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Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat, Where Have You Been?

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My Santa Rita Opuntia has grown an ear.  Looking closely however, as the plant resembles a cat, the offshoot is more like a tail.  But that's not the interesting thing about this prickly pear of mine.  It travelled from La Trinidad, Benguet in the Cordillera Mountains to Manila.  The thing is, my best friend has held it in her hands in La Trinidad two and a half weeks before I bought it in the first Cactus and Succulents Convention in Manila.  Freakish coincidence?  Totally!! Here is Cely, my best friend, holding the Santa Rita Opuntia.  On her tour of Northern Luzon, she visited the Living Gifts cactus and succulents nursery in Benguet on Labor Day, and posed for this picture.   When I saw this picture for the first time just a couple of days ago, I instantly recognized the plant.  That's my pussy cat!  My cactus, I mean. See?  It looks just like a purring cat, isn't it?  This is how the Santa Rita looks lik...
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PSYCHO WINDOW DRAMA

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My windowsill garden could no longer accommodate all of my cacti lovelies.  In fact, some of the windows in my office have been graciously housing some of them;  and yet, I still need a bit of space.  The only place I can think of is my parent's old house.  It is actually my grandparent's ancestral house in Quezon City.  So, I decided to buy a cabinet-sized greenhouse that can shelter all of the small ones I have been nursing, and place it in one of the second-floor windows facing the morning sun. Yes, again on a window.  The windows in the old house are really gigantic and could very well fit cabinets.  The house is from the 1950's and have these huge grilled windows.  I was eyeing the window in my youngest brother's room.  When the cabinet-sized greenhouse arrived and was assembled, my father stuck it in that window.  Naturally, my brother complained about this. What caught me off-guard was my brother's reason for complaining....
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HARVEST TIME

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Yesterday morning I was surprised that my Dwarf Turk's Cap has more seedpods than I originally counted three days ago.  This is it.  It's harvest time!  I pulled the pink seedpods out from its cephalium one by one. I harvested a total of 10 seedpods. I will be planting the seeds soon.  Stay tuned.  xoxo
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SEPARATION ANXIETY

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I was on a trip this weekend and left my cacti pets to fend for themselves at home.  For the whole trip I thought of them and hoped that they're all fine.  It's no exaggeration that I missed them.  Every morning when I wake up, I would go to the cacti lair and check them out one by one.   Not doing this daily routine for a couple of days made me a bit anxious. When I got back, everything's all right!  I even got a wonderful surprise!  My MELOCACTUS MATANZANUS   has seed pods in its cephalium.  The Dwarf Turk's Cap, as it is commonly known, made my day.  This was a first! Do you like this post? Follow my blog for more cacti-licious stories and pictures.  Until next time.  xoxo
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PRIZED FOR BEING ODDBALLS

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It was a pleasant surprise!  Three from my collection of mother Black Pearls have yielded variegated pups.  Must be my lucky stars! "Black Pearl" is the common name for the black variety of the Gymnocalycium Mihanovichii species.  In the cacti world, variegation although not rare, is a natural aberration highly prized by collectors.  A variegated specimen of a species commands a high price in the market.  More so, I suppose if it's a natural mutation such as what happened to my mother plants, rather than propagation from an already variegated species. In any case, check out my Black Pearls and their oddball pups: This beautiful pup shows patches of yellow, orange and some bits of green.  Such a captivating sight with the pup's patch of colours in contrast with the mother's black skin. This pup from the second mother Black Pearl even has a flower bud of its own.  Guess what?  It has an identical twin pup.  See the next picture. ...
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