Aloe 'White Stag'

We're a small nursery and thus we get these statistical "flurries". Not a very scientific term but then statistics was never my cup of tea. What I mean is we could go a year without anyone wanting Agaves (a bit of an exaggeration) and then, all of a sudden, that's all anyone wants! Then, of course, when you run out of a particular plant, people wonder why you didn't stock more!

The solution is that we grow the plants we like. That way, if nobody wants some particular plants we grow, we can at least enjoy them ourselves. We would like others to like what we like, of course, but we have no problem being the odd one out.

This plant, Aloe 'White Stag', is a cultivar we've liked but wasn't drawing a crowd...for us at least. But now it's hard to keep them in stock.  Oh well!

 Enjoy your plants...

even if nobody else has a clue about why you enjoy them!

Rebutia albiflora and Rebutia heliosa

We just separated out these clumps of Rebutia albiflora which are just beginning to flower. In another week or two they'll be covered in flowers.

The Rebutia heliosa plants haven't begun to flower yet, but then they're such nice looking plants to begin with:

Mix the two together and you get (or, more accurately, someone did get) Rebutia 'Sunrise' (R. heliosa x R. albiflora).

 Enjoy your plants.

Echinocereus reichenbachii var. albispinus

We could see this one flowering, but all the plants were beyond reach. In other words, behind the larger growing opuntias, various larger spiny Euchporbia. But we did want to get a picture, so... And after moving things around a bit so that we could get close enough, Lynn-Marie shot this pic.

Echinopsis 'Barber Pole'

Today it was the turn for Echinopsis 'Barber Pole' to bloom in unison.

All together now!

I was repairing the back fence so these photos were taken by Lynn-Marie. And - oh - I've been corrected. We've been married 42 years, not 41. :-)

Epicactus 'Madeline'

From the start let me affirm that we are not a nursery that raises jungle cacti for the market. But though our emphasis has always been on plants from more arid lands, we just can't resist a good Epi. This is Epicactus 'Madeline' and each year it catches us off guard. We don't even notice the buds, and then - wham - it's "in your face" beautiful!

Succulent Travels 2010 - part 5

A couple of quick photos from C&J: the first of the hillside with the rows of cold-frames.

The second a close-up of what I call the "wall of cactus" - - hey, another possible jigsaw puzzle.

Just a note to say I might not get around to posting anything tomorrow, as it's our anniversary - our 41st - not that we're doing much. We may go out for a Chinese dinner - and try no to do any nursery business. We were going to go to the coast for a couple of nights, but the beach motel we go to didn't have two nights in a row available.

On Friday, we'll be hanging a few of Lynn-Marie's art works in the Starbucks in St. Johns, a nearby North Portland neighborhood where I grew up (not in the Starbucks, but in St. Johns. I think I pre-date Starbucks by a few years.)

Enjoy your plants!

Sulcorebutia canigueralii

One thing about this complex of plants: they're quite variable. This is from a different group of Sulcorebutia (or Rebutia) canigueralii plants. Both the plant body and the flower are quite different than those I posted during the Winter last year. I'll be posting another variation in a day or two.

Succulent Travels 2010 - part 4

This is the view from the parking area down to the growing areas at C and J wholesale cactus and succulent nursery. Unseen in this photo are about 6 more greenhouses on the left and about an acre of cold frames. In the distance you can almost see the Pacific Ocean.

And this is Lynn-Marie looking over some of the plants in one of those greenhouses.

We were lucky in that the weather was fairly cool when we were there this time.