Posted on by larksparrow

04/13/2024 cacti and irises

We noticed two cacti were unhappy and relocated them. Hopefully it is not too late for them to recover, though one looks dicey.

This horse crippler cactus came from my aunt and was doing okay in the rock garden, but getting buried by buffalograss. So I transplanted it to the even harsher environment of one of the caliche planters.
In the cactus planter in the backyard, we started with a dozen plus Escobaria vivipara and gradually lost them til just one remained. Over the last year it has sunk deeper and deeper into the little rocks instead of thriving like its cousins one tier down. When I gently pried it up, I found the top was completely crispy. However, a bit of a root showing still seemed soft and maybe hopeful. (The little succulents around it are Sedum pulchellum.)
I moved it to less than a foot away from an Oklahoma-genotype E. vivipara that’s thriving so hopefully it has enough life left in the root to recover. I tucked it near an annual Venus looking glass as a nurse plant and put some rocks to shade it slightly, as I’ve seen baby Escobaria cacti in the wild wedged among rock shadows.
Frilly blue irises have bloomed! We can’t figure out if these are the same ones that bloom in fall by the rock garden.
These yellow ones are darker and have more brown markings than the rock garden ones which started blooming on Sunday the 14th.

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