Aloe krapohliana var. dumoulinii

It may be cold outside, but some things are still blooming in the greenhouses. One of these items is Aloe krapohliana var. dumoulinii. This is supposed to be one of the more difficult aloes to raise, but we've had a few of them for several years now and they're doing fine. Easy does it on the water; that's the main rule. This variety tends to clump more readily than the type and like the type, the flowers are large for the size of the plant and are quite spectacular.

Our cold snap should go away over the weekend - back into the 40s by Sunday. And now the great plains, southern states and the eastern seaboard will be getting the cold along with a good dose of snow. And I don't want to over do it about the cold. We get it pretty easy here. I'm aware that others may have it much worse than we do here and empathize with those who are really hurting due to the weather, rather than just complaining about it. Many will have their lives turned upside down, not only in this country, but in Sao Paulo (flooding) and elsewhere. We encourage you to donate to an organization which provides assistance in such situations.

Echinocereus viridiflorus

These aren't flowering right now. It's just a bit cold out there - for another night. But they are out there shivering in the cold night. These particular Echinocereus viridiflorus plants come from Colorado, up near the border with Wyoming, and they're quite hardy. They'd better be. Our temperatures right now are almost rivaling those of Wyoming and Nebraska. ... Notice I said "almost"! But it's going to be into the teens again tonight!

Enough already! We're expecting another night of this and the greenhouse heater still isn't working right. So, another night of temporary heaters. And I'll have to get up in the middle of the night to check 'em! Argh!

Sulcorebutia canigueralii (or Dang it's Cold Outside!)

This is Sulcorebutia canigueralii, another archive photo. It's too cold for anything to want to flower here right now. And on top of that, one of our greenhouse heaters went out so I've been out in the greenhouse setting up some temporary heat for tonight until I can fix the other heater tomorrow. Aren't greenhouses fun? And of course, it's going to be the coldest night of the year: 15F (about -8.5C). Begone O Ye wintry arctic cold!

Neohenricia sibbettii

Neohenricia sibbettii is a true miniature. This is an extreme closeup showing the rugose leaf tips. They can make a very impressive mound if grown nicely and they're quite easy to grow, but to me they are most impressive under the closeup lens.

I just got back in from the greenhouses to make sure the heaters are working OK. We're getting our first (and hopefully last) dose of arctic weather with lows in the mid 20s (-4C) tonight and into the teens (-8C or so) tomorrow night. Uhg. We've had some winters without a true hard frost, but obviously this isn't going to be one of them. At least there's no moisture with it and it won't last more than 2 or 3 days as it moves east where it's supposed to be - on the plains!

Mammillaria blossfeldiana

From my photo archives there's this photo of the flower and seed pods of Mammillaria blossfeldiana. This little beauty (flowers are about 1.2 cm. across) grows in the lower elevations of central Baja California, Mexico. It likes very good drainage and moderate winters. Somewhat homely the rest of the year, but - wow - when they flower...

Like many of the Mams, this little cactus goes under lots of other monikers, such as:
Mammillaria shurliana, Mammillaria goodridgii, Mammillaria goodrichii var. rectispina, Mammillaria rectispina, Bartschella blossfeldiana, Neomammillaria blossfeldiana, Ebnerella blossfeldiana, Chilita blossfeldiana, Mammillaria blossfeldiana var. shurliana, and Mammillaria goodridgii var. blossfeldiana.  I just read all those out loud and my tongue is all tied in knots, so I may as well hit the sack and get some sleep!

Happy Birthday, Lynn-Marie

Today (December 4) was Lynn-Marie's birthday, so excuse me if I don't spend time blogging...This is birthday month for our family with a whole bunch of them coming in a row. But this one is special and the whole day belongs to her. So enough here. More tomorrow.
Happy Birthday Lynn-Marie!

Titanopsis calcaria

If the flowers aren't there, there's always the magnifying glass or the closeup lens for a bit of the "other worldly" that we mostly overlook. What a shame.

Done with cleanup work - and a Rebutia flower

OK. I can get back to adding some photos this week. We have a large drop box here which I was filling with a variety of stuff to get rid of - including a whole bunch of rambling blackberry vines (trees!). (No one should ever go without luscious berries here in Western Oregon during the summer. The native vines aren't too bad, but the others, brought in by European settlers, are very aggressive!) I'll never ever complain about cactus spines again! Never!

To be honest, I didn't have time to do any photography this week, but this little rascal was flowering (Rebutia muscula). Maybe the nice weather we're having has got it's inner clock whacked out of shape, but there it was, with several flowers on December 1. Hey, I'll take it whenever I can get it!