John C's 2011 Outdoor Cactus Topic

John C · Post by **John C** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 5:17 am

For 2011 I decided to make a topic for my outdoor plants instead of lumping it all in with my regular topic. This should keep things a bit more organized.

Well, This has sure been a crazy winter! One of the worst. This winter included snow, sleet, ice, very strong wind, and lots of freezing temperatures! All at once on a couple occasions actually.

With well over 100+ hours below 32f and most of them around 20f. We got down to 10f a couple nights and in the teens a few times. That's not too far away from our coldest recorded temperature ever. All of this comes after last year being our snowiest winter EVER! 2 bad winters in a row. Let's hope that they are more mild from now on!

Even through all of this crazy weather, all of my plants in my garden came through fine with the exception of 1. NOT BAD!

The garden received no protection at all, except for ice and snow on some nights. I only took out my Echinocereus dasyacanthus just before the coldest of it to prevent rot, which I seem to encounter with them.

Here is a picture of the entire garden,

Only 1 dead plant
Cylindropuntia fulgida var. mammillata
It was a nice plant that has survived in the past and was just starting to really crest. O well. Not to much of a loss, I have about 50 rooted cutting from it.

Sage in foreground with approaching storm in background.

Opuntia. Not cold damage, that's just damage from the weed wacker

Ants are back!

Fruit just after the cold temps. Some animal proceeded to eat most of them so I could only salvage a few.

Everything is putting out new growth and or flower buds!

Opuntia sp.

Cylindropuntia imbricata

New growth on Texas Sage

Spines on Echinocactus texensis

Escobaria missouriensis
Both plants have plumped up and are growing buds.

And here comes the show stopper:
Echinocereus coccineus
Just loaded with buds! New ones forming every day!

I also noticed buds on most of the other Echinocereus in the garden.

Should be a great year! I hope you will enjoy the show as much as I do!

Peterthecactusguy · Post by **Peterthecactusguy** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 9:28 am

John, nice to see your garden is doing ok. BTW I was going to say if you need a replacement segment for the cholla I have plenty to spare but hahaha you don't cause your plant is like the ones around here and dropping segments all the time.

Nice to see new growth and buds too!

Ralf · Post by **Ralf** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 5:27 pm

It's a really nice garden, John.
I'm glad to see your success. I'm looking forward to the coming blossom images.
When did you've the last rainfall? How were the temperatures in the past days/weeks?

Harriet · Post by **Harriet** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 5:32 pm

Looks as if your garden did remarkably well over the bad winter. Finding new growth and buds is apparently what I live for, even in other peoples topics!

Post by **daiv** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 5:38 pm

John,
Your outdoor bed is doing very well. What does the rest of the family think of it?

You really do have to get Escobaria fruit fast. It can disappear overnight - literally!

Jens · Post by **Jens** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 5:38 pm

Nice garden John, looking good!
What did you put into the substrate? Or is it just the natural ground of your area?
Jens

Post by **CoronaCactus** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 5:40 pm

Yeah! Looking good, John.
Your plant choices were spot on for a harsh winter...or 2

Tony · Post by **Tony** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 5:44 pm

Looking good John.

Around here, its the mockingbird that makes off with fruit from most everything.

John C · Post by **John C** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 9:23 pm

Thanks everyone!

Ralf wrote:When did you've the last rainfall? How were the temperatures in the past days/weeks?

The last major precipitation was in mid February - I think. Other than that it was just a couple small storms with just traces of rain. A bit less than normal, but nothing to crazy.

It is in the 80's every day. A few days were in the 70's and a few were around 90f. 50's and 60's at night.

daiv wrote:John,
Your outdoor bed is doing very well. What does the rest of the family think of it?

You really do have to get Escobaria fruit fast. It can disappear overnight - literally!

They like it, especially when it flowers. I have gotten comments from a lot of the neighbosr too who also like it. And when it really starts flowering I have noticed a couple neighbors taking pictures of it. As long as they don't step on any plants (Especially the hard to see Escobarias) I'm fine with it.

No kidding! They do go fast. I was watching them plump up and go above the ground and I was thinking, O, I will leave the fruits on for a while to make sure that they are mature. I had the president of the local cactus club over to see my collection and we were talking about the fruits and he agreed that it was time to pick them. So the next day I went out and found 2 fruits left!

Atleast I had another Escobaria in the greenhouse with fruits on it that nothing got to.

Jens wrote:Nice garden John, looking good!
What did you put into the substrate? Or is it just the natural ground of your area?
Jens

It is soil with lots of gravel mixed in, along with some perlite and sand. Beneath it is a layer of gravel and in some spots some rocks with gravel as well in hopes that the water will drain through the soil and down to the bottom and get absorbed into the natural ground beneath and hopefully help the soil above to dry out quicker. Whether it has worked out like that I don't know, but it seems like a good idea. I haven't had much problems with rot, only a few plants and that was after last years well above average rainfall and snow.

Tony wrote:Looking good John.
Around here, its the mockingbird that makes off with fruit from most everything.

I attributed the lost fruits to the mockingbird as well. We have a number of them that hang out in our yard all the time, eating all the berries on the bushes, and sometimes one will sit on the spineless opuntia. So they are in the area, and the little red Escobaria fruit does resemble the red berries of the holly plant

Melt In The Sun · Post by **Melt In The Sun** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 9:59 pm

Sorry to see your Cylindropuntia; we got down to 17 in Tucson (coldest in ~110 years), so there are a LOT of dead plants around here. But, it looks like now you've got room for a nice Agave ovatifolia...

John C · Post by **John C** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 11:19 pm

Melt In The Sun wrote:Sorry to see your Cylindropuntia; we got down to 17 in Tucson (coldest in ~110 years), so there are a LOT of dead plants around here. But, it looks like now you've got room for a nice Agave ovatifolia...

I can imagine. Must be a lot of damage! That's sad. But, I guess that's what winter does sometimes.

That would look nice there....

I have been thinking about adding an agave and or a desert palm like Sabal uresana to the cacti garden. I'm leaning more towards an agave in that spot and the uresana elsewhere. Maybe a small expansion of the garden will be necessary

Peterthecactusguy · Post by **Peterthecactusguy** » Thu Mar 24, 2011 12:06 am

Melt In The Sun wrote:Sorry to see your Cylindropuntia; we got down to 17 in Tucson (coldest in ~110 years), so there are a LOT of dead plants around here. But, it looks like now you've got room for a nice Agave ovatifolia...

Huh, I thought it was colder then that in Tuscon, IT was 16 here in Black Canyon City according to my thermometer which is the coldest it has been since I moved to AZ in 2001.

BTW it sounds like it was a rough winter everywhere.
It pains me to hear about so many dead or dying plants.

DesertZone · Post by **DesertZone** » Sat Mar 26, 2011 12:01 am

Peterthecactusguy wrote: BTW it sounds like it was a rough winter everywhere.
It pains me to hear about so many dead or dying plants.

I agree, sad.

Mr Monopoly · Post by **Mr Monopoly** » Sat Mar 26, 2011 10:14 pm

wow amazing...some day ill move out west and i will GO TO TOWN on this planting outdoors stuff

Peterthecactusguy · Post by **Peterthecactusguy** » Sat Mar 26, 2011 10:26 pm

yeah get outta Ohio. It's a bad state to live in for Cacti, otherwise I might move back to Cincinnati.