cast iron cactus

Ok, I managed to see this driving around today... and I think I need it.

I personally think I need an 8 foot tall cast iron saquaro mailbox far more than these people do. If they had any human decency, they'd give it to me. Besides, this is a very upscale neighborhood, I'm sure the neighbors would be more than willing to dig it up for me.

Oh well... one more thing for the wish list...

Pics!

I left the house this morning determined that I was gonna find something to take a danged pic of if it was the last thing I did.

Well, It almost was the last thing I did. On the final delivery of the day, I saw some Texas Longhorns.

Yep, cows are the best I could come up with today... As far as interesting things to see go, it just hasn't been happening lately. Usually, Longhorns can't be bothered with people stopping to take a few pics. But, as evidenced in the pic below... these had calves in the field, and they were keeping their eyes on me...

Texas Longhorns are a cantancerous breed, much like Texans in general, so I didn't stick around too long. If they decided that I was going to be a nuisance, they can get dangerous.

But I couldn't just show you pics of cows... So here's the salvaged banana tree... he's coming along pretty well... (and you will notice that the neighbor still hasn't mowed that grass... GRRRR)

And here's a Turks-cap (aka Sleeping Hibiscus, or Wax Malva, but more proberly known as Malvaviscus arboreus) I planted him among the prickly pears in the front yard. I don't like empty dirt, as I've found if I don't intentionally grow something there, then something I don't want will show up. So, I've started planting TX wildflowers among the cactus. They can take the heat and drought. The blooms on these never fully open, and they're small, but for some reason, they're still very cheerful...

Not that we've been having drought lately. It rained off and on all day yesterday, and all morning today... then the sun came up and the humidity level was about 80. Not comfortable at all...

But, I did get a late bloom on the Prickly pears...

Which only goes to prove that you can find something interesting to look at if you try hard enough.

nothing too special...

I have no pics, and I have nothing much to say. Really... you're just wasting your time by dropping by..

It's actually been a busy week since I last posted... busy, but uneventful.

Tonight, I have to turn in early, as tomorrow I have a very early run, and it will probably turn into a very long day... But it has been 7 full days since I posted, so I thought I'd drop by and let everyone know that all is well here and going more or less as it should...

Hope everybody out there is doing well.

Later

Well, the neighbors have evidently learned...

It seems that all my neighbors have learned that if they set a plant out by the side of the road on trash day, that I'm going to pick it up. So they might as well just give them too me... Speaking of which, the rescued banana plant has started to grow and has put out it's first rather impressive leaf...


BTW - disregard the overgrown grass in the photo... that's the neighbors problem.

So, a lady down the street is downsizing into an apartment, and evidently will not have room for her plants... at least they're succulent...

First off, some sort of aloe. I have aloe vera here and that's it. Not a genus I've paid a whole lot of attention to for some reason. Anybody out there wanna give me a clue? And the pot, cute as it is, is a little too cute for me... not to mention that I'm just not sure that an aloe looks entirely comfortable in a pot that has daffodils on the side of it.

Next, a rather nice sized, though possibly etoliated, Chamaelobivia 'Rose Quartz' Now, I already have one of these, sent to me by Aiyana at Water When Dry, (see her blog to the right) and I'm going to have to find something besides that danged nursery pot to put it in... but it's a nice enough plant.

And this is some sort of Euphorbia, which is really in excellent shape. Again, I'm going to need a clue folks...

And I must say, I like this plants spiraled stems... but I don't know how big it's gonna get. For some reason just looking at it makes me think it could turn into a monster...

And finally, and probably in the worst shape... This Echeveria gibbiflora hybrid. Well, that's what it says on the faded sticker on the side of the pot...

He's definitely seen better days. I'm tempted to lop off the top and reroot it, and then let the leftover stalk resprout new plants. That's usually what I do with overgrown and etoliated Echeverias. I'm going to have to do some research on the plant though... a lot of this genus survives our winters outside, but I'm under the general impression that this one won't. Not sure though, I can't be expected to remember every detail of every succulent out there, can I?

So, these are my new additions... what do you think?

more cactus planted...

I finally got the ferocactus potted up... I decided that after I had to wash all the icky biodegradable packing peanuts off, I'd give them an extra day to dry off good... I think they'll do fine. I've got about a month or two to find a place in the ground for them, or wait until next spring to do so... I just feel more comfortable giving them plenty of time to establish themselves before they have to deal with the cold...

And here's the Oreocereus celsianus that I got off a clearance rack for 3 bucks... he's 8 inches tall, and the plant can get to 10 feet! I'm not sure that he'll do really well here, but for 3 bucks, I'll experiment. With any luck, he'll survive and I'll get to see some of the red flowers soon...

And that's about it... a lot of the cactus on my list are considered rare in cultivation. The only way I'm going to be able to get them is from seed. After I've double checked hardiness on all of them, because I don't want to get a plant that doesn't have at least a fighting chance, I'll publish the list and see what y'all have to say about them...

I've also found that a lot of the plants listed as hardy all the way up to zone 5 have never been tried! It seems that most people just assume cactus don't grow there and move on to the petunias! So, no matter how careful I am, it seems that I'm experimenting no matter what...

cactus in the ground!

Well, here's one of the appallingly badly packed ferocactus, in his new home in my front rock garden.

The other four are currenly in 4 inch terra cotta pots... which are probably slightly too big for them but I didn't have any other pots handy, so there we are... I'm sure they'll be fine, despite their ordeal in the envelope.

One other thing I should mention... someone once told me that if you write things down, it makes them happen... something about getting your subconscious to work for you, or guardian angels or higher selves... (some new age silliness... considering who told it to me, it could have been any one of those things, but I'm not entirely sure which it is now. Personally I think it boils down to "If you know what you want it's easier to get it.")

The point of this is that I mentioned a few posts back that I was making a list of winter hardy cactus that I wanted for the yard.

Well, I walked into Lowes, right after I picked up my truck, because I wanted to buy a little piece of nothing that I needed for a repair job... and I saw a cactus sitting on their plant clearance rack. In really beautiful shape... not at all like the others on the rack which were beat up beyond redemption... I grabbed it without even giving it a second thought... and after I got it home, I looked at the tag, and it's an Oreocereus celsianus, aka Peruvian Old Man Cactus. The tag said not to let it get below 45 degrees, but I'm pretty sure that's what it says on all the cactus tags at lowes.

Well, it's on my list. The first plant I wrote on my list... (erie, huh?)

I since researched a little more... conflicting info and all, and it's definitely hardy to 10 degrees, so I'll be putting him in the rock garden this weekend... and I'll take a pic of him in his new home. The real problem will not be the cold, but the heat... they are native to high, mountainous deserts, and summer heat may stress him...

Work was good. Air Conditioning is a wonderful thing.

And now I'm making a new list.

I want a new truck. I want a greenhouse. I want a house on five acres. I want 10 million dollars...

Hey, if it works for plants, why not?
Later.

So I started today by taking my morning cup of coffee out to my lathe house, where I was poking around the plants in the cool of the morning, and I suddenly felt something on the top of my head... turned out to be Phennig, reaching through the lathe and trying to claw my scalp.

Little booger...


The 5 little Ferocactus wislenzeni I ordered from ebay came in the mail today... in an envelope, padded with waste paper, recycled packing peanuts and loose dirt...

And most of the peanuts are those biodegradable ones, the ones that dissolve in water... and these got just damp enough to get all sticky and gooey and stuck to each other, the envelope, and the plants... really, you'd think the guy would at least have wrapped them in paper. Not entirely happy... but they are 2 inches tall and about that wide (if you count the spines) and they did get here... I'll try to get some better pics after I get them cleaned up and planted/potted.

right now... I'm waiting for my ride to get here so that I can pick up the truck.

That's right... I'm gonna be mobile again... Hide the children, I'm loose!

Bored, Bored, Bored. Bored....

No pics today. I'm still stuck in the house, and I'm supposed to pick up the truck tomorrow....Can't do too much in the yard, because it's getting up to about 105 everyday. Of course, Aiyanna and Pudgeduck are dealing with hotter than that in Arizona, but 105 is too hot for all practical purposes as far as I'm concerned.

I've finished about all the busywork I have around the house. I even resorted to cleaning, and if you knew me, you'd know how desperate that was...

but I did get a closet fixed.

And I've gone through all my references and compiled a wish-list of cactus that are supposedly hardy to 10 degrees.

I bought some cactus on ebay, that may actually be arriving today, but far more likely before the end of the week.

I resorted to reading some of the self-help books that my sister sent over for me to sell in the flea market. (This sort of book usually makes me roll my eyes and seriously consider book burning as a viable option.)

And the mail-man just came and no cactus today.

And that's about it...

Maybe I can find another closet that needs fixed.

So, my truck is in the shop again... until Wednesday. I'm sincerely not happy... it's the same dang problem... we're seriously trying to figure out what is wrong with the thing that makes it keep doing this...

But since I don't have any new pics from around and about, I went to the kalaidascope maker, see the links to the right, and was playing around. It's quite addictive...

this started out as a pic of Phennig sitting on the lawn...


and this is a pic of a lizard sitting on the hay bales...

and this is my little pocket Buddha...

This one is a Passionflower from the yard...

And that's how I've been wasting my time.

That and buying things on ebay... sometime over the next couple of days I'm expecting a package containing 5 little Ferocactus wislezeni plants. They were described as being 2 inches in diameter, and they were 1.00 each... so I bought 5. They're hardy to 5 degrees Farenheight, and in this part of the country they're very expensive. If I stick them in the ground, they're an investment... I can always yank them up after a couple of years and sell them. Or that's what I told myself. I'm far more likely to sell my blood than these guys... I've been wanting a couple of them for at least 5 years. Besides, the longer I keep them, the bigger they'll get and the more valuable they'll be.

I know it would be a lot more practical to buy a bigger one... these are at least 7 years from blooming size, 10 years more like it... but the truth is I like to watch little cactus turn into big cactus. It always makes me feel like I've achieved something. Which is strange, as the primary chore with cactus is waiting, but I guess waiting can be an achievement too...

stuck at home playing with pottery...

Well, not driving today, so I'm stuck at home with nothing to do but clean up, price and pack stuff that I'll take into the flea market if I ever get a truck to haul things...

Since some of my blog friends have expressed some interest in the flea market, I decided I'd show you a few things... besides. I don't have anything else to do... of course, when I was dealing on ebay I took a whole lot more trouble with the pics to really show things off...

The first pic is Frankoma pottery, in the Lazy Bones pattern, and the Desert Gold glaze. The covered casserole book prices in the 50 dollar range, and the warming stand, which was made to use interchangably with several pieces, book prices in the 40 dollar range. I'll probably ask 45 for all three pieces. For some reason, when I saw these at the Estate Sale, I immediately thought of Ayana, at Water When Dry.... I'm finding more and more that I'll see things that I really think my blogger friends would like.

Frankoma doesn't sell too well here... Most of the local people seem to be going for a more exotic look, with Asian, Indian, and Victorian influences. In my humble opinion, it's a look that looks great in English country estates, but looks a little heavy, uncomfortable and cramped in Texas suburbs, but I'll sell it to them if they want it...

This little cactus cream jug, and the cactus salt and pepper shakers might find a home here... the shakers are probably what's referred to as souvenier-ware... bought on somebodies trip to Arizona. The memento industry uses patterns forever, so there is absolutely no way of knowing how old they are. I like them though...

The cream jug is really a puzzle. I have no idea who made it... Hull pottery put out a cactus line, but this glaze doesn't match it at all, it looks more like a McCoy glaze to me... and of course the only marking is 103... it's definitely an American pottery, and most probably a California pottery, but I can't track it down! (And these reminded me of Julie at A Succulent Life)

I took a pic of the markings... if anybody out there has a clue, I'd love to hear about it... Simply because I want the sugar bowl to match.

I've got 8 of these drinking glasses with Siamese dancers on the side. I'll try to get about $15 bucks for the set...

And this pair of Chinese ladies should get me about $10.

And that's about it for today... maybe I'll drop back by later and give an update on my truck. I'm really starting to worry about it... It's true that I am an independant contractor, but if the courier service thinks that my truck isn't dependable, and they can't count on me, I may be out of a job! The last thing I need right now is to try to be unemployed in this economy...

stuck at home...

Well, the AC stopped working on the truck again yesterday. I finished the day at work, but by the end of it, I was a puddle, so back in the shop it goes. It should be done today, and the mechanic knows that I am not happy.

So today, I was sitting here feeling a little depressed, so I went outside to work in the yard... it's a little too hot to be working too hard, so I was actually just goofing off, but I did manage to take some pics...

True to form, the hotter it gets the more the Pavonia blooms...

And today was trash day, and one of my neighbors was throwing this out...

It's a banana tree! Most probably Musa basjoo... the winter hardy variety. To be more accurate, they're winter hardy if you wrap the stems in newspaper or burlap or bubble wrap for the winter, but nobody seems to want to go to the trouble. Otherwise they come up from the root and get about 3 or 4 feet tall before the next winter hits. The ones in my yard get 8 feet tall and bloom, but only because I wrap the trunks every winter...

This plant was still in it's original nursery pot, complete with $9.99 price tag, and while I'll admit that it had definitely seen better days, it's very far from dead. Bananas are oportunistic growers, given a good drink and put in the ground this one would be fine. So I nabbed it, planted it in a pot that somebody else had put out for the garbage a couple of weeks ago... (I'm such a scrounge...)

Trimmed off the broken thrashed leaves,

and in a couple of weeks I'll have a really nice plant to sell at the flea market. Or, if I put some smaller plants in the base of the pot, wait a month, then I can double what I was gonna charge.

And all the while, Phennig was sitting on the carport finding this all rather amusing...

So, I guess something productive happened, and today wasn't totally a bust...

later...

Cereus hildmannianus

And this is the first bloom for this plant this year.

When I went outside at 11 pm, there was no sign of the bloom actually opening, so I went to bed assuming that the bloom would take place tomorrow. Sometime after that...we got a little bit of rain, and the darned thing opened. This is the bloom begining to close actually, it was fully spread at about 8 inches wide at some point last night, trying to entice the night flying bats that polinate it. While we have bats here, I'm not sure we have the right ones, as I've never heard of this plant actually getting polinated in this area... of course, they're not extrememly common around here, it's quite possible that there's no cross pollination going on... I don't know if they self-pollinate... I've certainly attempted to intercede before, and it didn't work.

Anyway... that's the bloom.... if you click on the label below, you'll see some of the other blooms that have happened over the years... much more impressive ones actually...

And I'm back...

Actually, I didn't go anywhere. Just really had nothing much to say...

And that's not entirely honest. I have, for the past week, been battling the family curse of migraines... I don't get them as often as I used to, but they are much more serious when they're here, and as painful as they are, they're usually preceeded by a general moodiness and fits of depression... quite frankly the actual pain of the migraine is almost a relief... I know the cycle is almost over... The problem is that while this round about is going on, it's kind of hard to pull together the small bit of concentration it takes to type a scentece.

But on the fourth, I did get out and about enough to take a pic of this little black bee on a portaluca in the front yard... a nice shiney black except for the bright yellow pollen sacks on his back legs...
and the Cereus Hildemanus is putting out it's first bud of the year. Today it doubled in size, so it may open tonight after sundown. I'll try to get a pic if it does...

As for the rest of the fourth, I wasn't quite up to exploding fireworks... some fried chicken, a big slice of watermelon and a quiet day is all I wanted.

So, I'm still alive! (and I thank the kind posters who left comments asking if I was OK... thanks for checking up on me, but when it comes to these dang headaches, I know the drill )