Cactus and Succulents for ya!!

I went over to the college garden the other day and found cactus in bloom, some multi-colored Crown of Thorns, Stapeliad in bloom, and how about this plant that has green and yellow on the top of the leaves, and the undersides are blood red!!! It was I.D.'d for me by the one and only Mr. Subjective over at Plants Are The Strangest People, as Excoecaria cochinchinensis. One of the common names is "Chinese croton". Thankyou so much, Mr. S!! This plant is really cool for a little blood red Halloween touch too, don't you agree???

Super Opuntia on Cactus Monday!!!

Well, how do you like this? My Mom had taken a few pads off of a thornless opuntia (prickly pear cactus) a few months ago, and had thrown them into an old shoebox and tossed them to the side when she got home (planning to plant them)...kinda into the edge of her garden near the front door. Forgetting about them, she sudenly came to the realization that not only had they had put out roots, but they were thriving and putting on new pads, and just in general, looking quite amazing! There is no way to kill these things, it seems...they will grown right in a cardboard box!!! WOWZERS!!!
Happy Cactus Monday everyone!!!
Julie

Changes in the gardens after 2 days of rain...

Cubanelle Pepper

Teracotta planter was planted with Sweet Basil seeds, and the black pots are planted with Milkweed seeds.

This Ferocactus latispinus' spines have also turned a dark cranberry color in the last week or so...isn't it pretty???

I have very little of this Sedum Rubrotinctum, but the color changes nearly year-round...so sweet!

Buds on the Mammillaria ready to burst!!!

The Thimble Cactus is looking quite stately with it's new black spines pointing straight up from it's mass of white stars (something new)... I LOVE this cactus.

The ever changing Kalanchoe daigremontianum...the one I feel so happy with all year long...with it's changing leaf colors...now with some new ones for me to enjoy...kind of bronze on the outer leaves and a lovely blue inside...is it Tiffany Blue? No...but more of a Robins Egg Blue...just gorgeous!!!

And, lastly, my variegated Jasmine on the fence is flowering and smells devine!!! How much better could it get around here??? Today I am thankful for my garden areas and the space to have them in.

Happy Cactus Monday!

This large Prickly Pear (spineless) has the most beautiful color of blooms...I would describe it as MAGENTA. It is over at the college and I love when I catch it in bloom. It is covered in new growth as well. Just gorgeous!

Hope you all have a wonderful week! I will be taking a picture of my grandson, Donovan's, pot of Zinnia he planted from seed about 1 week ago. Today we noticed 6 plantlets sprouting up and we all got so excited! We must have planted 20 seeds in this pot! I think I will do a little photo albunm with weeekly pictures of his pot until we have lovely flowers! He can have it all documented, and hopefully we may have a future gardener!!! :)

Healthy family and cactus too!

The little family (my son's) is all well and healthy again! Thank God! They all look so beautiful to me, I could cry! My son snapped these pics tonight with his new I-Phone, and they are so sharp and pretty! (Great subject matter)!!!

Emily June with her daddy, and Donovan below with his new lightsaber!

My son made us some delicious grilled chicken tonight, and we added a few side dishes, and had some cheesecake for dessert! They had come by in the morning and ended up hanging out with us the whole day today!!! Talk about lucky!!! I loved having the grads here...oh goodness...sheer happiness! What a great start to a three day weekend!

I had only found out (or come to the realization) that I was off on Monday, at around 4pm Friday...towards the end of my work day. Boy, talk about a nice surprise!!! And talk about surprises...look at what I saw out the corner of my eye when I got home yesterday! Growth on the cactus pad I had taken from the cut down prickly pear! It seems to have come out of nowhere! It was just sitting there for such a long time (months)...and now we see such good progress! I am elated! It is a spineless variety and soon I will have quite a plant right at my front door! The little projections you see all over it are actually little soft leaves! Yee-Haw!!!

Have a wonderful holiday weekend!

Prickly Pear Questions!

Hi everyone! One reader of my blog, Rick, asked a question. I don't know the answer. I was wondering if any of you know if there is a taste difference between young and more mature Prickly Pear cactus pads? I would also like to know if anyone had experimented with different varieties of Prickly Pear and if there are any taste differences between them. Thanks in advance, if you know and can share with us!
Julie

A Happy Texas Cactus Monday!

Well, I am back home. I found Frisco, Texas to be devoid of cactus and succulents except for a few growing prickly pears (not in natural habitat) at a Pioneer Plaza Park there! You can see some of the bronze-looking cattle (Texas Longhorns), statues in the picture. Some had cowboys riding them! There were many of these all around the park and at a shopping center across the street. See a write up (and more pics) about the park HERE. The cactus there were needless cactus, and if I had seen them earlier, I would have taken a few pads to her house, and cooked them up for dinner!!! YES!

I took several pics with my cell phone camera, and the rest never came through and got deleted from the camera. Can you believe I went to see my sister graduate from her Masters program, and I very meticulously packed my camera with 2 sets of spare batteries, only to find out my memory card was absent! Thats when I started taking pics with the cell phone. Amazingly my sisters gratuation pics turned out very well!!!

We had full intention to visit a cactus nursery there and, that was scrapped to visit a huge electronics store called Fry's. That place was amazing! WOWZERS!!!

It was a nice quick visit at my sisters house, and we enjoyed seeing them and my 2 nephews. I have to say I am happy to get back to my little house again, cozy and ready for a good nights sleep with my Doozey!!!

Happy Cactus Monday everyone!!!
Julie

A Loxahatchee River day!

My husband I had a day date on Sunday when we went to a RiverFest at Jonathan Dickenson State Park, in Jupiter Florida. We hiked on the Kitching Trail, and took a guided cruise down the Loxahatchee River, where we saw a lot of preserved "Old Florida", and found a few hidden treasures...

Behind the leaves of the Palmetto:

Many Osprey nests high in the trees!


Loads of lovely pine trees (my favorite)!



My best find of the day...an Opuntia in bloom!!!

And a couple of alligators!



It was a beautiful day!