Desert 'Alpines'

Description

a forum for hardy 'rock garden' cactus/succulents & xeric desert plants

Hesperaloe

Submitted by Tim Ingram on Sun, 08/26/2012 - 12:55

Hesperaloe parviflora is a modest but very attractive plant when it flowers in our garden. We don't get flowers every year but this year has been good, and although probably nowhere near as dramatic as in desert US gardens it certainly catches the eye. I would probably do well to plant out a batch of seedlings around this one plant and then might get better flowering in successive years.

Ants and yucca pollination

Submitted by DesertZone on Wed, 07/11/2012 - 17:05

Ants and yucca pollination.

I can't belive a yucca moth would want to land on the only yucca with ants on it. I have seed on my yuccas but only when the ants attack them, never on the ones ants leave alone.
I have seen this several times in the past years, and yes the produce seed. I have wild yuccas that have popped up from this seed.
Has anyone else had yuccas produce seed without the help of yucca moths?

Yucca whipplei

Submitted by Tim Ingram on Sat, 04/28/2012 - 12:49

Following Rick's suggestion I'm putting a series of photos of Yucca whipplei as it throws up a flower spike in our garden. The plant is relatively young, only 7 or 8 years from seed, and I hadn't expected any flowering for quite some time yet. Unfortunately it is one of the forms that doesn't produce offsets so this flowering will be a glorious finale! So here it is on 22/4, 25/4 and 28/4... how high will it get?!

Opuntia phaeacantha

Submitted by Weiser on Wed, 04/18/2012 - 17:12

Opuntia phaeacantha is confusing complex with many regionally named varieties. They range throughout the the Desert South West. Found growing on sandy to rocky soils from the desert lowlands to the subalpine slopes of the mountains 1,500'-8,000'. They tend to sprawl out as wide low shrubs with long chains of large oval shaped pads in various shades from green through gray/green. The spines vary in length and number. The spines tend to be ridged, with a majority of clones showing amber to near black hues near the base. The flowers are usually large when compared to the O.

Growing seeds in the front (and also trying to make it look good!)

Submitted by Manfroni on Sat, 03/03/2012 - 05:18

Since our house is still under construction (especially in the back yard, where our Great Dane is free to chew on whatever she like to chew!!!! I got the idea that I could actually grow seeds on the front of the house without making it look too tacky...

So, since it is almost Easter an Spring is very close, I decided I would use Easter egg buckets!!! This is what I did:

I bought all I needed at the Dollar Tree.

Cactus Garden Makes It Through Winter in Dallas

Submitted by Manfroni on Sat, 03/03/2012 - 05:01

Hello guys!

I am sorry I have been away for so long, but I have also been busy with school and a lot of exams... However, the good news is that I took a lot of pictures meanwhile! Here in Dallas I doubt it will go below 20F any longer until next winter, just by looking at the forecast until the middle of March, it seems like the temperature will not even try to go lower than 40!

So that's why yesterday I removed the winter cloches from the cacti! All the plants that were inside the cloches survived and even.... BLOOOMED!!!

But first let's see what I did for winter!