Here's a portion of my potted succulent collection showing some of the recent purchases and some old favorites:
May 16, 2012
Nothing to Report
It's been raining a lot lately (thank goodness), and it's been too soggy to be doing much. The plants seem to be enjoying it. Tomatoes are getting bigger. The coleus is exploding. Hopefully the recent rain will heal a lot of the destruction from last year's summer, and hopefully this isn't the last of the rain till September.
Here's a portion of my potted succulent collection showing some of the recent purchases and some old favorites:
Here's a portion of my potted succulent collection showing some of the recent purchases and some old favorites:
May 4, 2012
In Full Bloom
Recently, I posted about my Rebutia fulviseta beginning to bloom, and now nearly all the blooms are open for a wild and crazy burst of gorgeous red petals with creamy yellow centers. It's happened ridiculously quickly, and I've set it out in the sun to hopefully attract some pollinators.
Looking at the cactus, it's hard to imagine it was capable of producing such bright and comparatively large flowers. Watching this cactus bloom, I can see why people would collect Rebutia and Sulcorebutia cacti seeing as the cactus are slow growers, which means you can have a lot of them in a small space, and the flowers are magnificent. Hopefully, I won't kill any and will feel confident enough to buy some more.
I, also, like these genuses because the thorns are really interesting as well. In fact, I bought this one for the thorns alone because it looks positively sadistic! It is in fact green underneath all the bronze-colored fuzz of evil, and you can see glimpses of green in the pictures. Masochistic love! Yay!
Looking at the cactus, it's hard to imagine it was capable of producing such bright and comparatively large flowers. Watching this cactus bloom, I can see why people would collect Rebutia and Sulcorebutia cacti seeing as the cactus are slow growers, which means you can have a lot of them in a small space, and the flowers are magnificent. Hopefully, I won't kill any and will feel confident enough to buy some more.
I, also, like these genuses because the thorns are really interesting as well. In fact, I bought this one for the thorns alone because it looks positively sadistic! It is in fact green underneath all the bronze-colored fuzz of evil, and you can see glimpses of green in the pictures. Masochistic love! Yay!
May 3, 2012
Stock Tank 2012
This year the stock tank has a definite lime green theme with elephant ear, 'Electric Lime' coleus, and lime green sweet potato vine. It's still pretty early in the year, so the plants, disregarding the coleus, are pretty small.
I bought all the plants in the tank for $16, I believe, because I already had the sweet potato vine from overwintering. I bought 18 four inch pots of the coleus at $0.50 each, and I got 4 elephant ear tubers for $7. The coleus was the bit that worried me as it was beginning to bolt.
Since being planted in the tank, the coleus have cooled their breeches and are enjoying the good life. I'm guessing they were bolting due to stress and pessimism. Of course, it probably doesn't hurt that I've been going out pinching the growth to fill in the tank fully with beautiful moundy goodness.
The sweet potato vine is very, very small right now, but it grows ridiculously fast in the tank and will soon create a bib of lime leaves around the front which is part of "the vision" - the colors will go from lime (sweet potato vine) to variegated lime (coleus) to green (elephant ear).
The really strange thing is I don't much like the tropical look, but inevitably my tank looks tropical. Perhaps it's because tropicals can go from nothing to really big in a growing season?
What annuals are you growing this year?
I bought all the plants in the tank for $16, I believe, because I already had the sweet potato vine from overwintering. I bought 18 four inch pots of the coleus at $0.50 each, and I got 4 elephant ear tubers for $7. The coleus was the bit that worried me as it was beginning to bolt.
Since being planted in the tank, the coleus have cooled their breeches and are enjoying the good life. I'm guessing they were bolting due to stress and pessimism. Of course, it probably doesn't hurt that I've been going out pinching the growth to fill in the tank fully with beautiful moundy goodness.
The sweet potato vine is very, very small right now, but it grows ridiculously fast in the tank and will soon create a bib of lime leaves around the front which is part of "the vision" - the colors will go from lime (sweet potato vine) to variegated lime (coleus) to green (elephant ear).
The really strange thing is I don't much like the tropical look, but inevitably my tank looks tropical. Perhaps it's because tropicals can go from nothing to really big in a growing season?
What annuals are you growing this year?
May 2, 2012
Feeling Angsty
I think I'm hitting the garden overload and becoming increasingly more angsty, so rather than discuss garden stuff, I'm going to share a quote from Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 1 Episode 8 "Justice":
Worf: I am not concerned with pleasure, Commander, I am a warrior.
Riker: Even Klingons need love now and then.
Worf: For what we would consider love, sir, I would need a Klingon woman.
Riker: What about plain old basic sex? You must have some need for that.
Worf: Of course, but with the females available to me, sir - Earth females - I must restrain myself too much. They are quite fragile, sir.
Riker: Worf, if anyone else had said that I'd suspect he was bragging.
Worf: Bragging, sir?
April 30, 2012
Terrible Photos
A recent batch of just plain awful photos...
Ugh, what's happening here? The rose is out of focus. There's terrible light. The framing is atrocious. Blech.
A good example of why the flash on my camera is awful. Just awful. Plus the subject is ugly. Sickly looking ghost plant, random roadkill cactus... why?
Horrible framing. Focus on the rhizome rather than the leaf. There's no good excuse for this one. It makes no sense.
BLUR! What a world, what a world!
And more blur.
And even more blur.
Awesome! Nothing's in focus! It MIGHT have been pretty, but we'll never know, now will we?
Talk about ugly. A fly on a sickly sweet potato vine with an extra dash of awful.
MY EYES!!! The overexposure is practically radioactive!
And finally, even more blur.
I don't know why anyone looked at this post.
Ugh, what's happening here? The rose is out of focus. There's terrible light. The framing is atrocious. Blech.
A good example of why the flash on my camera is awful. Just awful. Plus the subject is ugly. Sickly looking ghost plant, random roadkill cactus... why?
Horrible framing. Focus on the rhizome rather than the leaf. There's no good excuse for this one. It makes no sense.
BLUR! What a world, what a world!
And more blur.
And even more blur.
Awesome! Nothing's in focus! It MIGHT have been pretty, but we'll never know, now will we?
Talk about ugly. A fly on a sickly sweet potato vine with an extra dash of awful.
MY EYES!!! The overexposure is practically radioactive!
And finally, even more blur.
I don't know why anyone looked at this post.
April 29, 2012
Rebutia fulviseta
While I was going through my eBay binge, I became enamored with the genus Rebutia and Sulcorebutia for their crazy thorns, moundy growth habit (I like moundy things), and GORGEOUS flowers. I'm currently enjoying the flowers of Rebutia fulviseta.
There are more buds on this cactus, and I'm hoping that I'll get an awesome cluster of flowers blooming at once rather than this single flower which is nice but who wouldn't want more?
From what I've read online, I am dangerously likely to kill this cactus with water, and apparently a lot of people do just that. I made the potting mix very coarse with lots of rocks, sand, perlite, decomposed granite, etc. with a thin matrix of coconut coir and some fertilizer. I also hedged my bets with a terracotta pot just in case.
For the record, you can find this plant from sources other than eBay, but there is a dizzying array of this genus available on eBay. I could easily have continued to buy more, but I managed to stop myself because at some point, logic kicked in and I realized I'd never grown any of these plants before. Still I wound up with 3 Sulcorebutia plants in addition to this single Rebutia, but it could have been worse. Much worse.
There are more buds on this cactus, and I'm hoping that I'll get an awesome cluster of flowers blooming at once rather than this single flower which is nice but who wouldn't want more?
From what I've read online, I am dangerously likely to kill this cactus with water, and apparently a lot of people do just that. I made the potting mix very coarse with lots of rocks, sand, perlite, decomposed granite, etc. with a thin matrix of coconut coir and some fertilizer. I also hedged my bets with a terracotta pot just in case.
For the record, you can find this plant from sources other than eBay, but there is a dizzying array of this genus available on eBay. I could easily have continued to buy more, but I managed to stop myself because at some point, logic kicked in and I realized I'd never grown any of these plants before. Still I wound up with 3 Sulcorebutia plants in addition to this single Rebutia, but it could have been worse. Much worse.
April 28, 2012
Easter Lilies (Lilium longiflorum)
Maybe I was a little heavy handed with the photo editing in the last one...
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