Tag Archives | cactus

Oh cactus, my cactus!

By on April 29, 2013 in environment

Can someone help me? My cacti and succulents get this weird fungal growth on them. It looks terrible and eventually they become quite unhappy. What is it and how do I go about curing it?

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Cactus Flower

By on January 16, 2011 in garden

I came back from holiday to find this beautiful cactus flower. How nice!

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Cactus in bloom

Cactus in bloom

By on December 21, 2010 in flowers

One of the scaffy cacti I rescued a while back has returned the favour by providing a crown of purple flowers, just in time for Christmas!

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Cacti Rescue

By on November 10, 2010 in garden

My mom was getting rid of this box of scaffy cacti and, as I hate to see a pot plant go to waste, I decided to rescue them. A pair of gloves, some cheap ceramic pots (R16.00) and a bag of gravel later, they were as good as new!

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Cactus cacti

By on November 9, 2009 in flowers, succulent

I was up in Vryheid over the weekend, staying at the Natal Spa. They have some really great hot springs there and a very cool, old-school garden. Situated in the centre of this garden were these two interesting cacti.  I’m guessing they’re not indigenous to South Africa but are quite beautiful.

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How does her garden grow?

By on October 7, 2009 in flowers, garden

No cockle shells here, some stones..  When we think of gardens (particularly here in Durban) we often think luscious green… On the contrary, my mother, Helen, has created a unique and interesting garden mainly using stones, pot plants, succulents and cacti… I think the pics speak for themselves. Isn’t it cool?

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Naboooooom!

By on July 30, 2009 in indigenous

I planted this tree (known as Naboom or umPapha) a few years back not knowing how big it would get.  Turns out, its going to be huge and near impossible to cut down due to its poisonous sap.  Luckily it has room to grow and I find its flowers and berries rather beautiful.  Birds are [...]

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International First Love Day

By on May 15, 2009 in garden

Today is the first International First Love Day over at BridgetMcNulty.com.  As this is a gardening blog, I’ll stick to the first plant I loved and the first plant which got me into gardening, a little cactus I blogged about a few months ago. What were the first plant(s) that got you interested in gardening?

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How to kill a cactus

By on April 4, 2009 in garden

In an earlier post, my mom asked for help identifying a cactus she has in her garden.  Ross came to the rescue, pointing out that it is a Cereus peruviana and a category 1 invader!  Needless to say, she now wants it out of her garden but if we cut it down with a panga [...]

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Gardening at night…

By on March 16, 2009 in aliens, flowers, garden, indigenous

These cacti are a fairly common occurrence in Durban and other parts of South Africa. They have an amazing flower that only opens at night and early morning. Commonly known as the Princess / Queen of the Night, the nightblooming cereus, which I have in my garden and had always assumed was indigenous, does in fact originate from Central America, [...]

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