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Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Cactus notes!

I went out to weed my succulent tires tonight. It's usually an easy task in the tires that do NOT hold CACTUS! In the center of this one below, was a long thin weed. I had to try and pull it out and not break it in the process...all the while keeping my fingers away from these teeney tufts of stickers (spines). They are fine little tufts of needles and they stick into your hand and take quite a while to wash/rub out! It reminded me of playing the old childhood game Operation. I felt if I touched the edge of the cactus, a "BEEP" would ensue! LOL!!! I never did get that weed out by the roots! Rats!

I happened to notice that this cactus that used to have a name (and I forgot what it was...oh yeah...now I rememeber...it's name is Oscar Meyer! LOL...sorry...no offense intended...it just makes me think....I mean...I'm just sayin.....), has some new growth coming out of one of the ends of one of the "appendages" of it. I have shown it in a few shots here gradually moving out so you can see the whole plant! It is a very nice cactus...it's spines are not quite as treacherous as the top plant!


Uh-oh...you can see some of the weeds I was working on removing here! :)

This last cactus has some large and colorful newish spines atop it! And how about that interesting beige looking growth on the top left? Looks like some new spines protruding! If you click on it, you can see it better, I hope. So these are just some cactus notes for tonight.

9 comments:

Teri said...

Geez Julie, you have some really dangerous but neat cactus here. I have also had these in my and my leg. I felt like my DH was doing surgery to get out the bunch in my leg.

The way to weed around these babies is to use a long handled forceps like they in surgery. i stole them from the hospital so not sure if you can buy them :)

Lisa at Greenbow said...

You have some serious spines here. I would be most afraid of the one with the small pads of short spines. OOoooooo makes me cringe just to see your picture. You need to purchase some forceps to pull weeds from around these plants.

Julie said...

Lisa and Teri- I will have to look for some of these long tongs!!! :)

Anonymous said...

Julie--I like the idea of using shells as "mulch."

soulbrush said...

i really didn't know they have such horrible weeds....learnt something new today. thanks.

stapeliad said...

Julie you are such a sweet, creative, and wonderful person and your blog always makes me smile.

Actually I'm really laughing right now because of many bad, bad memories of those teeny Optunia prickers lodged in my fingers.

Rub on some good quality hand lotion and scratch- that's what worked best for me to get them out.

:)

Aiyana said...

Oscar Meyer? LOL. I have a Mammillaria elongata that always reminds me of someone flpping a bird. Maybe I should nickname it.
Aiyana

walk2write said...

The first picture reminds me of coral. What is that blue shiny stuff in the tire with the cactus? Whatever it is, it really complements the plant. Be careful with those spines. If you can't find any forceps, maybe you could use salad tongs. I've got some that are pretty precise at picking things up.

Julie said...

Walk to write...they are just blue glass stones...you can see all my tire gardens HERE! I am looking into some long thin tongs for weeding these things! :)