I’ve had this cactus for eight years now. The first year it was so tiny. But over the years the main plant kept getting taller and formed clusters of little cactus babies around it - 6 in all. And finally this summer it gave us these two lovely yellow flowers.
At one time it was left (forgotten) in the trunk of the car for months and still survived. These plants are good for people who don’t have a green thumb or don’t like to bother with caring for plants.
I believe my cactus is a Notocactus. The genus “Notocactus” got it’s name from the Greek word “notos” meaning “south” to indicate that the plants of this genus are from South America. Info below gathered from Cactus Art:
Description: Columnar Cactus that branches and will start to cluster from the base as it ages.
Stem: At first globular then columnar up to 60(100) cm tall, 8-12 cm in diameter, with an angled crown.
Spines: Harmless, golden and bristly.
Flowers: Near the top, 5-6 cm in diameter pure yellow, silky, shining with a lovely reflection in the petals. It blooms only when mature in Spring to late Summer. Blooms more than once a year.
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The last time I saw this Rat Tail cactus, there may have been at least 20 buds. I was just counting the days to a bouquet of cactus flowers.
Then the next time I checked, there were only a few buds left. It turned out mom had tossed almost all of them. She thought they were dying!
Fortunately she kept some that had buds and now it’s blooming. I almost missed the last bloom as the other two are already fading out.
I guess I can’t blame her as the buds do look a bit dry and brown. Just imagine the whole cactus covered with these furry buds.
As pretty as they are, the little spikes are annoying. Touching them by accident could be painful.
We finally got to visit the Ruth Brancroft Garden before they (temporarily) close up and prepare for winter. It’s not a very big garden, but has an impressive cactus and succulent collection.
The garden is located in the city of Walnut Creek, just east of San Francisco. The place is tucked right in the middle of suburbia.
Cactus is usually seen growing in hotter places such as Arizona or New Mexico. But these seem to do very well right here in Northern California.
Most people may not care very much about cactus, but I just love them! They are tough and can survive with very little water. And for such an unfriendly looking plant, they do have really beautiful flowers. And the fruits are edible.
This variety has much rounder fruits, but has very few of them growing on this cactus. I’ve seen them at the grocery store sold for 25 cents each and also 99 cents per pound. I have tried both the red and green variety, each has it’s own allure. But the green one taste better, like sweet honeydew melon.
I can’t say cactus pears are among my favorite fruits. It’s mainly due to the large and tough seeds that makes it less than appealing.
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From nature’s world of cactus, we have sisal. It is part of the cactus family of agave (Agave sisalana).
It’s not only used to make sisal rugs, but also other products such as hats, bags, cat scratch post, and much more.
The leaves have very pointy looking tips. They also produce flowers too. Photo from Wikipedia.
The plants are grown in large plantations in such places as Brazil. Sisal prefer tropical warm climate and is drought tolerate. They are propagated from bulbils or rhizomes from mature plants. They take about 3 to 5 years to mature and can produced leaves for up to 8 years. And like hemp, chemical fertilizer is not used in growing sisal. So that is a plus for sisal farmers.
The top 3 sisal producing countries are Brazil, Tanzania, and China. Other countries that produce and export sisal include South Africa and Kenya.
In sisal production, the leaves are dried, then brushed with a machine, and finally pressed into bales to be exported. Pretty simple but I’m sure is hard work!
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It would be nice to visit the Huntington Library & Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California.
There is a collection of 14 theme gardens, including a jungle garden, subtropical garden, Japanese and Chinese garden. What I look forward to seeing the most is the succulent garden. And based on the what’s in bloom, August would be my favorite month.
The following photos seen here are gathered by The Huntington Gardens flickr group. It’s amazing to see such nice blossoms coming out of something as spiny as cactus.
The Huntington has one of the world’s largest and oldest collection of succulents. The most significant collections are agave, aloe, terrestrial bromeliads, cacti, echeveria, crassula, sedum, euphorbia, and fouquieria.
So there is a good chance of seeing a real Dragon Fruit plant here as well as the Queen Crown of Thorns (Euphorbia milii) too.
The bright pink blossoms of this cactus looks almost like a rose/peony/tulip. Simply beautiful!
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