San Pedro cactus loaded with blooms

[rockpickerforever]

First three pics taken a couple days ago, 10/2/16 in the evening.

Taken 10/4, 4:40 pm.  Looked like a lot of them were going to open that night!

10/4 7:17 pm.  With flash (obviously!).  Sorry about the spider in the way, that's her spot, and she does well there!

Next two taken this morning, 10/5/16 at 6:45 am.

And the spider.  Her web is in the perfect location, had many large bug/moths caught in it.  She is growing fast!

At least the web is always in the same location, so I know to avoid it.

All those flowers open this morning were so fragrant!  They rival the night blooming jasmine and pitaya (dragonfruit) blooms in terms of sweetness.

I tend to take them for granted, they are just plants in the yard.  But for some of you, they are totally different. Hope you liked them.  Jean

[droseraguy]

Birthday blooms for both of ya. They look really good. Are they always that plentiful or did the weather play a part this year ?

[Deleted]

What a show!

[rockpickerforever]

Thanks you, both of you! droseraguy, the weather this year may very well have played a part in this. Because of the drought, I have not be watering these as much as I could have been. A few months ago, I started watering the orange tree (it was getting a little crispy!) less than ten feet away. I think the cactus took their share of the water! When the buds started coming on, I made sure to keep watering. I can probably cut back now.

We have had some high (upper 90s, triple digit) temps in August and September, but there has only been one brief rain few weeks ago. That's all there's been in the last six months! All of the cactus in the yard will put on a good show as long as they get enough water.

My dad has cymbidium orchids I take care of for him at his house in San Diego. Normally, they do not bloom until December/January. But he had a couple bloom in the late summer. Crazy! Now he has several pots that are sending up bloom spikes now. One of them, in a a five gallon pot, has FIVE bloom spikes. I moved it out to his front porch where he can enjoy it. Will have to get some pics of it next Monday.

So yes, an unusual year.

[victor1941]

I enjoy your flowers but would like a sample from the orange in picture #6.

[rockpickerforever]

victor1941 , that one is not ripe yet!  They are not ready to eat until Decmber into March.

This is a pic from December 4, 2015.  It is a navel orange.

I can't believe how much the cactus has grown in less than a year!  I also have photos on my computer of previous year's blooms.  I have to say that the current show of blooms does exceed last years!  Although, to be honest, I had blooms the end of July, and again at the end of September!   Giving them water, whether from the sky or the faucet, really gets them going!

[wampidytoo]

Thanks for showing those Jean. I love cacti and actually had some potted ones when I was a teen. Yes, cacti had been invented by that time I really enjoyed the cacti in the Quartzsite area also.

I can not remember the name but do you have the birds there that live on large cacti? Fascinating bird to watch but sadly I have only seen them on screen.
Jim

[Pat]

Lovely!! Rarely see anything like that around here. Very different with blooms perpendicular to stem/trunk.

Flowers pretty. Spider ok, too.

[Garage Rocker]

Thanks for the pictures, Jean. You're right, it's fun to see things we don't have around here. That cactus is huge!!! Your spider looks familiar though. I photographed the one that hangs outside my basement door the other day. I think I smashed one on the floor on the way to take the picture, but them's the rules.

[quartz]

I saw the desert in bloom when about 12, never forgot that, very different than here, and beautiful. Thanks for keeping us living farther North in the show.

[vegasjames]

Also loaded with mescaline.

[jamesp]

Oct 6, 2016 2:46:20 GMT -5 vegasjames said:

Also loaded with mescaline.

Had a young employee years ago that knew how to extract the mescaline.
I think he purchased dried San Pedro off the internet.
Cooked it ? Drained it ? Condensed it ? It was a process.
He kept messing with me to try his concoction.
One day I finally did.

I would compare it to taking a sip of nuclear halucinigenic whiskey.
A sip that sent you on a high that kept escalating for hours.
No return. No stopping it. Like driving a car with the gas peddle stuck full throttle with no brakes.
Just steadily taking you out of your mind for like half a day.
He can have his mescaline. I found it frightening.

May be the same drug in peyote. I believe Native man used it to go loco.

Beautiful flowers @rockpickrforever. You have the Garden of Eden.
Must ask being your Birthday how old it is ?

PS Humongo oranges. Temples ?

[vegasjames]

Oct 6, 2016 6:04:48 GMT -5 jamesp said:

Oct 6, 2016 2:46:20 GMT -5 vegasjames said:

Also loaded with mescaline.

Had a young employee years ago that knew how to extract the mescaline.
I think he purchased dried San Pedro off the internet.
Cooked it ? Drained it ? Condensed it ? It was a process.
He kept messing with me to try his concoction.
One day I finally did.

I would compare it to taking a sip of nuclear halucinigenic whiskey.
A sip that sent you on a high that kept escalating for hours.
No return. No stopping it. Like driving a car with the gas peddle stuck full throttle with no brakes.
Just steadily taking you out of your mind for like half a day.
He can have his mescaline. I found it frightening.

May be the same drug in peyote. I believe Native man used it to go loco.

Beautiful flowers @rockpickrforever. You have the Garden of Eden.
Must ask being your Birthday how old it is ?

PS Humongo oranges. Temples ?

Native Americans used it to open the mind the spirit world.  The person first fasted for many days first to weaken the body before ingesting the extract.  It was not used for recreational purposes just like smoking tobacco is not used other than in ceremony since it is used to call the spirits to answer prayers.

[jamesp]

Oct 6, 2016 6:38:53 GMT -5 vegasjames said:

Oct 6, 2016 6:04:48 GMT -5 jamesp said:

Had a young employee years ago that knew how to extract the mescaline.
I think he purchased dried San Pedro off the internet.
Cooked it ? Drained it ? Condensed it ? It was a process.
He kept messing with me to try his concoction.
One day I finally did.

I would compare it to taking a sip of nuclear halucinigenic whiskey.
A sip that sent you on a high that kept escalating for hours.
No return. No stopping it. Like driving a car with the gas peddle stuck full throttle with no brakes.
Just steadily taking you out of your mind for like half a day.
He can have his mescaline. I found it frightening.

May be the same drug in peyote. I believe Native man used it to go loco.

Beautiful flowers @rockpickrforever. You have the Garden of Eden.
Must ask being your Birthday how old it is ?

PS Humongo oranges. Temples ?

Native Americans used it to open the mind the spirit world.  The person first fasted for many days first to weaken the body before ingesting the extract.  It was not used for recreational purposes just like smoking tobacco is not used other than in ceremony since it is used to call the spirits to answer prayers.

James, no way would I suggest doing that on an empty stomach much less after fasting.
Must be the longest lasting drug high on earth.
Why does it stay in your system so long ?

I wonder if Jean has a mescaline factory ? She can be kinda funny sometimes. rockpickerforever ?

[Fossilman]

Now those are some pretty cactus Jean!

[rockpickerforever]

Okay, let's see if I can get all these questions answered (there goes a couple hours out of my day, sigh...).

First, I'd like to thank everyone that commented and enjoyed viewing the pics. I have actually taken MORE of them since I posted this, but I won't bore you with them. Just more and more of the same. Each night more blooms have opened (and the previous night's have closed). The honeybees have found them. No wonder, since the blooms put off such a heavenly fragrance! It makes my heart absolutely sing to see so many happy, healthy honeybees! I tried to get a video with my tablet to catch the buzzing, but there is just too much background noise to really make it out. Cars, planes, construction work... not to mention my rumbling tumbler is behind the garage, maybe ten feet away!

Now, where was I? First, Jim wampidytoo . You are welcome. I love to take photos, and I love to share with those less fortunate! Cactus do very well here, they thrive on being ignored - my kind of plant! Overwatering them is the worst thing you can do to them. Do you mean woodpeckers in/on the cactus? I do have 'peckers here, but they leave my cactus alone (thank God!). Owls also chip holes into the saguaros, and the cactus wren likes to live dangerously among the spines. Protection from other critters trying to get them!  Had a saguaro in a pot that I had picked up in Quartzsite many years ago.  Had too much rain one winter, and it rotted.  Had I been thinking, I would had used an e-collar (like you put on dogs to keep them from chewing after surgery), put it around the cactus "stem" to divert the rain.  Hindsight...  It should have worked.

Thank you Pat . And I'm glad you are okay with the spider. As soon as I said the web was always in the same place? Yep, she moved it closer to the cactus! Has worked out well for her, her web has been catching bees drawn to the cactus. Ah, the web of life!

Garage Rocker , yes, that is the same spider! And when any of them come in the house, I have the same rules you do! Mostly, it is just the daddy long longs that come in, they get flattened. Although, I had a crab spider on the ceiling a couple weeks ago. Have seen them outside before on flowers, but never in the house! Didn't kill that one, just took some pic of it and escorted it outside.

Larry quartz , you are welcome. Seeing all the wonderful things in the desert is amazing to those that have not seen it. It will stay with you the rest of your life. Being a SoCal native, I have never totally appreciated our warm climate, in which we can grow so many things. Actually, have a hard time grasping how people can live in the cold climates, lol.


vegasjames - mescaline. Yeah, I think that's something I can do without. Prefer the pretty tall green columns. The biggest problem I have here with cactus in the ground, is if we have a rainy spell (more than a couple inches in a week), the cactus soaks up too much of it, and I get breakage. Then I drag them out to the curb with a free sign on them. They normally get taken within a day or so. A lot of my neighbors have them in their yards now!

jamesp , I have no idea what they do to extract it. So far, I've not had anyone get past the two locked gates and help themselves to it. I didn't understand your question (which is normal!) - How old is the Garden of Eden, or how old is the cactus? Guarantee you the Garden of Eden is way much older than me! If you were referring to the cactus, I'd have to say maybe ten years? I'll have to look back at old photos, see when it was first there. Several types of cactus in my yard were cuttings given to me by an older gentleman in La Mesa, that grew potted cactus to sell. He used to place ads in the PennySaver whenever he had enough to sell. But the bigger cactus, he would just lop off a branch and give it to you! Even what he sold was cheap, for him it was a labor of love. The oranges are NAVEL (not naval, ha!). They have bellybuttons... They are stressing from lack of water. Then when I give them water, the developing fruit splits open. Can't win.

Oct 6, 2016 7:12:28 GMT -5 jamesp said:

I wonder if Jean has a mescaline factory ? She can be kinda funny sometimes. rockpickerforever ?

James, did ya have to point that out? I'm pretty sure most people here already know I "can be kinda funny sometimes," lol. Nope, never tried that stuff, wouldn't want to. Alcohol is bad enough for me! I do not have a lot of extra brain cells to spare!

Thanks, Mike Fossilman . Both visual and olfactory stimuli! Can you grow cactus up there in Oregon, or is it too wet?