The San Pedro Flower is Almost Open

Posted July 22, 2008 9:21 am & filed under Photography.

It's late in the day, and this flower is trying to open before evening, but it won't make it. Tomorrow….

So for now it has taken on this very weird floppy partially open look.

Echinopsis pachanoi, San Pedro Cactus

From Peru, so they tell me. This plant is very popular with the college students here in Berkeley, not that I would know why. We recommend you plant it in your back yard, where the college students won't find it.

Maybe tomorrow if the bloom is fully open I'll take another picture. Would you like that?

Stapeliad Blooms are the Craziest in the Plant Kingdom

Posted July 21, 2008 4:12 pm & filed under Photography.

Here we have a lovely spotted flower coming out of some standard-issue green stems with little spiny pointy things.

Huernia guttata reticulata

Shall we look closer?

Click the closeup for a bigger closeup.

Now this little gem is an easy to grow, easy to bloom plant from South Africa, Western Cape, that rewards with many thick green 3″ stems. They form a dense mat that can produce many of these flowers with variable sized spottings. Some have big red spoltchy spots, while others have tiny little fine spots. All have that very interesting structure inside, protected by some little bloom spines! They are a carrion flower, and so attract beetles and such. It's a ground hugging bloom which is how I know it's for beetles and not flies.

We keep them indoors where the beetles don't find them, because that's just the way we are.

Hairy Cactus Has a Bloom

Posted July 21, 2008 10:05 am & filed under Photography.

It's true, the Old Man Cacti all have blooms too.

Pilosocereus leucocephalus, also known as the Woolly Torch

Variable columnar cactus from all over South America. Gets the woolly, or hairy, "cephalum" near where it's going to bloom. It's an indication of sexual maturity in the plant. However, unlike true cephalum which are thickly hairy at the top or on one side only, this cactus will get a full column of hair up and down, with just a little extra dollop of hairiness near the bloom spots. It's special. Also faster growing than the Oreocereuses. Will get over 20 ft. tall.

This is not a plant we are selling at the nursery. This picture is from my front yard garden. I had to bring the black backdrop home from the store to take this photo. But I forgot, so I found a piece of gray construction paper and used that as a backdrop and then made it black in photoshop. You'd never have known if I hadn't told you.

Cactus Couture

Posted July 21, 2008 6:28 am & filed under News.

One of our occasional customers has recently been inspired by Berkeley cactus gardens to create some cactus-inspired clothing. From Women's Wear Daily:

CITY BY THE BAY GETAWAY: New York designer Koos van den Akker has found his ideal vacation spot, allowing him to keep a daily schedule sewing his signature collage sportswear for sale in his namesake Madison Avenue boutique. His summer getaway is in San Francisco in a seventh-floor fashion school classroom at the Academy of Art University, where he's a designer in residence for two months. It's a post of his own making, where he's essentially created a West Coast atelier….

Koos had just explained to a student about the textured effect created when fraying fabric into strips and some of the principles of using collage in apparel. He then turned his attention to a coat he's sewing for his boutique — a design inspired by cacti he's seen in dry East Bay gardens. "The bright light in the Bay Area also reflects in my work," said Koos.

I'm feeeling inspired myself to make some clothing-inspired mixed cacti pots. I wonder what it will be?…

Barrel Bloom Photo with Spines

Posted July 20, 2008 11:06 am & filed under Photography.

Ferocactus gracilis ssp. coloratus

Baja California native. Solitary barrel to 12″ dia., eventually 4′ tall.

Don't Turn Your Back on a Cactus Chrris Walken

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