This Aint No Disco- Succulent Topiary

I love the California Cactus Center in Pasadena. It is overpriced, but they have so many amazing plants to look at and the staff is very knowledgeable. I think they are all members of the San Gabriel Cactus and Succulent Society [Hardcore Enthusiasts]. They have these topiaries around the center that may or may not be for sale but they're kind of cool. I felt inspired to make one. All they are are wire structures that are lined with chicken wire. For mine, I filled the structure with soil, added the plants, both rooted and non-rooted, and stuck moss in the exposed chicken wire.

My topiary looks a bit phallic. For the main structure I used a upside down tomato cage that I stuck the legs in to form the the top.

As usual a song always comes to mind when I'm looking at plants or for the most part doing anything. When I looked at the topiary the other day, it was Talking Heads " Life During Wartime," which is actually quite a political song on their Fear of Music album co-produced by Brian Eno. I thought I would talk about the evolution of Brian Eno from Roxy Music and beyond, but if you don't know of his magic look it up. It's a very important chunk of musical history from the early 70s to the birth of New Wave...

Here are some other succulent topiary ideas I came across:

http://cactuscreekdaily.com/love-it/succulent-cactus-wreaths-

http://community.adn.com/node/125533

and just to give you that fuzzy feeling... Give this one a listen for nostalgia's sake!

Good Old Opuntia

I have three different types of Opuntia [Prickly Pear] in my garden.

The Opuntia ficus-indica is the first cactus planted in the yard by my old room mate's mother who use to come and visit. She planted it to eat with eggs and in salsas. I have never picked and ate any of it myself because I didn't want to do all the cleaning. I think this video changed my mind.

They have beautiful yellow rose like blooms on them and grows very fast. I have to trim about 10 big paddles off of it a month. If you do not trim them they will grow very tall and wide. Prickly Pear were considered the most devastating "weed" imported into Australia. It had a horrible impact on life in rural eastern Australia during the early part of the 20th century. Special acts of Parliament were passed to enforce control measures in an attempt to halt its spread through Queensland and New South Wales.

The second "Opuntia" I got was the Opuntia basilaris, the Beavertail Cactus. I got this one from a cutting in Joshua Tree. It took two years for the cactus cutting to really root and it finally started growing more paddles last spring. I stayed in the Gram Parsons room at the Joshua Tree Inn when I got this cactus, so I'm picking Hickory Wind to accompany this post. The Byrds were pushed into a country direction when Gram Parsons briefly joined the band in 1968. Above is the "mama" in Joshua Tree [2008]. Below are the spring shoots and summer shoots [2010].

The third Opuntia I have is from El Paso, Texas. My boyfriend Lee brought back a heart shaped cutting for me from his Grandmother's yard when he went to visit during Thanksgiving of 2008. These plants are insanely resilient because I must of had that cutting in the paper bag he gave it to me in for a couple months. Then it was laying around the yard because I didn't know where to plant it. Some optunia grow very fast and get very large and I didn't know if this was the case with this kind. I decided to put it in a pot for the time being. Finally this spring it liked where it was and began rooting and growing.

Last Thanksgiving I went to Texas and got see the mama plant at "Babe's" house. No trip to Texas would be complete without Texas's own Roky Erickson.

Baby Sun Rose Lemonade

Aptenia cordifolia aka Baby Sun Rose or Ice Plant native to South Africa. I have a lot of love and pride for this plant. It took two years from a small cutting a friend gave me to grow into the vine that it is today. It is finally over the retaining wall and is doing exactly as I planned. One day I hope it covers the whole thing because it is beautiful over the wall. I'm not much of a fan of the plant used as ground covering or near other plants because if you don't keep an eye on this stuff it will take over everything it is near.

Unfortunately it is also the thrown for the "Lizard King." My dog Ozzy likes to chase lizards that hide in the plant. I always think of the Doors when he does that, but I'm not posting a Doors video. I'm not really into the Jim Morrison "persona." As dogs are dogs... Ozzy also pees under the plant on the retaining wall. So the Baby Sun Rose gets Baby Lemonade by Syd Barrett on his second album Barrett.