Happy Cactus Monday....More Succulents

Blooming Gymnocalycium altagraciense with Euphorbia and Mammillaria gracilis fragilis 'Thimble Cactus'

I hope everyone had a great weekend. We didn't do anything. We did make some lists of things to do before our vacation. You know things to do or bring. Otherwise I always forget something.
Every year my husbands family get's together at an awesome condo at Oceanside, CA.
It's a beautiful place on the beach. We have relatives in Toronto, Canada, Oklahoma, Denver, CO, Texas and California. We all drive or fly and converge at the condo. We have a great time. The 8 grand kids are all getting so big now. The oldest is 24. But no matter what, they look forward to this time together! We have been doing this twice a year since they were babies.
This summer is extra special. If you remember my husbands father
Vane Suter passed away rather unexpectantly on February 10th. So we chartered a boat and have an honor guard from the Navy and a bag piper meeting us at the dock. We will have a small ceremony then go out to sea and scatter his ashes. Ought to be quite an emotional day.

Gymnocalycium altagraciense blooms up close!

I Don't Bite

Aeonium 'Voodoo'

The white dots are damage done by the hail this year.

Opuntia macbridei 'Red button cactus'

I hope everyone has a wonderful week! Now I need to get started on that packin!

It's Another Beautiful Day!

Ouchie......Bad Cactus!

Sorry I have not posted for a while. Been busy in the backyard and also just lazy! Taken lots of pics but just......you know, tomorrow!
I will try to catch up with everyone's blogs as soon as I can.
It's amazing to me what we will do for our craft!
Well, I didn't really mean to do this it just happened. So I will start from the beginning.
So I was outside taking pictures of my blooming Trichocereus Pachonoi 'San Pedro'.
I was standing on the cement planter wall next to the cactus reaching with arms extended trying to get some great shots of the flowers. I was right next to the half moon in the pic below.

To keep you in suspense I will show you a few photos that I got before IT happened. It was a beautiful day and the blooms were just starting to fade on my tall cactus.
This year for some reason I did not get as many buds as last year.
I think it had to do with our weird weather and some bug also poked some holes here and there in the cactus and laid some eggs. I found some a bit late and poked my fingers inside and used a hose to wash the little worms out. Very strange. So now it has a few holes in it but they didn't eat to the core. I should have taken some pics and shown Cindy at Bug Safari to identify. Darn!

Now this cactus is really tall now. It must be 8 or 9 feet tall. And of course these blooms were near the top. So I was reaching higher and higher!

I call this one Bee Bomber. Hahaha!
Ok so this is what happened. I was reaching up as far as I could taking pics standing on this planter wall when I just lost my balance and started to fall backward. The planter stands about 2 1/2 feet above the grass so I knew I was in trouble. My arms started flailing around but there was nothing but cactus to grab. My right arm wacked against the cereus cactus that is pretty tall planted nearby. I then made a very ungraceful fall on the grass below. Camera still in tact hanging around my neck. Pretty shocking I must say so myself. Landed mostly on my left butt and rolled on my back and arm. Believe it or not I did not hurt anything. Nothing except where my right arm wacked and scraped again the cereus. I had big long cuts on the underside of my upper arm. Ouch! And you know how those cactus have a bit of stinging juice of some kind in them. So here is my pic. Funny it is not out of focus because Stan couldn't stop laughing. After he knew I was ok.

As you can see I actually broke off this great branch of cactus. Really a bummer. I am letting the broken off part callous over and will try to replant it.

Such a shame! But it was interesting to see the inside and the vascular strands that help support the cactus and deliver water to the to plant.

So I know it's hard to tell from this pic cause it's mostly in the sun but I scraped up my arm pretty good. I wiped off all the blood for Stan to take this pics. Really strong needles on this cactus though so none stayed in my arm. But man did it sting!

So here is the broken off part of the cereus. I will plant it in the ground this weekend because it has been a week. Cross your fingers that it roots! Oh and after lots of benadryl cream and antibiotic cream my arm is much better. Don't want to do that again. I am glad I take Boniva or I may have broken a hip!

Have a great weekend!

It's Another Beautiful Day!

Happy Cactus Monday.....Buds, Blooms & Bee's!

We now have incredible weather!
I am so happy and so are all my beautiful succulents!
For this Cactus Monday I am going to show you three things, buds, blooms & bee's!

This makes me so happy! Cindy my friend from Bug Safari sent me some succulents starters. Among them was this pad of Opuntia Monacantha variegata 'Josephs Coat'. I am so happy to see that it is developing two new pads. Yeah! So far every plant she sent be is doing awesome except one that I lost early. Waaah!

Wanted to show you a macro of one of the bud pads. It is really cute now and fragile. One little bump will knock it off. So I am being very careful.

This is the first bloom on this cacti for me. The color is awesome. I know it is hard to tell but it has some purplish hue around the edges. This is called Chamaelobivia 'Rose Quartz' hybrid. Now where should I plant this one? So many decisions...hahaha!

I love when the mammillaria's bloom like this. It makes me think of a pink head band. This beauty is called Mammillaria rhodantha. The cactus to the left I don't know but the one behind's nick name is Old Man of the Mountain.






Ok!


Wait for it!


Now the bee's!

The bee's are going crazy around my large Opuntia in the back yard. I call this one Three's Company. They were so busy they could have cared less if I was there clicking away. I knew they wanted the pollen more than me.

I will show you more bee shots later and pic of the whole opuntia in bloom. It looks so pretty! But for now I hope that everyone has a bright and sunny week!

It's Another Beautiful Day

Let's go to Lowe's!

So today I thought I would show you something different than succulents. I know I'm sorry if you are disappointed but sometimes you have to do something different. You know, spice things up. Haha! Well I guess I am exaggerating about that point. But back in March I went to Lowe's to get some palm and cactus potting soil. I also wanted to see if they had any succulents yet. You know me always looking for what I don't have. And the flowers were gorgeous. So I had to take some pictures. Thank goodness I had my camera in my purse and there was sun. One problem though....I didn't get the name of most of them. So I bet you gardeners out there will be able to tell me.

This was such a bright yellow and I love how the petals looked so
soft laying on top of each other. I think this is a rununculus.

Now I did get the name of these! English Daisy's.

Everything was just so bright and beautiful I couldn't stop taking pictures!

Taking this macro I got pollen on my camera lens. Geez! Thank goodness
I carry a lens brush with me.

I think these last few are different kinds of poppy. Not sure though.
Well it never fails I start a post and it takes me days to finish. So here you go.
Hope you like!

It's Another Beautiful Day

Happy Cactus Monday...A break in the rain!

It has been raining so much in the Sacramento valley the last two weeks. So when we had a break in the rain the other day I ran outside and took some shots of a few of my beauties in the garden.

This is one of two large pots that sits in my backyard in the planter that goes around my fence. I love the color in this pot. It is stuffed with an unnamed echeveria, sedum rubotrinctum and sedum adolphii. Those echeveria blooms are ready to open. I can't wait. I'll take another shot when they do so you can see.

My Opuntia 'Santa Rita' is looking amazing this time of year. It has plenty of blooms and some are already open. I am having a problem though. It has developed scale. Does anyone know of how to get rid of it without hurting the plant?

The sun was shining just so and it made this flower look like a light bulb or a torch from underneath. It's a bloom from another Opuntia in the back. I just had to show you!

Look at all the new pads this opuntia is developing. I love this one because of the color and it has a great shape. It has very few needles and grows pretty slow. I did make a mistake and did not remove the fruit from last year. So it has stopped producing some new pads on part of the plant. Hopefully I can pop them right off. I don't want the plant to get lopsided.

Hope everyone is having a great Cactus Monday and the rest of the week is super!

Remember:

It's Another Beautiful Day