Saturday, June 22, 2013

sharp, spiny, pokey things



My friend Bobby who lives in Boling, a little town down FM 1301, is a gardener but he is a different sort of gardener than I am. I use mainly native perennials while Bobby is into cacti and succulents.


When Robin was here we went and visited Bobby because Robin really likes thing that are sharp, spiny, and pokey. We missed the blooms. They had either already bloomed or were just getting ready to bloom except for one or two.

Here's a few specimens from Bobby's yard:


Cholla surrounding a south American columnar.


Golden barrel. Very popular Mexican cactus.


Crested Cow's Tongue prickly pear. Cow's tongue was first found  near the Alamo in San Antonio.


Red Yucca. Actually is not really a yucca but a hesperaloe. Texas native.


Red Yucca


Miscellaneous little hedgehogs, barrels, succulents, small agaves, aloes, etc. 


Miscellaneous little hedgehogs, barrels, succulents, small agaves, aloes, etc.


Miscellaneous little hedgehogs, barrels, succulents, small agaves, aloes, etc.


Miscellaneous little hedgehogs, barrels, succulents, small agaves, aloes, etc.


Miscellaneous little hedgehogs, barrels, succulents, small agaves, aloes, etc. 


Agave weberi in bloom.


Agave weberi in bloom.


Zig Zag jungle cactus from Brazil.


Medium sized Agave. 


Cissus quadrangularis


A crested horse crippler


Pereskia grandifolia, a south American cactus with true leaves.



14 comments:

  1. I love cactus and succulents as well. Used to have lots more but I had a choice....grands or cactus. Not because the grands messed with them but because the cactus must come inside in the winter and we ran outta room. The hummingbirds just love the red yucca here.
    Thanks for the trip with you to a friends....I enjoyed myself and I hope I behaved....tee hee. Oma Linda

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  2. wow! just wow! he has an AWESOME variety! WOW!

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  3. Ooh...I love cacti. I have quite a few, but nothing in comparison. My home decor is southwest, so they're fitting. I wish I could grow some outside, but we have brutal winters in Kansas. I love your pics and really enjoy the agave.

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  4. Holy moly, what an impressive garden and collection. I have a soft spot for cactus and had a window full of them until a couple winters ago. Ice fell and broke the window. I lost the window area involved in the replacement, so gave them all away. People wondered at my big collection and I gave them my dad's advice: only water them when it rains in Arizona.

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  5. Thank you for these photos, love every one! Cactus are the most curious of all- LOVE them! but wouldn't want to marry one...oh wait, I think I did...Great cactus shots - awesome in the awe sense of the word!
    WOW, cool!!!

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  6. These are wonderful and most of them are growing wild in my yard..except the red yucca.
    Hugs
    SUeAnn

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  7. I love succulents with a passion but I hate, with an equal passion, cacti with spines. This is due to the large number of them which pierced my skin when I was a child because they grew wild where I lived. Some of the spines were huge and scary and some were tiny and impossible to get out.
    My skin still feels their ghostly pain-presence.

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  8. Ooh I love cacti! My grandmother had a prickly pear (or something like that) & I used to get the stickers in my finger (on purpose) so I could use her tweezers to get them out. I was a weird child.

    I recently read another blog where she talked about her cactus blooming - made me want to see if I could grow one in Ohio :)

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  9. When I was a little girl my parents got a magazine (It must have been free or given by a friend because we had no money for subscriptions) to Arizona Highways. I loved the photos of the various succulents blooming and made my husband take me there in the spring many decades later! This yard is a botanical garden!

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  10. I certainly enjoyed that visit.

    I hope he doesn't have to do much weeding.

    I totally understand why the one is called a horse crippler.

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  11. Nice pics. I'm glad you girls enjoyed my prickly friends.

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  12. That's quite a lot of variety. The zig-zag cactus is cool, and what the heck is a horse-crippler?! I love century plants when they bloom.

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  13. Cool and weird. I don't "get" cactus. Do you?

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  14. It sure does make for a different and interesting garden. I'm not sure I find it .. friendly though. :)

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