Desert 'Alpines'

Description

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

Arctotis adpressa

Submitted by externmed on Sun, 02/05/2012 - 20:31

ARCTOTIS adpressa looks cute in photo on Sunscapes (nursery) site. Anyone growing it in the north or northeast USA? Thanks for any information.
Charles Swanson MA USA

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Opuntia basilaris

Submitted by Weiser on Thu, 12/08/2011 - 18:22

I grow several forms and varieties of O. basilaris. The beavertail cactus is native to the Mojave and Sonoran deserts to about to 6,000 feet. The blue-gray 10inch long pads are shaped like a beaver's tail. Dense clusters of brown glochids are it's main defence.the flowers are hot pink/magenta. The fruits are dry and pearshaped. Mature clumps can get to be two foot tall and three to four foot across.

Yucca glauca

Submitted by Weiser on Sun, 12/04/2011 - 20:01

The hardiest of the hardy Yuccas and the most wide spread.

I grew up seeing Y. Glauca on the short grass prairies of North and South Dakota. Most of the time the flowers are white blushed with pink. I have never come across any with darker pink flowers. Years ago I was reading in Claude A. Barr's 'Jewels of the Plains' that he was searching for some.(Is my poor memory correct?)
If so are any of the descendants of his selections around?

Opuntia aurea

Submitted by Weiser on Sat, 12/03/2011 - 20:27

Dose anyone else grow Opuntia aurea?

I grow one magenta pink colored clone and one yellow yellow colored clone.
I also have two that seem to be hybrids, they are not as large. One has rose pink flowers, the other never blooms is extremely slow growing (for an Opuntia) and gets very thick, small pads.

Here is the large magenta clone.
I end up trimming it by 1/3 every year to keep it in check.

cactus books

Submitted by penstemon on Fri, 12/02/2011 - 20:20

No one ever talks about this book, so I thought I would. A Cactus Odyssey is one of my favorite plant books of all time. Talks about the cacti of Peru, Argentina, and Bolivia. Most of the cacti discussed are not hardy, but the scientific insights are fascinating, and the book is so well-written it would be good bedtime reading, if I read in bed.
I think it's out of print now.

Bob

Yucca elata

Submitted by Weiser on Thu, 12/01/2011 - 16:43

I know it's not small but it is deserty. :rolleyes: Here is my specimen of Yucca elata. This is starting to out grow it's space.You can't squeeze by it without a puncture wound to two, :'( so I've resorted to Bob's trick of clipping the tips off the offending leaves. It makes it a lot more user friendly. It is starting to grow a trunk and I hope that in a few more seasons it will high enough to sneak under the leaves.

other cactus

Submitted by penstemon on Sat, 11/26/2011 - 16:43

Some weird ones. First is, I guess, Opuntia basilaris var. brachyclada (doing the right thing by shriveling) and a mystery opuntia I got from Kelly Grummons which he collected near Briggsdale, Colorado.
Some people have suggested this is O. arenaria, but that grows in Texas.
Neither has ever flowered.

Bob