Tiger Jaws Plant

At first I thought this was a kind of haworthia but it's merely similar to them and the aloe.  It's a version faucaria.  Still this little guy is supposed to be pretty easy to take care of.  Probably needs to be repotted in a better soil though.  The current soil is not well draining.  Probably just mix this in with 1/4 sand and see how it looks.

They don't need a lot of water in general.  Much like aloe it should be able to go weeks without watering.  Probably going to play it by sight and see when it seems to need a bit of water.  Overwatering will make it grow too fast and make weak stems.  You can probably already tell that this particular plant has already been watered too much.  That middle stem is a giveaway.  They're usually low growing and clump.

I'm also going to have to make sure he gets plenty of sun when I can manage it.  They're desert plants and are used to sunny conditions.  Again it will keep it from getting too leggy.

Some plants Just Don’t Look Real

So we went all around Addison today and placed post card sized fliers about Amber's upcoming book launch party, signing, and chocolate related event.

One of the places we stopped at was 84 Point Coffee off of Midway Road. At first I though the plant must be a fake since it looked pretty unbelievable and it looked like it was just put on top of some coffee beans.

After looking around for a little bit though, as Amber took pictures of her coffee, the flier, and bookmarks we had with us, I began to realize that the rest of the plants seemed to be real enough.  Then I saw bits of it had turned brown and there were marks on it that wouldn't have be put on a fake plant even if they were trying to make it look authentic.

After a quick search I figure it's most likely a variety of haworthia, probably herbacea.  Yeah, I've never heard of such a thing before either but it seems to be related to aloe plants.  Those spikes feel more like rubber, thus my initial thought that the plant was probably a fake.

I had a short conversation with a coworker recently about how terrible fake plants are in an office.  They do the opposite of what real plants do.  They sit there, collect dust, and smell funny.  She had been in an office where the office manager just loved to get more and more fake plants to put everywhere.  When they finally closed that office the fake plants were so dusty you could see the clouds they gave off as they were trying to get rid of them.  It wasn't good.

This is one of many plants I will probably never get but it was neat to look at it for a while sitting in a coffee shop.  Go get some coffee and see if you agree.

Cacti

My wife went out today to the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens to help the Fort Worth Cactus and Succulent Society with its annual cleanup of the cactus area and greenhouse.

There are a lot of different kinds of cactus there including the ones shown here which overwintered in the greenhouse.

If you live in the area you too can check out a wide variety of these hardy plants either at the Botanical Gardens or if you want to take some home, which you can't do at the Botanical Gardens, you can check out the 28th annual show and plant sale which will be held at the Ridgemar Mall at I-30 and Gren Oaks Road in West Fort Worh. It will be going on May 6, 7 & 8, 2011 during regular hours. Not only can you buy them, you can also ask experts what to do with them. Some of the parts, like cactus tuna, are edible and quite tasty if you know how to prepare them.

p.s. No admission charge