Man, I lost my cellie which is fine, I don't miss it at all except for the GPS and the camera. Realized I should sell my truck and the Chevy and get a lime green convertible Saab. I love it when things just fall into place like that. I guess an iPhone touch would do the trick? Or would it. Anyway I am done with cellphones. If the dogs get out, call me at home. They wouldn't be treated any differently by their rescuers depending on whether I were reachable or not; [Ed. Order new tags with your address on them.]

That was quite a train of thought. I do believe it left the station without us. It began because I am lamenting the absence of photos for today's diatribe.

Onto the garden...during a pissy little discussion with Rob about whether my sailboat's mainsail was ripped or not, a powerful gust toppled one of the queen palms. Not sure if I should mention here that I do not like that plant much at all--not for any reason I can think of--and give my excuse for owning five of them. Or should I simply attempt to return them? The latter.

Well, anyway, one of them came a cropper and knocked my basin of mature Stapelia off the card table. Oh sheesh. The budding one was unearthed and lay panting, imploring, on the concrete. I tenderly re-planted her and her ilk, steadied the palm, and generally rearranged things so it wouldn't happen again. As Amos Tversky said, "Such are life."

I think I have divided all the succulents now, which takes away a sense of urgency that had been building and becoming sort of a tirade. Everything I have is maximally divided and planted to grow on and into saleability by December. A lot depends on temperatures. I wonder if I'll need artificial light and to grow indoors. Maybe a greenhouse would be helpful to warm things up and keep them growing in winter. I wonder if there's time to build one before Jero leaves. I won't tell him today. We are going to focus on ceramics and tile today. We'll make a mold of a pot I found and maybe pour the first realization. Depends on my getting my tax matters addressed by noon, I think. Must upload dogs for Connie and must...check with Ross...do bank statements for ...something else...involves printing..."Very, very, very, very important piece of paper" (Bubble, in an early AbFab ep.).

We planted several trees, I think I said, and Jero might have finished the drip irrigation. What a trouble free garden I will have. Just trees, each with a wooden cage to keep the dogs away, some mulch, and the potted plants inside the tree cages. Then my nursery activities up near the house. I do think I should keep the pool and grow aquatics in it. If that doesn't rule out swimming, I might.

Oh, I give up.

Well anyhow I am starting to think they are Stapelia and that the cutting I took from Tom is also Stapelia. I was in the dark about this genus at the time of the theft but did notice his were about to bloom. Damn. So anyway I also bought one that looks like Tom's at Armstrong and decided that what I have are Stapelia, not Huernica. My buds are bigger and darker than they were before. Four of them in one cluster. Oh hell what if I am out of town when they bloom? This feels like it has happened before. Darn.

The photo in the upper left of this update is of my supposed Brahea armata while it was in its box at Home Depot.

What else? Jero adheres to the bury the root flare school of tree planting and I do not.

I can't really get chocolate ice cream off my mind right now; it will be the first night without in months if I don't get any. The Dunns aren't answering.

Marcella and I broke up that clumpy Agave I'd got at Armstrong and planted the chunks in right-sized containers for growing on. Some were quite tiny; nearly all had roots.

We brutalized the various Dianthus, all having been chosen for fragrance and therefore meriting drastic measures to insure their vigor. Is it typical of them to have lousy root systems, or were mine started badly by the growers? It seems they just stop growing at some point, and no amount of watering or not watering makes a difference. I dug one up from its pot and the roots were fine, flimsy, and seemed inadequate to steady and fuel the growth of the plant. I have a yellow carnation that's down (due to irrigular watering) to a twig with very little foliage, and which has taken several weeks to show any sign of leafing out after I gave it a jarhead cut. But it has begun to make little green nubs offs its papery limbs.

What else. My gourds still thrive; the morning glories seem less than robust, though markedly better than those transplanted at an early age into Marcella's garden.

I foolishly checked the grape cuttings for roots--there were none. I became curious after noticing one of them wilting.

I got a tiny white mini-Cyclamen with a pink stripe on one petal of one blossom; I'll plant the seeds and see what I get. Big surprise: it is fragrant, and in a really nice way. It's the first time I had any inkling they had a scent. I have no idea what species it is, even after a lot of googling and goggling.

I forgot to re-plant the nodocactus (sp?). I went upstairs for the spray bottle so I could make a lemon juice solution and spray it on the stained parts of the old picture frames and have them bleach in the sun. A few hours after going up I remembered about the lemon juice. Anyway the frames are dry and quite usable; I guess I hope it is not too damp tonight. Well if they are damp maybe I will spray them with lemon juice solution; it'll soak in well and dry tomorrow. And I must plant the little gent.

Two of Hammer's Conos have bloomed, one in orange and the other in baby pink. Other of his plants are giving me the finger and making faces at me. Various Haworthia are blooming with their big frog tongues swaying in the breeze. I mean to ask him about the weird Crassula thingie that came in the pot with an Aloe from Altman's I got at Armstrong, but haven't got a picture of it yet. I doubt it is a repeat-bloomer so the opportunity to ID it passed for the year. I also must send him the old Cactus and Succulent magazine.

Well, I can't seem to focus on plants tonight, and there's the ice cream truck. Writing's on the wall.

Y'aint going to believe this but my dern Heurnias are about to bloom. That is, one of them is going to have four flowers. There are four buds. No, I did not say "that is one of them" in reference to the Gasteraloe to the right. That's just a little eye candy to get the ball rolling.

These are the ones I repotted about 2 weeks ago. I didn't check for buds at the time because it had never occurred to me that the things might bloom. What did I think they were--slugs? Is there an African succulent that doesn't bloom?

Oh by the way I own the domain "calandrinia.com." I feel this plant (oops--what species?) symbolizes the fun and excitement of succulents. The name might mean "Lark," as the Spanish "Calandrina" means Lark (the bird) in English.

What else...oh, my gourds are just popping up with big baby leaves...what are those called? But the one I gave to Marcella is barely out of the ground. I think I should put these right into one gallons and not bother with 4". We'll grow the gourds used to make the cups (mates) from which yerba mate is drunk.

Found two big pots in the alley, plastic ones. Old but not meaningingfully cracked or damaged by age. Faded.

Getting ready to murder the pool. Can use the water to water the new lawn I suppose. Must get on weeding tasks. Blowtorch?

Huernia etc

Rob so liked the photos of Stapelia in my cactus book that I searched the internet looking for a place that sells Stapelia. Found ONE! Made me pay attention to my Huernia about which I know little. They have muddled along in the same pot with the big Kalanchoe for a while, but I recently re-did that and took them out. Now I have to find out what might trigger them to bloom, as they haven't yet. Meanwhile a Sansevieria I got at the same plant sale has made 11 plantlets and stayed alive while being neglected. And it takes a lot of neglect to make a snake plant shows you it is suffering...

Proper respect must be paid to Mr. Martin Heigen, who took the photo above and generously posted it on the interwebs. More of his work on Huernia: http://anti-matter-3d.com/Stapeliads/Huernia.html