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Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 4,213
Campfire Tracker
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OP
Campfire Tracker
Joined: Oct 2006
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We bought our place 5 years ago. The exterior walls were covered with holly. It provided some thermal barrier in summer but I soon realized it was a highway for insects to get into the house. I also didn’t like the idea of roots and moisture near a home foundation. I dug out most of the holly and began to look for thorny things that discourage intruders. On the cold side of the house that is pyrocanthia, Russian olive, raspberry, but wherever I can it is cacti, yucca, agave. A flash flood uprooted a small cholla on our place. I replanted it under a sunny window. It was the first cactus I planted. Today I have to prune it back if I want to open the window. I have 4 distinct species of stick cacti (cholla) in 4 distinct sizes. The native ones are the next to the largest. This one is the smallest. For my birthday my wife gave me a cholla from a local cactus expert that is the very largest – 5ft tall now and growing fast. When I ask him exactly what species that thing is he just grins at me. A specimen from an elk hunt in the Cimarron basin. Not much from the Mojave can survive the cold here but this one did. I have not yet removed those pads that took a beating its first winter.
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Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 4,213
Campfire Tracker
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OP
Campfire Tracker
Joined: Oct 2006
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From an Oklahoma deer hunt. A prickly pear on the right from a cactus grower I met in Garden City. He said it was from the mountains of Mexico. I don’t have any daughters myself, but I have learned that fathers have been planting cacti and other formidable foliage below their daughter’s bedroom windows for as long as there have been fathers and daughters. A trunked yucca (Thonpsonia) from NM. My best dog lies on a hill in a thick patch of native cholla. A t-post is her marker and a river rock inscribed with her words. Spanish dagger aka shin dagger.
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Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 4,213
Campfire Tracker
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OP
Campfire Tracker
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 4,213 |
A Candy Barrel from the rim of the Grand Canyon sports yellow blossoms. This one was nearly devoured by some free range cattle in Texas. It has responded well to its new home in Southern Colorado. Same cactus as above pic. Grew a few more pads this past month On the day my wife had spine surgery the hospital staff urged me to get out of the waiting room to take my mind off it. I drove around Denver only vaguely aware of what I was doing. Somehow I found myself at a nursery and brought home a small pencil cholla on a 2’ pot. Today my wife is fine and I have clones of that cholla everywhere.
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Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 4,213
Campfire Tracker
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OP
Campfire Tracker
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 4,213 |
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Joined: May 2010
Posts: 14,989 Likes: 4
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 14,989 Likes: 4 |
Very nice. I have one like the last pic. It was growing out of rock in cen\Tx.
--- CAUGHT IN THE CROSSFIRE --- A Magic Time To Be An Illegal In America---
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Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 17,239 Likes: 2
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 17,239 Likes: 2 |
...Actually Sycamore, you are sort of right....
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Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 4,213
Campfire Tracker
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OP
Campfire Tracker
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 4,213 |
I do - but I think the winters here would be too much.
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Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 17,239 Likes: 2
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 17,239 Likes: 2 |
they'll stand a little snow, at about 32 degrees....that zero crap is not so good for them!
Sycamore
...Actually Sycamore, you are sort of right....
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Joined: Jul 2008
Posts: 4,293
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Jul 2008
Posts: 4,293 |
I enjoyed this picture tutorial, Alamosa.
Nice work too.
Thanks for posting.
Trump HAD the World, ", Trump saw our children, " Trump saw a way to make a brighter day so he started giving There was a choice he was making, he was saving our own lives Its true he made a brighter day for you and me. --Trump WINS 2016
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Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 32,130 Likes: 1
Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 32,130 Likes: 1 |
Thanks for the pictorial!
If you put Taco Bell sauce in your ramen noodles it tastes just like poverty
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Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 171
Campfire Member
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Campfire Member
Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 171 |
Nice diverse group of succulents you've got growing there. Surprised to see the Ocotillo (3rd pic) in the mix and surviving. Would have thought southern CO would be too cold for them. I was born and raised in Alamosa and I'm guessing your place must be on the other side of the Sangres otherwise a few of those species wouldn't have made it through their first winter!
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Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 10,258
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 10,258 |
Ed
A person who asks a question is a fool for 5 minutes the person who never asks is a fool forever.
The worst slaves are those that put the chains on themselves.
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Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 17,239 Likes: 2
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 17,239 Likes: 2 |
I didn't see any live ocotillo in the pic. I would expect it to be leafed out if it was alive. don't see that in lots of Arizona, even in much of the Grand Canyon.
Sycamore
...Actually Sycamore, you are sort of right....
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Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 61,275 Likes: 31
Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 61,275 Likes: 31 |
Very nice, thank you so much.
These premises insured by a Sheltie in Training ,--- and Cooey.o "May the Good Lord take a likin' to you"
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Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 47,270 Likes: 13
Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 47,270 Likes: 13 |
trichocereus bridgesii , i grow these, bet no one knows what they're good for or use for.
God bless Texas----------------------- Old 300 I will remain what i am until the day I die- A HUNTER......Sitting Bull Its not how you pick the booger.. but where you put it !! Roger V Hunter
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Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 47,270 Likes: 13
Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 47,270 Likes: 13 |
san pedro
God bless Texas----------------------- Old 300 I will remain what i am until the day I die- A HUNTER......Sitting Bull Its not how you pick the booger.. but where you put it !! Roger V Hunter
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Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 2,600
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 2,600 |
All I have is red agave and aloe vera. The aloe grows like a weed.
There is a house south a few blocks from me where a an elderly German lady lived who was a botanist. Pretty sure she had one of every cacti in her front and back yard. She past last year, they sold the house and then dug up everything and threw it all into a dumpster. Travesty !!!
Whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad.
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Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 171
Campfire Member
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Campfire Member
Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 171 |
trichocereus bridgesii , i grow these, bet no one knows what they're good for or use for.
For unhinging the brain!
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Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 4,213
Campfire Tracker
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OP
Campfire Tracker
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 4,213 |
Nice diverse group of succulents you've got growing there. Surprised to see the Ocotillo (3rd pic) in the mix and surviving. Would have thought southern CO would be too cold for them. I was born and raised in Alamosa and I'm guessing your place must be on the other side of the Sangres otherwise a few of those species wouldn't have made it through their first winter!
That ocotillo didn't make it unfortunately. Froze. Sad to lose it, I really liked it, but it was stupid of me to think it could make it here. Really hard to protect those with a frost cloth too. I am east of the Sangres - for the next couple years at least. Most winters are no big deal but there are the occasional cold snaps that will do a lot of damage if I don't cover them.
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Joined: Oct 2006
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Campfire Tracker
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OP
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san pedro Nice. Those type in the photo will only grow indoors here. My parents grew one up to the ceiling, when it couldn't go higher it began to grow across the ceiling! Musta been 14' or 16' total length. Took 4 or 5 pots to replant all the segments.
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