
Friday, December 31, 2010
WWTT #10

Thursday, December 30, 2010
Ain’t No Saguaro in Texas
I never thought I would get the opportunity to quote the Reverend Horton Heat here on danger garden; but it just goes to show you never know who might be a defender of the spiky plants.
The Rev is performing tonight here in Portland and our local newspaper had an article/interview in the Arts and Entertainment section last week. What caught my eye is a title on their latest album, a song called “Ain’t No Saguaro in Texas.” When asked by the interviewer, Ed Condran, the Rev explains… “That song is one that someone had to write. The saguaro cactus grows in Arizona. But you see pictures of them in places all over Texas. I remember being in a restaurant somewhere in Texas, and what did I see? I see a picture of a saguaro. People think that cactus is in Texas, but it's not. It's because of Hollywood, which thinks anything (east) of Palm Springs is Texas. You see old films and what is supposed to be Texas, and there's a saguaro. My cousin is a botanist and loves the song. I had to right the wrong.”
The Reverend Horton Heat, setting the record straight.
Sadly the only photo I have of a Saguaro is the one above, taken from the car window as we sped along the freeway (in Arizona, of course). I love how they look like an army of cacti marching across the hills.
I guess I could also share a photo of my Saguaro glass, part of my vintage Arizona Cactus dinnerware collection. Note: Arizona Cactus…not Texas Cactus. It says so right on the glasses and plates. The Rev is right.

The Reverend Horton Heat, setting the record straight.
Sadly the only photo I have of a Saguaro is the one above, taken from the car window as we sped along the freeway (in Arizona, of course). I love how they look like an army of cacti marching across the hills.
I guess I could also share a photo of my Saguaro glass, part of my vintage Arizona Cactus dinnerware collection. Note: Arizona Cactus…not Texas Cactus. It says so right on the glasses and plates. The Rev is right.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
And the winner is…
agave guadalajarana
Distichous
Amorphophallus titanum
santolina chamaecyparissus
autotrophic nutrition
look at the peduncles on that kolkwitzia amabilis
meristem
Ilex vomitoria
Glycine max
bolted
deodarand cotoneaster
Agave tequilana
Dracunculus vulgaris
Gossypium hirsutum
Araucaria araucana
caruncules
monocarpic
Liquidambar styraciflua
anything with virginiana in the name
Dog Vomit Slime Mold/Fuligo Septica
Euphorbia amygdaloides
indehiscent
detritus
pubescens
Humulus lupulus
tomentose
The husband just got home from work and acted as the impartial name drawer...(insert drum roll here)…the winter is:
A Zone 5 Garden at Christmas
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
This is what failure looks like...
The objective…propagation of my doomed (by winter) Echiums by taking (and rooting) cuttings. I began with the best of intentions, I even consulted a professional. But, I failed.
I employed two methods. One based on the suggestions of the professional, the other involving a product I picked up at a local nursery called Gel2root.
It promised success in 6 steps: cut, trim, pierce, insert, root, and plant! Simple. Failure.
First the pictures of the cuttings I attempted to root in soil. Everything started off fabulous.
It was very satisfying to go out in the garden and whack of stems of my beloved Echiums before the cold could damage them. I thought it would be difficult to murder a perfectly beautiful plant but in some twisted way I enjoyed it. I was filled with the knowledge that they would live on in next seasons beautiful plants. I was a fool.
I was (I thought) careful to keep the cuttings slightly moist in their little plastic bag home. I figured too much moisture would be the kiss of death.
I opened the bags occasionally to let air circulate.
But evidently not frequently enough as the tips started to brown about 2 weeks into the experiment.
By the time another week passed this is what they looked like right before they were launched into the yard waste bin (soon to be joined in the bin by what had remained of the mother plant outside in the garden…turned to brown waste by Mother Nature, a poetic rejoining of both pieces of the doomed plant).
So what about the cuttings in the Gel2root? They started out looking swell.
Look at their happy stems tucked in the gooey gel.
But I soon realized they needed more moisture so the leaves didn’t completely wilt before the roots started forming. They went into a plastic bag too.






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