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The Cactus Tents – Three Videos
Three years since sowing the first seeds and I have a lot to show for the effort. Growth is accelerating after up-potting into 1-3 gallon containers, and I’m finding myself at the edge of being able to walk into a forest of cacti fairly soon. I’d better get some new tunes and audio books because I’m facing three months of straight potting of large and small plants. A mix of Mozart and Motley Crue blasting away under the Hard Nursery will kick things off. I have yet another armada of tropical Caribbean, Mexican, Brazilian and South American seedlings to be decanted from the baggie rigs this week, as I did…
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An Adventure of Growing Madagascar Lace
One of the most exotic and unbelievably beautiful plants in all of Plantae is the Madagascar lace plant. Conspicuous for its lacy, or fenestrated leaf appearance (Latin base word for window – fenestra), Aponogeton Madagascariensis is a fully aquatic bulb plant that is endemic to shallow, cool and shady streams of Madagascar. These monocots begin life as tiny green seeds that form on double flower spikes emerging above water to attract pollinators, dropping into the water and taking hold in the streambed where they slowly grow into bulbs, or more specifically rhizoming corms. If given a chance these eventually form large rosettes of leaves that undulate in the natural current.…
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Signs of Life
Thought Tony the Tortoise (or Toni, if it is a she) – “The buffet is looking a little understocked in this joint, but at least I can cross the drive without worrying about that madman FedEx guy barreling through”. Even the coldest Winter in 25 years here has shown some color and signs of life, often delicious, though much of it wouldn’t be alive if we hadn’t gone to great trouble to protect the delicate things. The sweet potato vines from edge of the Mt. James bed yielded this gnarly monster, and we enjoyed about 25 huge pomelo citrus in November and December. A rare sight, Indian pipe root (Monotropa…
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The Big Freeze
We’d experienced several frosts and a hard freeze even before Winter formally began, with Nov. 30th changing us out from extended Summer conditions to plant-killing anomalous cold blasts. But the last few nights have been a straight dive into the low to mid 20’s with dangerous wind speeds and potential for freezing rain. I wasted no time and went on an expensive shopping spree at Lowes to get a huge roll of 6mil plastic, spring clamps, two more 1500 watt electric milk house heaters, a second Cat 6500 watt generator and a remote temperature sensor. My mom was right out there with me to put up the thick and heavy…
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Growing Bigger
Approaching Winter Solstice and the lowest light levels of the year I did not expect to still be seeing such noticeable growth in a short time on all the cacti, and where I had repotted the largest of each species, even more stunning thickness and height in just three weeks. The warm Fall helped. It is at this size each species that I’ve grown from seed here really takes on its characteristic features and beauty with a stunning variety of spination, color and shape. I’m particularly enjoying the different hues of green, turquoise and blue in the wooly torch cacti that are the genus Pilosocereus. Some have grown so heavy…
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A Sweet Week
Ma’s new chicken shoes arrived, and the birds each had to strut over to inspect. Style, comfort and cleanliness make tending the coop more enjoyable for everyone. I added to the fun by feeding them a couple of “treat sticks” that had trespassed on our plants. Across the yard at the banana bed, just below the mulch line and attached to sprawling vines was a jumbo yield of sweet potatoes we weren’t expecting the first year. These grow better in enriched sandy soil but put all their growth into leaves and vines, not tubers, when growing in recently built-up composting mulch. Such had been the case twice in Estero, but…
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Lots of spiders and a Few Other “Bugs”
You know, I just LOVE these things. Yuck, you don’t like? Awww, c’mon, it’s Halloween anyway! How about a hand-sized golden silk spider to brighten (frighten) your evening? We’ve got tropical tent spiders, fuzzy spiders, cute lil’ spiders, dotted spiders, huge spiders, green lynx spiders, extra large centipedes, flying ant lions and even a big undertaker beetle (red and black Nicrophorus burying beetle) to make the holiday real. But I did squash the invasive tropical brown widows and their egg clusters hiding in a couple of flower pots before I even thought of whipping out my camera, because the screams would have been deafening if Mom had found them first.…
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Indian River Prickly Apple, from Bud to Fruit
This time the flower stuck around instead of falling off early, as did the first one this Spring on the East pasture. It bloomed spectacularly; now if the fruit will just finish ripening already. I think it has taken a month just to turn burgundy and I hope it doesn’t take another month to fully swell into a smooth, bright red ball for seed collection (and final photograph). Not sure if my brush pollination or a large hawk moth did the deed, but we like the results. It will be interesting to learn how many seeds this species has per fruit. Harrisia Fragrans, the Indian River prickly apple, is an…
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Fall Harvest, Wild and Cultivated
October brought a quick turn of edible color at Cactus Island. It’s not just what we planted that has reached harvest, but also the wild goods growing in the vast natural areas we’ve maintained. There is a healthy population of American persimmon (fruit and spring bloom in photos) and sandhill pawpaw (if the wildlife would ever leave us one) on the land, plus the winged sumac that grows all over the place as an understory shrub makes a great lemony-flavored seasoning for chicken as well as a light citric tea. Ancient Romans used their variety of sumac for seasoning so we gave it a try; excellent and worth the effort.…
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Three Basal Pups Forming in Ten Photo Slideshow
I’ve never seen the eight-rib variety of wooly blue cactus generate pups, so this was the surprise awaiting me as I weeded around the base of this plant late this Summer. Basal pups sometimes form on stressed cacti but he main stem on this one is extremely healthy and still putting on height. We’re looking forward to a beautiful candelabra shape by late next year.
Cactus Island Nursery