Local Cactus & Succulent Sale

I'll be out at the Spring Home & Garden Show at the Portland Expo Center next week: February 18 through 22. I'll be representing the Oregon Cactus and Succulent Society and selling plants. A portion of the proceeds goes to the club for purchase of new books for the club library.

If you live in the Portland area come on out. I'd enjoy meeting you and, of course, talking cacti & succulents.

Fuel Oil, Insecticide and Fine Art...

One of the worst jobs I can think of is cleaning out a messed up oil heater. That's what I spent most of today doing. The filter needed cleaning; the fuel line needed cleaning; the burner pot needed cleaning. Then...I needed cleaning!

Oh well, it's done. Now I can get on to the more pleasant activities like ... applying insecticide.

Ah, yes. Ain't retirement fun???

Enough already! Here's another work by Lynn-Marie. "Red Epi" is mixed media and collage.

Cactus Art

As some of you are aware, my wife's an artist. And being around cacti and succulents as much as we are, it's inevitable that the plants become the subject of the art on occasion. The following Escobaria image is an example.

A larger image is found here.
I'll be adding some other art works of her's in the next couple of weeks. Enjoy.
Oh, and she reminds me...prints are for sale. Contact me for information.

It's Spring!

No pictures today. But I'll be adding some tomorrow. Our icy winter spell ended emphatically yesterday with temps around 60F and clear skies. The daffodils are coming up and some of the cacti are beginning to set blooms. More later.

Mea culpa

My apologies. No excuses. I've just been too occupied elsewhere to keep up to date. Honest, I'll try to do better, with at least three posts per week.

To start things off, a photo of Ladybug, our miniature horse, in the snow we had at the end of December. We don't usually have this much snow. You have to go back 40 years to find a year with as much.



OK, already, I've had enough. It's snowing again today! I'm ready for spring!

Cactus Cookie Cutters

Over at buzzfood, Tamara Sellman says:

The idea of Christmas Cacti isn't new (for me); I made these about 18 years ago when I worked as a cookbook editor for Publications International, Ltd., and had an obsession, at that time, for collecting oddball cookie cutters.

Just what I need for Christmas, some "cactus" cookie cutters... Anybody listening?

"Hardy" Echeverias

People are always asking whether Echeverias are hardy or not; people tell them that under the right conditions, some are quite hardy...

Well, this one's hardy all right - as long as you keep it below freezing. Warm it up and it suddenly will become a wee bit limp!

But as long as it's below freezing, it's a beaut! I call it our "Echeveriacicle". For us it's been really cold, down to 16 degrees F.

(Actually, we just forgot these two Echeveria gibbiflora hybrids and they didn't get into protection. If either one does survive, we'll let you know!) [Fat chance!]

Growing roots

I've often said that we're in the business of growing roots. This is what I mean: