cactus babe update 2

well, the cactus are starting to get their little juvenile cactus spines... unfortunately, it's impossibe to take a pic of them. They're just too tiny...

so I came up with an artist impression of them...

really, they're cute as the dickens...

Juvenile spines on cactus aren't really spines, they're more like little hairs than anything else... some species will begin producing adult spination within a month, some will take years. I'm not sure about these escobaria off hand, but I believe it will be 3 to 6 months...

Not much happening here... I'm was working 7 days a week, but I'm taking Mondays off now... I just needed a day to do laundry and such... but I'm running too much to take pics right now, not that there's much to take pics of anyway. Texas in winter ain't purdy, unless it's snowing and (1) it doesn't really snow that much here and (2) after you've taken one pic of the cactus with snow on it, you've pretty much taken all of them...

Anyway, just a quick post before I head off to church, then to the flea market where I'll be a cashier/notary public for the afternoon...

later

cactus babe update...

Well, they don't look much different except for one thing... there's 2 more of them. Within another couple of weeks, I should start seeing their "baby spines" Not really spines so much as little white fuzzy hairs... it'll probably be a couple of months more at lest before I get real spines.

cactus babe update...

The official count for Escobaria vivipara seedlings growing in the spagnum moss is now officially 14.

Of course, it's quite possible that a few more will sprout anytime over the next few months. Cactus seeds tend to do what they want, when they want... but I'm kinda impressed so far. It'll be interesting to see how they do.

Fossils and cactus babes...

OK folks... in the previous post, before I went off on a tangent about that stinking armpit of the metroplex known as Grapevine TX, I had told you about my visit to White Settlement and collecting a few fossils... here they are, mostly because I told you I would put the pics in more than anything else. They're not that impressive...

This first is a complete clamshell... although, it's probably more an impression of the inside of a shell rather than the shell itself. Or maybe not.. I'm not entirely sure. I like fossils, but I've never been totally inclined to do all the research neccesary... I'm more inclined to set them in the rock garden or a flower pot and not worry about it too much...

The next are ammonite sections. The round one being either a complete small ammonite or the center of one of the ammonite coils... the other just being a loose piece that broke off. See, I pic things up off the ground as I find them after the creeks have washed them free. I'm not inclined to go digging into a hillside. 1) I'm there for about 30 minutes max usually and 2) I don't think anybody would be too happy about someone with a pick-axe in the city park... if you read my previous post you know that just being male in the park with a camera is enough to get you accused of being a child molestor. Being a male in the park with a pick-axe would probably elevate my status to serial killer. Not only that... digging in the park would be destruction of public property, or interfering with a natural waterway or something or other. Plus, pickaxes are just cumbersome things to carry around in general.

Let's just say I'm not inclined and leave it at that... here's the ammonite.

This is an oyster shell. Fairly common as fossils go... and this one is remarkable only in that it still has it's bottom shell, but it was really hard to photograph the other side...

So, anyway, there's some of the local fossils.

I'm not a big fossil hound, I think I fell into fossils as a side note to the gardening... as I mentioned I tend to set them in the rock gardens, and I found the first ones when I was looking for interesting rocks for the rock garden. This part of Texas isn't known for dramatic fossils... although parts of the state do have dinosaur fossils. Tyranosaurus and all that...

and that's it. I said I'd show them, so there they are.

do with them what you will...

This might be slightly more interesting...

I'm kind of an experimental gardener. I do things just to see what will happen... so I'd read about a technique on another blog - forget which one - where somebody was growing bonsai in pure spagnum moss. You wet the moss, pack it really really tight, and things will grow in it.

Well, I had some here... so I packed it really really tight, put it in an old selfwatering african violet pot, put 3 acorns in it and waited to see if any oak seedlings sprouted. They haven't yet... it's been about 2 months... just sitting on the kitchen counter not doing anything... or so I thought...

Also in the kitchen window were some Escobaria vivipara seeds drying. I have most of them in an envelope now, but at one point, some of them got tipped into that little pot of spagnum moss, and if you look closely in the next pic, you will see little pinhead green spots... they're cactus seedlings.

altogether... there are about a dozen of the little things... now Spagnum is highly acid, and it keeps things from developing the fungus that kills most seedlings... I'm kinda wondering how long this will last... or if this is going to become my prefered method of planting cactus seedlings over the next few years... interesting, huh?

well, howdy strangers...

I'm afraid I haven't been a very good blogger lately.

The truck is back in the shop, and there's some family issues that I am most definitely not going to go into here, but I've been distracted to say the least.

Anyway, I decided that today I would take some personal time with my plants. Here's the Escobaria vivipara... bloomin like a darned fool. Some years it puts out blooms in masses of 15 to 20 at a time, and at other years, like this year, it puts out a few at a time every few days... I have no idea what triggers this behavior. Maybe it's got something to do with winter rain...

This is the Dallas Red crepe myrtle in the front yard...

This is the Notocactus leninghausii (Golden Ball) cactus in the back rock garden. The tag it came with said it was winter hardy to 20 degrees farenheight. I'm not too sure. What I'll probably do is get some clear plastic bowls to put over the top of the plants this winter if it looks like its going to get too cold...

And this is a Ferocactus latispinus ( Devil claw) cactus. Ditto on the 20 degrees on this one. I'm really not sure of this, because I can't find any online resources that say it's that hardy... again, clear plastic bowls may be put into service.

And this was marked as a Trichocereus grandifloris hybrid. Which means that its really an Echinopsis, since all the trichos were moved into that genus recently. Again, it's supposed to be hardy to 20, and again, I'm not sure...

This is a cholla. Not sure what species, but it's a 'start' from someone down the street, so I know it'll be fine.

And these are the napales in the tub, putting out new growth. They're definitely not winter hardy, so I'll have no qualms whatsoever about eating all the pads that come out... The varieagated grass is Stenotaphrum secundatum 'Variegatum' - in other words, common St. Augustine lawn grass except it's variegated. kind of cool... but not all St. Augustine grass varieties are winter hardy in Texas, so it's an experiment.

And that's about all for the moment.

Really, I just wanted to let everybody know that I'm still around. Haven't fell off the side of the planet yet.

later

And again, this year...

I usually try to take a pic of the first bloom this plant, Escobaria vivipara, puts out every year. But the first bloom was a couple of weeks ago, in the middle of a thunderstorm, and it never really opened. So, we'll have to settle for this...

In about a month, it'll bloom again, probably a mass of blooms... but I'll settle for this one. He's been outside for just about a year now, and he seems to be settling in very well. There are several varieties of Escobaria vivipara... my research tells me that this ones heigth, pink blooms, and winter hardiness probably point to the Arizona variety. Ultimately, which variety doesn't matter to me that much, as long as it continues to bloom and grow...

It's blooming again...

Well, the darned Escobaria vivipara has decided to put out another round of flowers... this single bloom is the beginning of the 3rd flush of blooms... lots and lots of buds on both heads of this plant. And some of the last flush of blooms left about 3 seedpods, so we'll see how those ripen up.

Didn't achieve too terribly much today. Did plant a few seeds for an ocotillo. Believe it or not, they will survive up here, although the branches tend to stand up straighter, and they tend to hold their leaves a lot longer... It would be much easier to make a cutting grow than the seeds, but the few that are around in the area are fiercely protected by their owners. Anyway, I planted them in a plastic baggie that I pinned to the inside of a curtain, and we'll see what happens.

I also have a plumeria that is a little too top-heavy in it's pot, so I dug a hole and plunged the pot into the ground today... I have to bring it in every year, so it has to stay potted, but after the cactus fiasco, I'm paranoid of plants falling over...

Looks like I'll finally get to mow the lawn tonight. Last night, I was just getting ready to start the mower when rain blew in... Darn... but it's going to be clear this evening, so I get to mow... Darn...

The cactus... again...

I know I showed you this thing blooming a couple of weeks ago, but it only had a single bloom then... today I got home from work (after 12 hours... ugh) and the thing was blooming its fool head off and I couldn't help taking another pic...

Another Cactus flower...

The first bloom of the year from this beauty... I think I've told you before how I came by it, but here we go again... I was at an estate sale, and when I was paying the people, I looked out the window and saw this neglected cactus... Anyway, I bought it for 50 cents.

When I got it home, I looked it over, and it was two heads, in an old six inch plastic pot that only had 1 inch of soil in the bottom... I potted it up, it bloomed 1 month later and it's bloomed reliably about 3 times every summer for the past 5 years, and has at least trippled in size...

This is the first bloom of the year, but if you look closely, hiding under the spines are more buds coming up that should open over the next few weeks.

E. vivipara, formerly known as Coryphanta vivipara, is a winter hardy plant, reliably hardy up through zone 7, sometimes into zone 6, and, this plant at least, does seem to grow and bloom better with a winter chill. This spring I planted it out in the rock garden, and I'll be leaving it outside all winter. I also planted it so that one of the heads is deaper... I wanted to see if that would encourage it to pup out with offsets...

Couple of other shots from around the yard, since I had the camera... Littel Dahlberg daisies, I planted one of these 4 years ago, and ever since there's usually a couple around, having reseeded themselves. Cute little guys, this is growing up between the road curb and the rocks that edge the agave bed...

And a close-up of the striped leaves of Canna 'Pretoria' One of my favorite striped cannas, as the stripes are fairly reliable, and they don't sun burn as bad as some of the others. And the bright orange blooms don't hurt either....