a bright shiney morning...

Don't get all excited... I don't have a new camera yet... can't justify the expense because of other stuff going on in my life. This is a really crappy cell phone pic.

yep... the peanut cactus, 'rose quartz' is blooming it's fool head off after the HUGE storms last night... here in my part of Texas, we just caught the tag end of the things... through the midwest... well parts of Oklahoma came might near to being scraped off the map as far as I could

tell.

But these cheered me up a little this morning, and quite frankly I needed it... not gonna go into details at the moment, but let me say this...

My Grandmother, who was a very wise woman, always said... "The good Lord don't give you any burden you can't carry. But there are times when I've wished He didn't have such faith in me." Let's just say... I know what the hell she was talking about and leave it at that, OK?

Chamaelobvia 'Rose Quartz'

And this morning we have blooms from a wonderful Chamaelobvia "Rose Quartz", one of the hybrids of Peanut Cactus... I'm not even going to get into the nomclamature on this... lets just say that there are people out there who call this Lobvia, Echinopsis, and a few others... it's one of the plants that have historically bounced around from genus to genus. Yes, I realize that we should all know the accurate latin names of our plants. It would, however, be very helpful if you people made up your minds what they were before you twisted my arm to remember it.

I will take on the 'Rose Quartz' part of the name though... I've seen the rock called rose quartz. They're pale, milky pink. Absolutely nothing to do with these vibrant ruby toned blooms. I realize that the people who develop the cultivars and hybrids get to name them, but there should be some standards...

Anyway, this plant showed up at the house last July, in this post.

Peanut cactus are one of the easiest cactus to grow, and very rewarding. Repeated flushes of blooms all summer, unlike most cactus which bloom more or less once and you better be waiting for it with camera poised when it happens, cause it will only be there for a few minutes... Culture is simple. Pot it, stick it in the sun, and throw some water in it's general direction every once in a while. Come winter, stick it in a window, and try to remember which window next spring.

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?

thorns in the mail...

Actually, it started out as a thorny day... I had to do a couple of what I thought would be simple errands, so I called dispatch and told them I'd start late... well, of course, simple errands turned into bizarre rituals, and I ended up missing a day of work, which I really didn't want to do... but when I finally got home, I found three little plants in the mail...

I had sent out the cemetary cactus a few weeks ago, and that wonderful Aiyana had sent me some plants back...

The plant at the top of the triangle is Chamelobivia 'Fire Chief' the one to the right is Chamelobivia 'Rose Quartz' The one to the left is what we believe Echinopsis 'Elegant Lady'

Really, it was totally unnecesary to send me anything. But, these really cheered me up, and for that I'm grateful.

And once I started potting things, I kept going... I started by cutting up a few pieces of fence wood to make a tray. I use these to display little plants that I root up to sell in the Flea Market and I have some to take in next weekend... The first one I made, years ago, surprised me... people want to buy the things! I have no earthly idea why, but who am I to turn down 10 bucks... it's just a piece of fence wood that you find by the side of the road on trash day after a good storm blows through, and an old belt that you cut up to use for handles. Old horse-shoes make better handles, but they're hard to come by.

The boot with plants in it sells well too... something to do with Texas no doubt. Then I planted a bunch of Semperviviums chicks in an old tin can... I'll either use this to size them up to sell or maybe just sell the whole darned thing. There's a very old tradition of Hen & Chicks in old tins, galvanized buckets or enamel pans, growing on front porches...

I then I planted up this Strawberry jar...
I collect pots from rummage sales, and I like to plant them up, but I really don't have room for all of them, so I wait for them to root good and sell them off... I can probably get 15 to 20 for this at the flea market. It would be more than double that at a nursery, but I'm just pulling these out of the yard, so I don't really have any money in them...

And the final pics are of the infamous "Prickly Pear Jelly Cactus"

Looks like I'm going to have a great deal of fruit this year...

So it turned into a pretty good day after all...