Cacti and Succulents

Moon Cactus

Gymnocalycium mihanovichii is a species of cactus from South America commonly grown as a houseplant. The most popular cultivars are variegated mutants which completely lack chlorophyll, exposing the underlying red, orange or yellow pigmentation. These cultivars are often called moon cactus. Since chorophyll is necessary for photosynthesis, these mutations die as seedlings unless grafted onto another cactus with normal chlorophyll. …

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Nopal Cactus

Nopal (also known as the Prickly Pear cactus) is hardy, drought-tolerant, and reproduces easily by cuttings. Forty years ago I took a small cactus pad from the home of my wife’s grandmother in Hollister California. Nopal is a species and an ingredient made from the Opuntia cacti, in the subfamily Opuntioideae. They are particularly common in their native Mexico where …

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Christmas Cactus

Christmas cactus

Christmas cactus can be grown outdoors in Sunnyvale. Christmas cactus (Schlumbergera bridgesii) and Thanksgiving cactus are popular, fall- and winter-flowering houseplants native to Brazil, and are available in a wide variety of colors including red, rose, purple, lavender, peach, orange, cream, and white. These Schlumbergera species grow as epiphytes among tree branches in shady rain forests, and their pendulous stems …

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Jade Plant in winter

During winter in Sunnyvale, the Jade plant is covered with white flowers. It’s is frequently visited by our resident hummingbird. Jade Plant (aka Jade Tree, Money Tree) is a great landscape plant for the Sunnyvale garden. It is a succulent that needs little watering. Jade plant is toxic to pets and can cause vomiting and a slow heart rate. In …

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Kalanchoe blossfeldiana

Kalanchoe blossfeldiana is native to Madagascar. It produces small mounds of orange flowers with scalloped shiny green leaves. It thrives with bright light and porous soil. Water thoroughly when soil is dry. Protect from frost. Kalanchoe’s only known enemy is lemurs so I think it safe.

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Sempervivium

Sempervivum /sɛmpəˈvaɪvəm/, is a genus of about 40 species of flowering plants in the Crassulaceae family, known as houseleeks. Other common names include liveforever and hen and chicks. They are succulent perennials forming mats composed of tufted leaves in rosettes. In favorable conditions they spread rapidly via offsets, and several species are valued in cultivation as groundcover for dry, sunny …

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Jade plant

Jade Plant (aka Jade Tree, Money Tree) is a great landscape plant for the Sunnyvale garden. It is a succulent that needs little watering.

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Purslane

Common in our Sunnyvale yards but little known in the North American kitchen, purslane is both delicious and exceptionally nutritious. Common purslane (Portulaca oleracea) — also known as duckweed, fatweed, pursley, pussley, verdolagas and wild portulaca — is the most frequently reported “weed” species in the world. It can grow anywhere that has at least a two-month growing season. My …

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Barrel Cactus

Echinocactus grusonii, popularly known as the Golden Barrel Cactus is a well known species of cactus, and is endemic to east-central Mexico. My barrel cactus in Sunnyvale is 14 inches wide by 11 inches tall and is 30 years old. It started in a 4-inch pot. The plants do have some basic requirements; an average minimum winter temperature of 12°C …

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Drosanthemum micans

EASY TO GROW bringer of sunshine. EVERBLOOMING here along the coast-even in Winter, its form is tight & compact with small, dense, bright-green foliage 2.5’ tall & about 3’ across. Smothering itself in golden centered, red-tipped sunniest-yellow, many-rayed blooms 2” across, it’s one of those big-bang-for-the-buck fellows. Native to S. Africa & highly drought tolerant, it does look best with …

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