Friday, March 29, 2013

a very unfortunate order of events...

Last Sunday was one of those days when I head out to the garden with a specific task to accomplish, but soon found myself caught up in 100 small projects. In the end I accomplished what I had set out to do, but not before a bit of drama unfolded.

My first cylindropuntia was a gifted cutting, that’s it above in a photo taken last spring. I stuck it in the ground (like I do regular old opuntia pads) figuring it would root. Last weekend I noticed instead of sticking straight up, or out to the side, the arms were deflated and facing downward. I pulled it out of the ground and found this…

Instead of rooting it had died, the flesh gone and the dry skeleton remaining.

At the top of the skeleton there were still spikes.

Of course I thought that dried bit of plant skeleton was pretty cool and took it up by the house to save it (that was my first mistake). Then I went back to work, sticking the sad (but possibly still living) cylindropuntia arms in the ground, figuring maybe they’d root and live on (ever the optimist). That’s a few of them at the bottom middle of this picture…

As I was planting I had a flip-flop blowout…

So I tossed the dead flip-flops aside and finished what I was working on, barefoot. That was my second mistake. Because I then stepped on one of these which had fallen off the skeleton and was lying in the driveway…

There was much swearing, loudly. You cannot imagine the pain. Really. I’ve stuck a few opuntia spikes or glochids in my feet before, and been poked by agave tips…but to be walking along and put your foot down full force on a cluster of these spikes…it was intense. I was home alone so I hobbled into the house to get the tweezers. Those spikes were in my foot as far as they could go and did not want to come out. It took all my strength to pull and pull and pull again. Finally after the last one came free; I nearly passed out from the pain. I am not exaggerating.

For just a fleeting moment, a 100th of a second, I was regretting my love for the spiky things. Naturally once I was sure I would live to walk another day I got over that. However I do thank my lucky stars I am the one to have stepped on it, not these furry feet which regularly walk up and down the driveway with no shoes on…

So since we’re on the topic of the cactus let’s have a look and see how they’re all doing, post-winter...

First up the cylindropuntia I bought at Hillside Desert Botanical Gardens last summer, both of them are looking good!

Guess it helped to buy them already rooted.

I am thrilled the Echinocereus hybrid (also from H.D.B.G.) made it and looks good!

Opuntia basilaris ‘Sara’s Compact’ is happy, although I did recently cut off an ugly pad.

Opuntia Engelmannii lives on, actually all the opuntia look pretty good…

Opuntia humifusa

Opuntia x rutila

Maihuenia poeppigii

And a couple of misfits, this one pulled from my in-laws driveway when it was about an inch tall…

And this one, who came along with the care package of opuntia sent to me last spring from David at The Desert Edge...

After a few days of swelling and pain my foot is back to normal, the pain just a memory. The moral of the story…don’t walk barefoot through the desert, even in Portland, Oregon.

All material © 2009-2013 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

51 comments:

  1. I can sympathize, your post brought back bad childhood memories of having sat on a cactus in shorts. It took me 50 years to get over my fear and hatred of cacti, not to mention the number of times certain family members remind me of it in glee. My toes are curling up in sympathy.

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    1. Ouch!!! I'm so glad you eventually got over the fear and loathing. Did you not know it was there? Think it was soft?

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    2. I think I was just too young to realize it would hurt, and my sister hadn't left me enough room on the front steps to sit beside her. It was all her fault.

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  2. Wow, with my swelling issues that would have caused quite a mess. Glad you've lived to tell us about it!

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    1. So you're probably not ever going to come over to my garden again right?

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  3. All I can say is "Teddy Bear Cholla" (search it on YouTube). You'll count yourself lucky that it was "only" a few spines.

    I barely like walking around in the garden in open-toed sandals, and if any digging is involved (other than easy hand-tool stuff) it's steel-toed boots for me. You've just doubly reinforced this in my mind.

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    1. I've walked through a field of TBC in Phoenix I know what those crazy plants do!

      Back to my flip-flop ways today, but working with the bamboo, it's much more friendly.

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  4. Oh my god, I'm cringing so hard for you right now! I hope your poor foot is okay. You are up to date on your tetanus shot, yes?

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    1. Uhm...no. Unless like 30 years ago is up to date. Good point though...

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  5. Your blog is called Danger Garden for a reason :-)

    Seriously, I know how painful in can be. Glad to know your foot is back to normal.

    All in all, your cylindropuntias are looking great!

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    1. Yes! I agree...I'm so happy with how all the cactus are doing (and thanks).

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  6. You garden in your flip flops?!? In your garden? You are brave.

    I almost fainted while reading about your spike removal. And I have a new respect for the danger in your garden!

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    1. Flip-flops are the standard gardening footwear 'round here!

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  7. Oh Loree, I'm so sorry for your painful mishap. I've been through the desert on a horse with no name but never barefoot. Glad to hear that you are on the mend!

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    1. And here I expected you to comment with "I blew out my flip-flop, stepped on a pop-top"...followed of course by that frozen concoction that helps you (me/him) hang on...

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  8. Ouch!!! Glad you're okay. Switch out those flip flops for combat boots.

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  9. That's awful and at least you were able to get them out by yourself. I can imagine how much it hurt if you were thinking even for a fleeting moment of getting rid of the Danger Garden.

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    1. The whole time I was pulling them out I was wishing Andrew was home to help. He'd just left like 10 minutes before that!

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  10. Well, this little empathy test had me writhing in your pain, so guess I'm OK in that department...and, for once, happy that my unsightly feet prevent me from donning flip-flops at any time whatsoever.

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    1. It just wouldn't be summer without flip-flops, I'm sorry Ricki!

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  11. Eek! We're down in Florida for a few more days and people are carting cart loads of cacti out to their vehicles to plant for the summer, so I noted that they don't have flip flops on, but didn't have gloves to shield their hands to get them into their cars either. After reading your post, I wrinkled up just thinking about what they were about to do to themselves! We have some aloe and chinese fan palms that have thorns on them, but nothing so lethal as your little fellows. Drop some neosporin on the holes and do seriously consider a tetanus booster! Mend well....

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    1. I was pretty generous with the neosporin, and after reading up on it wish I would have gotten that tetanus booster! Maybe next week...

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  12. You have my eternal sympathy, Loree! There's nothing much worse than treading blithely on any spiked thing. I'm glad to hear you're back to normal garden attire for Easter weekend: it's gonna be glorious weather for a danger garden.

    My one and only outdoor cactus, Opuntia cacanapa 'Burbank's Spineless' is looking unhappy: the pads look and feel solid, but it has developed rust-colored edges and a yellowy tinge that seems weird, if not downright unhealthy. Hmmm.

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    1. Glorious indeed! I love waking up to a blue sky.

      I've got an opuntia that has those orange spots too, only on one side though and it's (thankfully) the side I don't see very often, so I forget about them.

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  13. We both gasped whilst reading the first part of your blog, we could just imagine the excruciating experience, poor you! Glad to hear all pains are gone now and you've recovered!

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    1. Thanks guys...sorry to make you imagine the pain!

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  14. OMG...OUCH! I literally cringed a bit reading this...glad to know you're on the mend.

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  15. OMG! Yikes!!!! ouch, ouch, ouch! I'm very bad about working barefoot in the gardens and have had many foot injuries as a result. I broke a toe last year that kept me out of closed in shoes for the rest of the summer.

    All your spiky darlings look wonderful!

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  16. Ouch! I have to admit to also gardening in flip flops, and I also hate gloves... But I've never stepped on one of my cacti! Good to hear all yours are doing well... My O. macrocentra is making buds galore - hopefully the rest will follow soon!

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    1. I hate the feeling of soil under my nails, so I do happily wear gloves, although I don't like the resulting tan lines!

      Yay for happy O. macrocentra buds! The pads you send me are doing wonderful.

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  17. I know that pain. At least they were big enough to see and remove. I was reading some very nasty things about the spines from cactus and what they can leave behind. Even so it keeps happening to me because, like you, I often garden in flip flops without gloves.

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    1. "nasty things about the spines from cactus and what they can leave behind"...you're scaring me!

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  18. Did you wash the blood off the spines? Or is that one in the photo not the actual culprit? Either way, whew! How painful!

    Your story reminds me of this one. While in Tanzania, visiting a local school, one of our party stepped on an acacia thorn. It went through the rubber sole of his shoe and lodged itself deeply in his heel, effectively nailing his shoe to his foot. The thorn could not be pulled out. Finally our local guides used a pocketknife to cut out the sole of his shoe around the thorn. Then they grabbed onto the thorn with a pair of old pliers and pullllllled. The thorn came out, and the poor guy hobbled around the rest of the trip. All I could think of were the schoolkids, not a one of whom was wearing shoes. Not that shoes mattered, in the end.

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    1. No the actual culprit, I had to cut the one in my foot apart for get a better grasp on a couple of the spikes.

      YIKES about that acacia thorn...and the pocketknife!

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  19. That is a rough day...while wearing the right steel-toed work boots this evening, I got many fingers and hands full of glochids. But before you change your garden to lavenders and willows, those cacti all making it is quite a testimony to toughness.

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    1. I do love willows...but not in my garden.

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  20. Yikes! That really is a series of unfortunate events! Glad you made it through.

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  21. This all sounds like me. There are quite a few cylindropuntias in the garden here and I've had similar contact with every single one of them. I have a pair of pliers for this purpose, and some highly colorful language which I think really helps when you yank out the spines. I'm surprised you can't hear me from there when this happens ....

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    1. You've just solved the mystery regarding the foul language that seems to come from the heavens.

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  22. Ah, the hazards of gardening! Glad you recovered and so nice to see your cacti doing so well! Cheers, Jenni

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    1. Thank you Jenni...hazards abound don't they?

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  23. I'm not the first to say it, Loree, but that's taking Danger Gardening a little too seriously. I can empathize -- I had a Crocs flipflop mishap with a cedar mulch chip. It drove a stake right into my heart – well, the heart of my sole. Ouch, indeed.

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  24. Hello, I like your pictures and your comments very much. I am in the UK and have no idea what sort of winter temperatures you get there. What sort of cold are these cacti survivng? My only long term success with half hardys outdoors or at least in an unheated glasshouse is Nicotiana glauca which comes back each year after being cut to the ground by the cold. We have had a month of incessant north east wind bringing cold air from northern Europe with temopertures not exteremely cold only going down to -2C but only up to 5C during the day and with a bitter wind chill effect. I am longing for spring to make its mark and to have some sun and warmth. Winter has dragged on too long. Best wishes, Paul
    http://isthisthewaytoamaryllis.blogspot.co.uk/

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    1. Hi Paul...I know your blog...I think via Paradis Express...good stuff!

      This winter was very mild here, a couple of nights at 23 was the coolest temp. In January we had a few weeks of mid to high 20's at night, low to mid 30's during the day...but no real snow to speak of at all this year. Here the issue isn't the cold so much as the cold combined with rainfall. That's the real enemy of my cacti and succulents. I had to look up Nicotiana glauca as wasn't familiar with that one...I like it! I'm sending wishes for spring your way!

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