Mammillaria spinosissima

What a beauty. This is Mammillaria spinosissima, also known as "Uno Pico". It also is liking our bout of warm weather (though there's frost warning out for tonight).

Enjoy your plants!

Gymnocalycium doppianum and Rebutia albipilosa

It got warm today. And though it's supposed to cool off for a few days, the forecast is for hot this weekend, maybe even reaching 90F. This is not normal here in May, but all I can tell you is that the cacti are loving it...

and so am I. I've had enough of cold and wet. Here we have two plants which are celebrating the warm weather in fine fashion: Gymnocalycium andreae v. doppianum (Syn: Gymnocalycium doppianum) at the top and Rebutia albipilosa at the bottom.

Sinningia leucotricha and cardinalis

I was able to get out to the greenhouses today to take a few photos. I'll start off with two nice succulent tubers. First, Sinningia leucotricha with its felted, silvery leaves and pinkish-red flowers.

And secondly, Sinningia cardinalis with larger, green leaves and bright red flowers.

These both come out of dormancy with a tremendous show of flowers and then the leaves continue to grow larger throughout the summer. Outstanding plants.

Oregon Cactus and Succulent Society May Meeting

No photos tonight. Just a note to members and friends of the OCSS: Our May meeting has been rescheduled for Sunday, May 20. We will begin gathering at around 10:30 and eat lunch at around noon. This is a joint meeting with the Cascade Cactus and Succulent Society (Seattle area and Washington Sate). Locals are asked to bring a salad and the OCSS will provide the sandwich makings. Cascade will bring drinks and deserts. We will be meeting at the home of our president, 20126 SW Tenino Ct., Tualatin. See you there!

I couldn't resist. Here's another photo from Mexican Hat Nursery.

More Random Succulent Images

A few random images tonight, this time from Grigsby Cactus Gardens in Vista. Enjoy.

Trip Photos VI

After leaving Riverside and Mexican Hat, we usually make a stop at California Cactus Center in Pasadena. This nursery tends to cater to a more upscale crowd and prices generally reflect this reality.  However it's a great place to see what the current designers are doing with succulents.

The next leg took us to Ojai and Santa Barbara and then on up to San Francisco, where we took a trip down memory lane and revisited Sausalito, across the bay from San Francisco, which was one of our stops on our honeymoon (today is our 44th anniversary). 

We then stopped at Lone Pine Nursery (didn't take any photos) and back over to the Sacramento Valley, through the hills (Mt. Shasta below)...

and - finally - to everyone's delight - back home. Very tired. But satisfied.

(Oh! and there are two very patient and tired dogs in that photo, packed in there like sardines! And they know when we're getting close to home when we're several blocks from home.)

Trip Photos V

Before we head out from Carlsbad (and every morning), we come here for our morning latte. There's a nice outside seating area where dogs are allowed and our dogs can be at our feet while we sip on our drinks and enjoy the surroundings.

Then it was up the road to Mexican Hat Nursery in Riverside. It's a fun nursery to visit and well worth the effort to call ahead.

Harvey Welton is the owner, pictured here with yours truly on the right.

We also visited some other nurseries along the way (California Cactus Center, Grigsby, Silhouettes of the Desert, Bachs, B&B, Tanque Verde, Lone Pine, and C&J, to name a few), but we won't bore you with them all.

Random Succulent Images

As a break from travels I decided to just share a few random nursery plant images. No names; just...enjoy!