Don't fall for this gimmick!

This time of year, Home Depot can reveal some succulent and cactus treasures and other times, they'll shock you with horrible gimmicks like these below.

Behold The Kosmik cactus! A.K.A. Cacti that have been spray painted or dyed neon colors to fool the unsuspecting buyer! What a load of crap! I feel so bad for these little guys!

These "Kosmik" colors include like neon pink, aqua, neon yelow and electric blue. If you see these in person, look closely at the spines, you'll see the color has adhered to the white spines and has also saturated the green skin beneath. The tag even mentions that "new spines emerge as a glistening white or gleaming yellow" which clearly tells you that this color was merely spray painted on top.

It's horrible to think that they sprayed these little guys with chemicals. In this photo, it looks like some people bought them and check out the little balls of color left behind. It gives you an idea of how unnatural this collection is. Don't buy them and don't encourage this trick! So, what does a normal "thimble cactus" actually look like?

Like this. WHITE spines and if you treat them nice, they'll even have darling, little delicate flowers! While cactus are definitely exotic looking plants, these neon colors just don't exist in real life.

And while I'm on the subject, Home Depot is also known to sell cacti with glued on flowers. It looks like this:

The colors on the flower seem about right seem right. It even looks like what a cactus flower would do. At first, if you're not knowledgeable about cacti, you might think it's real (and hey, I've bought some before!) But on closer inspection. It's just a dyed, dry flower that has been HOT GLUED to the plant! After a while, the cactus will grow and the flower will fall off leaving you with an ugly glob of hard glue stuck between the spines. It will be unsightly and impossible to remove. Your poor plant will live with this glob for years. :(

What do cacti flowers ACTUALLY look like?

Cactus flowers emerge from a tubular stem that can be either green or the color of the petals. The flower itself can come in variety of shades and usually has a VERY silky feel to the touch. (Not dry and brittle like the fake flowers.) 

So, if you see a flower at Home Depot on your cactus, look carefully at the base. You can usually see the glue!

Don't pay extra for a gimmick. Don't encourage this foul business trick!

Best sand box ever! :)

We finally did it!  These photos were taken at the crack of noon.  My wife and I moved 15 tons of 3/8" pea gravel from our driveway into the backyard and it looks amazing.  I was so excited to see it today for the first time in day light that I didn't even bother to run around to trim off excess pieces of landscape fabric around some edges or tidy up the mounds of extra gravel before photographing.  What can I say.  I'm a gardener, not a perfectionist.  I'll let the photos do the rest of the talking.

My desert roses have been in bloom since early June, and they're still going.

Here's what it looked like before the metamorphosis.

V&N Nursery in Venice, CA review

I went to V&N Nursery in Venice, CA recently.  The staff is friendly and helpful.  The grounds are clean and organized.  This is definitely a nursery for succulent gardeners and collectors.  Nothing is tagged with a price or plant ID so you have to ask how much everything costs.  Their prices are pretty fair.  I would still stand behind the "if you can buy a plant at Home Depot, then do it" rule because they usually have the lowest prices and the plants are guaranteed for a year.  Their webpage is not helpful at all other than to get their address.  The nice thing here is that it's usually very cool weather here since it's very near to the beach.  San Diego has some awesome succulent gardens but boy are they scorching especially in the summer.

 This is an interesting vertical succulent frame display they made.

 They have a few decent succulent arrangements on display.

 They sell some decorative gravel and rocks for potting arrangements and terrariums.

 Succulents are good for relieving itching.

 Everyone needs a giant dinosaur in their garden.

 They carry several landscape sized plants including these large golden barrels that grow super slow.

The quality that makes this nursery stand out is the fact that they have some nice landscape sized plants for decent prices.  I mean plants that are probably not going to randomly show up at the Home Depot.  These include a Aloe barbarae, Aloe marlothii, Aloe ramosissima, and Yucca rostrata.  There are probably several more.  They also have Totem Pole cactus but that seems to be expensive everywhere unless you buy a tiny piece.  There are no discounted bargain bin plants here.  Overall, this is a pretty good nursery for succulents in the L.A. area that I've been to with a decent selection and prices.

Grigsby Cactus Gardens review

Grigsby Cactus Gardens is located in Vista, California.  This is my favorite place to buy desert plants.  The prices are very affordable and you can get stuff that you will never find at Home Depot. The staff is friendly and helpful.

They plant stuff into the ground at this nursery!

Cyphostemma Juttae (Desert Grape)

No you can't eat these grapes!

There is a "cash and carry" section where you can buy big established specimens (in a pot) for a very good price.

This is one scaly plant.

Golden barrel with cleistocactus in the back.

Two dragon's blood trees.  These are one of my favorite trees and are probably really old.

This looks like a shrub at first but it's actually large clumps of Euphorbia Resinifera.

Bottled palm (beaucarnea recurvata) planted in the ground.  These caudiciforms (fat plants) have an awesome trunk that retains a lot of water.

This is a growing area.  There are a lot of growing areas actually, so you can't always buy everything that you see.  I'm not certain what they are saving it for.  Nevertheless, your selection is still very large.

Desert bonsai materials are very attractive for those of us who want to water less.

Then there are small plants you just can't resist because they are so unique!

We call this the brain cactus.

These spines look like stars.

How can you say no to a cactus with a red cap?

 This one is a show stopper with it's dense and compact spines and bright red color.

This one has nice leaves.

My wife said one of these totem poles looks like kermit the frog.

This mamillaria has a perfect crown of flowers!

This photo shows you how much pumice you need to use for desert plants soil mix.  Lots!  I would guess 60-70% pumice, with 30-40% cactus mix.  Their webpage is very simple but you can buy plants online and they will be happy to ship it to you.  I love this nursery for acquiring great plant material.  :)

http://cactus-mall.com/grigsby/

Vertical Succulent Frame - Hanging it up! pt 3

This project was started in October of 2011.  The vertical succulent frames are finally ready to hang. Below are some photos of how I arranged our frames in our courtyard. The stark white frame color contrasts well against the warm grey color of the wall.

Below the frames, I placed a plant bench that I made and placed a few of our potted succulents for display. Enjoy!!

The frame I talked about in my two previous posts now hangs on the left. The one on the right is one my wife designed.

I drilled a piece of cement board to the back of the frame on the left. The frame on the right holds the cement board in a "rabbit" groove I created with a router. See my previous vertical succulent frame posts for details.

A wider view...

Vertical Succulent Frame #1

Vertical Succulent Frame #2

Between the frames on the table, we have an awesome wooden fish planter. Inside I am trying to recreate an aquatic theme in the arrangement. The plant in the red pot inside the fish is called Faucaria Tigrina or "Tiger's Jaws." Behind it are "Sticks on Fire." Next to it is a large seashell arrangement given to my wife as a birthday gift. Inside the seashell, the tall red plant is called, stapelia.

In the largest pot on the left, we have sempervivum tectorums.

This plant came to me from my aunt. It is called Ledebouria socialis.  I repotted it into this bonsai tray and covered the soil with crushed red volcanic rock.

This round orange pot holds a single Echeveria Afterglow. The soil topping is California gold gravel with Ogon succulent ground cover.  I placed a round stone in the pot on the right side to create a subtle contrast.

Our courtyard is a cozy hang-out now! For the floor, I'm considering using a warm earth-toned concrete paint to finish it off in the future.

Thanks for reading and for sticking with these updates! :)

For more information on how to make your own:

DIY Tutorial: Succulent Frame for Vertical Display!

http://xeriscapeninjas.blogspot.com/2011/10/succulent-frame-for-verticle-display.html

Vertical Succulent Frame DIY Tutorial part 2

http://xeriscapeninjas.blogspot.com/2011/10/vertical-succulent-frame-diy-tutorial.html

 Our second vertical succulent frame design

http://xeriscapeninjas.blogspot.com/2012/02/succulent-frame-for-vertical-gardening.html