A plant and a rant...

Well, true to my blog name... When I post, I usually have a rant, or I have a plant. Rarely will it be both in the same post. Today it is... Lucky you! Aren't you glad you clicked onto here today?

I should start with a little background info I suppose... here's the previous post from a couple of weeks ago...
http://lpfleamarket.blogspot.com/2009/04/cemetary-cactus.html

This is about the cemetary cactus... Specifically the Escobaria missouriensis that were deliberately planted in the cemetary. I didn't tell anybody what cemetary, because these are ancient clumps, and very valuable... well I had a little time off in the middle of the day, and I was within a mile, so I dropped by... the plants would still be in bloom, and I wanted to have a good look into the older part of the graveyard... see if I could pick out the oldest plant... more for something to do than anything else.

Well, the graveyard had recently been mowed... and here's the result...

They mowed right over the cactus... beheading the little guys!

As far as I can tell, this is the oldest clump... on a grave dating from 1891. The plant was probably decent sized and at least 25 years old when it was planted here... the total size was about 3 feet by 1 3/4 feet...

Now it won't kill the plants totally... most are pretty low to the ground to begin with... this next pic is old damage, probably from last year... the black/brown mass in the middle is what will be showing up here soon...

Now, I did start picking up the cut off pieces and knocked off pups from the plants... (Yes, I know it's probably technically stealing plants from a graveyard, but I absolutely dare anybody to tell me that I can't pick up grass clippings if I danged well want to... and besides, I was so burning that they're lucky I didn't have a shovel with me to start salvaging plants... You don't go around haphazardly damaging 100+ year old plants then start whining when people decide to save them from you...and if I did have the shovel on me, and I also saw the lawn maintenance man... well, I would have a shovel and it IS a graveyard... figure it out.)

This is only a fraction of what I got...

I should be able to root 90% of what I picked up...

The truly awful part of it is that those plants were worth from $25 to $200 each... easy... I've seen old clumps bid up to dizzying prices on ebay... and now, this scarred up and deformed, they're not worth 50 cents. I have no doubt they'll survive. They evolved to survive being trampled by buffalo herds. But they're ruined now...

I would try to contact the Cemetary Association, and try to get permission to remove the plants that are in harms way. But, I know Texans, and I'm 99 percent sure they won't give it... I may start a career as a cactus poacher.

But as is... I got some winter hardy cactus rooting... anybody want one?