Saturday, August 25, 2012

Los Tres Amigos: 3 Hairy Guys


Posing for you all today are my three hairy guys, Espostoa lanata on the left, Rebutia albipilosa in the front, and Cephalocereus senilis on the right, at the back. All are New World cacti, yet all sport very different hair stylings. That's creativity.

What everyone wants to know about their "Old Men" or "Old Women" cacti is, how to make that hair grow long and lush? The key is a lot of morning sunshine. They are not crazy about strong afternoon sun or extreme heat, but several hours of morning sunshine, outside, suits them very well. If they can't be outside now and then, a sunny east-facing window does well, too.  I don't like growing these outside all the time, because their hair gets dirty and turns yellow-gray. Yuck.

The hair's function is to reflect sunlight and trap pests. It also helps retain water, so they can be a little more rot-prone than other cacti. Another reason to grow small ones like this indoors. Outdoors, some columnar hairy cacti can become quite huge! Not a good choice for the living room in that case....

Hairy cacti make a great mini-collection within a wider succulent collection- they are a lot of fun.

Now I have to get back to prepping for TS Isaac, soon to be Hurricane Isaac. Never dull around here in summer!
(Photo from OSHA, USA)


6 comments:

  1. How cool are those haircults! Haha, I honestly, thought they were real people names until I read Cephalocereus. My favourite is the Espostoa lanata and its flat top do thing. :) Good luck with Hurricane Isaac, are there any drying pots outside?

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  2. Oh crap - good luck! Wow, tornado and hurricanes! Hope it misses you at least in terms of the intense rain showers & strong winds! Interesting point about the yellowing hair + morning sun, I've taken this on board. Good luck mate, I will keep my eye on CNN, hope, sorry KNOW you will be ok! We have lots more to share! LT

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  3. Yes, I love that flat-top hairdo! People actually pet that one, can you believe it?? No pots drying outside this weekend, for sure! I can hear the pounding, and feel the vibrations, from the longwaves coming in now, it's very distinctive and kind of creepy. We only get those kind of waves when Cape Verde storms are closing in.

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  4. We'll be OK, LT, we're not in the eye path, we'll just get wind and rain, hopefully no flooding, thanks for the good wishes!

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  5. Those three amigos are really cute! While I usually don't dress up plants I could see these little guys in hats like those in the movie of the same name. Good luck with the storm, Marla. When I was a child we did really stupid storm things. We were near the Indian river but lived on the ocean. We would go out to watch the waves or play around on the causeway during storms. Fortunately (or unfortunately) for us our parents never knew. Also, while I lived on that part of the coast we never seemed to take a direct hit. Gail

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  6. I'd forgotten the Disney movie, it was really cute! We're fine here- Isaac is just making our day boring and wet, and it's heading west, away from us.

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