An Old Standard

In late February for the past 10 years or so, I've purchased a hanging basket from Lowe's, filled with Creeping Charlie (Glechoma hederacea) and Wandering Jew (Tradescantia zebrina) to place in a tall patio planter. I spend about $13, an inexpensive way to have a great spot of color on my patio for a few months, until the hot weather does it in, usually by June 15. When I first place it in the planter, I cut off the wires and the hook for hanging, and then just watch it grow. This year my plant has continued to thrive well past its expected expiration date, and is now sweeping the patio floor. I've trimmed it a couple of times just to keep it off the floor, but otherwise, I do nothing to it but water.

I think the reason it is doing so well is that this year I started watering it twice a day beginning in mid-June. It's amazing to me that the root system can support all this foliage. The size of this arrangement is deceptive. The pot it's in is an 8" pot with a depth of 6". That pot is sitting inside a large ceramic planter pot, and the planted pot is resting on another pot turned upside down.

Each year when I see the arrangement moving toward its demise, I take off a few cuttings and place them in a vase in the house. Those cuttings can last for years in the vase if I choose to let them go.

The Rest of the Cactus Flowers

Gymnocalycium baldianum

This is my oldest cactus and the most reliable bloomer. It flowers from April to September. During its flowering season, this cactus has consistently produced over 120 flowers each year.

Rebutia pulvinosa

Once this cactus started producing flowers in May, it has bloomed once a month since. As summer moves on, the flowers become smaller, but stay the intense orange that you see here. Each round of flowers produces at least a dozen at a time.

x Echinopsis 'Rose Quartz'

'Rose Quartz' flowers several times starting in late spring. The flowers get lighter and lighter with each flowering. I think I like the color of this current flower more than the darker rose of earlier months.

The x before the name signifies that this is a hybrid Echinopsis. This cactus is a cross between the Chamaecereus and Lobivia genera, which are now classified as Echinopsis. Or something like that.

Echinopsis x 'Los Angeles'

This cactus not only has beautiful flowers, but I think the cactus itself is an especially attractive one. It always produces several flowers at once. Last month it bloomed in May, June, August and October. This year, it flowered in June and July. We'll see what happens later!

The x after the name Echinopsis signifies that this is an Echinopsis hybrid. No crosses with other genera, just crosses with other Echinopis. Or something like that.

First Time Flowers

Dolichothele sphaerica

This cactus comes from a small genus that comes from Mexico. It used to be classified in the Mammillaria genus. Its common name is Longmamma Nipple Cactus. Since it has a long, thick taproot, I planted it under a Palo Verde tree, rather than worrying about pot depth. It is doing so well that it flowered its first year in the ground. Since I took this photo, it has had two more rounds of blooms. The flowers are said to be strongly scented, but I can't detect much fragrance, probably because I can't get close enough to the flowers. I would have to get right down in the gravel to get a whiff, which is easy enough. Getting back up is always the trick for me!

This fast-growing cactus readily clumps and forms mounds up to two feet in diameter. It takes no special care.

Desert Art: Cheap or Costly?

One would think that living in the desert and having desert landscaping would be enough, but no. I also have art that depicts our desert and its vegetation. Some of the art is expensive, but other pieces are thrift store bargains. If you are interested in checking your artistic eye or practicing your appraising skills, try to guess where these art pieces came from.

There are three choices. One came from a Goodwill store, priced at $4.95. I had a 20 percent off coupon, so its final price was $3.96.

Another painting is a yard sale find. I don't remember for sure, but I think I paid about $10.

Another one is a painting from a gallery and is by a locally renowned artist. It is an original and cost $500.

A.

B.

C.

To find out the answers, see this post and look in the comments section, but cast your vote in the poll first.

Cactus Flower Spectacular

It seems many of my cacti are really enjoying the extra rain we are receiving this Monsoon time. There is always the danger of root rot from too much moisture, but it will be months before I'll know it. In the meantime, there's been a great round of flowers. The flowers are very short-lived this time of year and I have to be extra diligent to catch them at their peak. I've missed a few--being the late riser I am.

Parodia Magnifica

Ball Cactus

Rebutia spegazziniana

Thelocactus setispinus

Strawberry Barrel

Echinopis hybrid

Echinopsis spachiana

Golden Torch Cactus

The Monsoon Season Brings...

This

x Echinopsis 'Fire Chief'

This

Ortegocactus mcdougallii

This Echinopsis 'Haku Jo'

And This...A downed Chilean Mesquite

Need For Speed

If you look at my July 15 post, you'll see what these Argentine Giant (Echinopsis candicans) buds looked like on Monday evening. The photo below was taken on Wednesday at dusk. The buds grow so fast you can almost hear them--as they say about corn stalks!

Later Wednesday night, two buds opened. The middle one finally opened a couple of hours after the other two. By morning, the flowers were spent. This speedy cycle occurs several times during the year, but if the cactus produces buds in quick succession, the second round of flowers will be a bit smaller, as these are. They are still spectacular at seven inches in diameter.

Divergence

Golden Barrel and Mushroom

(Reminds me of politics!)

Oddities

The recent rains have stimulated several cacti to produce buds, so in a week or so, I'll have some more cactus flowers. The extremely fast-growing buds of the Argentine Giant (Echinopsis candicans) will grow to about six to eight inches long, before the end of this week.

These little hairy buds on this Golden Torch Cereus (Echinopsis spachiana) take a bit longer to form, and they are interesting to look at. They remind me of rabbit tails. I have my doubts as to the identity of this cactus. It was labeled Golden Torch Cereus, but the characteristics don't match up to most I've seen. Until I find out for sure, it will remain a Golden Torch.There have never been flower buds on this segmented Paper Spine Cactus (Tephrocactus articulatus var. papyracanthus) but when they come they will be small, and a pale yellow or off-white color. Most collectors grow this cactus for the unusual, harmless spines, not the flowers. The segmented portions easily fall off, and if left where they fall, they will start growing. The only water this cactus receives is rain water.

Unlike many desert gardeners, I leave the long stalks on the Red Yucca (Hesperaloe parviflora) long after the flowers are gone. The interesting seedpods slowly harden, split open and spill hundreds of black seeds out of the four sections. The seeds are stacked in each pod like Pringles®. To see the seeds, see a previous post.

July Desert Garden

Thursday's rain washed off over four months of accumulated dust from my garden, and perked up the plants a bit. Everything needs a good blowing and trimming. I refuse to do these tasks in the summertime, and I've neglected to call the landscape maintenance crew over to do it. Maybe next week. Everything moves slower in the heat, including me.


I don't know what to make of this Mourning Dove and its mate. They have been on this nest since mid-April, and so far there's been no babies. I would like to look in the nest to see if there are even any eggs. It's hard to believe that birds would sit all day with the temperatures up to 115º F. or more for months on end. I'm beginning to realize the true meaning of 'bird-brained.'
Another view, looking east. I really need to get my block walls painted. It would really brighten up my landscape, but it's hard to continue to put more money into my property with the real estate values dropping so much. In my immediate area, the property values have dropped over 45 percent!
The Opuntia engelmannii (Engelmann’s Prickly Pear) pears are ripening nicely. I'll be able to make some Prickly Pear vinaigrette by mid-August.

This rusty sentinel near the barbecue grill looks out over my desert garden at sunset.

At Long Last, Rain!

Finally, after 133 days, I had rain at my house Thursday night! We got .90 inches--a small amount by most standards but that's about one-eighth of our expected yearly rainfall--all in one night. I'm glad it finally happened, but it was an inopportune time.

In the past few days, I've had problems with my automatic irrigation system controller. It has been watering everything at erratic intervals. The trees and plants received more water this week than they would normally get in a month. Since the controller is programmed to run at night I didn't realize the problem until all my plants had been watered several days in a row. That may not seem like a big deal, but those extra irrigations over-saturated the soil and it was actually boggy Thursday afternoon. In addition, I just gave my cactus collection an extra heavy watering Wednesday night, a monthly ritual to help flush out salt accumulation. Then, the rain came.

If we have heavy winds or more rain in the next couple of weeks and any trees are toppled, I'm not going to try to save them this year. Been there, done that twice so far. I just spend thousands of dollars to have them set upright and re-staked, with no guarantee that it will work.

I'm not looking forward to my water bill at the end of the month!

Flower Drought

Cereus 'Red Monster'

Nothing new blooming in my garden, so this ususual cactus will have to do this week. I don't know a lot about this particular Cereus hybrid, only that it is a popular addition to potted cactus arrangements sold in some nurseries. The fine red spines, quite thick at the stem tips, hide the crested forms on some of the stems. I have yet to see a Cereus species with red spines, so I'm not sure of the lineage of the C. 'Red Monster'.

No Rain

What Is This?

I've had this succulent for four years now, and I don't know its identity. Can anyone help? Unlike many succulents of this type that I've tried, this plant lives on my patio year-round, and in the winter its fleshy leaves have a maroon hue. It takes extreme heat, and almost freezing temperatures, but it will not take full sunlight. For the first time, it has sent up slender stalks with small flower pods that have not opened, even after three weeks. There are numerous fine white hairs near the new growth at the tips of the branches. Any ideas?

Independence Day

I prefer liberty with danger to peace with slavery.

~Author Unknown

Common Knowledge

Carnegiea gigantea

Facts about the Mighty Saguaro

The holes in this Saguaro are from Gila woodpeckers and gilded flickers, who carve out nesting sites in saguaros. After the original birds move out, others, such as owls and sparrows, use the abandoned nests the next year. The cactus is not hurt by the holes, unless a bacterial infection sets in. This is fairly rare, as the cactus has a mechanism in place to quickly callus inside the hollow.

Have you ever noticed that a disturbing number of people seem oblivious to the simplest things about their locale, or even the neighborhood in which they live? I've traveled to many places, and it is rare to find even one person who can tell me the town's approximate population, the name of a native tree or flower, the elevation, weather patterns, or even the name of a river that runs through the town. One would think this kind of information would be common knowledge to those living there.

In one town I visited, a shopkeeper couldn’t understand why I wanted to know about such trivial stuff, and said no one he knew really cared about that kind of thing, that there were far more important things to think about, that I was the only person who had ever asked for that information, and that maybe I should just go buy a book. I left his shop empty handed, both in knowledge and goods.

I did run into a taxi driver once who was a genuine storehouse of data regarding the area I was visiting. He answered every question in detail, volunteered fascinating facts about the flora and fauna of the area, and did it with the aplomb of a tour guide describing his route. He received a very large tip.

Rescue Cactus Blooms

Ferocactus cylindraceus

Luckily, this barrel cactus decided to put out flowers a few weeks early, otherwise, I would have nothing to offer this week. The usual bloom period starts sometime in July--usually mid-July, so it was only by chance that I saw this flower. This barrel is in my front yard, one of the few cacti I have there. I saw the bloom from a bedroom window, so grabbed my camera and got this shot.

This is a rescue cactus that I purchased for $5 from our local Cactus and Succulent Society. It it a mature barrel, but it hadn't bloomed in the two years I've had it--until this past weekend. I have several barrels, and all have slightly different colored flowers. This one has less orange or red in the center than my others, which you can see here.