Pseudoechinopsis

well, I woke up at 5 am out of habit, and I don't have to be anywhere until 9:30 so I was goofing off with the plants... as much as you can in the dark that is...

I did have this little guy blooming outside the back door this morning... one of those annoying ID's... Pseudoechinopsis 'dominoes' although the tag also says Echinopsis species... I don't really like those kind of ID's... it's not a real ID as far as I'm concerned...

And the tag didn't say one darned thing about it being a night-bloomer. Which is OK I suppose, but not really... all it had was a bunch of standard Echinopsis info that I'm not entirely sure is going to be accurate for this plant... I'd like to know how big the plant gets, if it produces offsets or just sits there like a lump, what kind of temperatures can it be exposed to... that sort of thing.

And of course, there's nothing on the web about it at all...

I'm pretty sure that it's a hybrid of some sort, only because most echinopsis you see are and I don't think the name pseudoechinopsis is valid, but I certainly may be wrong.

Other than that... I couldn't tell you.

Anyway... I brought the thing in and took a pic. It is a nice enough plant, and it blooms well. Night blooming plants have the advantage of blooming when I'm home, but they have the disadvantage of blooming when I'm asleep, and usually when I can't stay up all night to see them because I've got things to do in the morning.

And, just as an aside... The second Sago palm is definitely putting up leaves... I'm not expecting as much from this one. 1) the trunk is smaller which means the plant is probably younger and 2) it only had 4 leaves left alive on the plant when I found it, so it's probably not been photosynthesising as much energy for new growth as the other plant. But we'll see, won't we?

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

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...

What I saw meandering around...

A better pic of the cactus flowers... got this pic when I got home at 6:30 pm yesterday.

and now that I've softened you up with a pretty flower pic... here's something that isn't quite so pretty... Black Vultures. If you can get past their dining habits, they're actually fascinating animals...

And if that isn't creepy enough, they're dining outside the Rehoboth cemetery...

The Black Vulture isn't quite as shy as the larger Turkey Vulture. We do see these a bit further in town.

Vultures are gregarious birds, often nesting in groups of up to a hundred, which split off in pairs to look for food during the day. Often Turkey vultures and Black vultures will share the same nesting areas. They're very clumsy on the ground, but are fantastic flyer's. While they prefer fresh meat, they can eat meat that has started to decompose... primarily because there is not a single known microbe that can survive their digestive tract. There is enough remaining stomach acid in their droppings that it is antiseptic... and if they do get a scratch or cut on their faces or feet while digging through a carcass, they use their own droppings to sanitise it... Other than this habit, they're actually very clean birds, spending much time grooming their glossy feathers.

All rather gross, I know, but they are rather interesting birds which perform a very neccesary function in the wild.

And extremely hard to photograph... they're smarter than you'd think. These were fine as long as I stayed in my truck, but the minute I pulled my door handle they recognised the sound and took off. I'm on the Northern edge of the Black vultures territory, the Turkey Vulture, with dark brown plumage and a red neck and head is larger, shyer of humans, and also common here.

There are some people who can't get past the bias against their dining habits, and sometimes shoot vultures on sight, only to find out that these species are protected under the migratory bird laws, and that they can be fined up to $1500 per bird.

I was taking the trash out for the sanitation workers this morning, when I saw this out of the corner of my eye...


a bit of a surprise actually, it's been raining and a little on the chilly side all week. I had seen the buds last week, but I thought that they'd wait for some sun and heat... this close-up isn't the best, but it is in the wee hours of the morning, so the light isn't the best...

There's a pic of this Echinopsis in this post, back when I first planted the rock garden last March... http://lpfleamarket.blogspot.com/2008/03/winter-hardy-cactus.html I have no idea of the species, as it was sold to me as 'Echinopsis species' If I get any seed pods off of it, I might try to sprout them, but there are many many Echinopsis hybrids out there. I'm not sure what may turn up...

As stated in the above post, this was sold to me as winter hardy to at least 20 degrees... and it certainly survived last winter. And from looking at the pics, I need to get out there this weekend and pull out some weeds...

have a great day everyone...