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Leaf-heads,
Happy fall Equinox and welcome to issue #5 of our newsletter.
The Specimen Monthly features newsworthy plant specimens, as well as odds and ends and updates from our studio.
Thank you for reading, and keep an eye out as we will be sending a new issue once a month (or so).
Love,
Cactus Store
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U P D A T E S
- A presentation of Zombie Ants, Killer Mushrooms, and Beautiful Music at Cactus Store Studios, Sept 28th in Los Angeles: Tickets
- Cactus Store NYC has a busy final few weeks of events (closes Oct 2!), all free and open to the public. See the full calendar here
- We just added some new clothes to our little shop in the cloud, please take a gander and buy your best friend a little something.
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THE END OF SUMMER
Our NYC greenhouse will soon be going dormant again as winter nears and Jack Frost dispatches his teeth-chattering cryogenic curse on the great city. Incredibly, this will mark the end of our 5th growing season at 5 Essex St.
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5 Essex St., 2016
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5 Essex St., 2017
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5 Essex St., 2022
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There are still some plants in need of a new home before we close for the season on October 2. As such, our great adoption event begins Saturday, September 24th: all plants in our NYC greenhouse will be 25% off, and clothing and pots will be 15% off.
A modest ransom for a new green besty, wouldn't you say?
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THE BEGINNING OF FALL
As the dog days of summer begin to wane, nature’s humblest of heralds, the diminutive Ornithogalum britteniae, a veld plant from South Africa, pushes out her dainty first leaves to signal that something momentous is about to transpire. The advent of Fall.
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Seasonal transitions are always exciting times in a greenhouse. Autumn is when "summer growing" plants drop their tired leaves and beget final fruits, and when “winter growing” plants shed their protective cuticles and emerge with a yawn from summer’s long slumber.
This means a shift in how we need to care for these precious plant beings. For cactus we reduce waterings as we tuck them in for winter’s night, and for those plants that are just waking up from their summer dormancy we need to start preparing them for a new season of growth.
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TIPS FOR WINTER GROWERS
You'll know that your winter grower is waking up when things start to happen; the beginnings of new leaves or perhaps the inkling of a vine.
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• Like a bear emerging from hibernation, your plant is probably thirrrsssty! Go easy at first, giving it just enough water to moisten the soil because its roots need time to wake up. After about 2 weeks, discontinue this gentle approach and start in with more thorough evening soaks.
• For Xeric plants make sure to let the soil dry out completely between each soak. If temps dip below 50, bring your green friend inside until the soil is mostly dry (xeric plants HATE cold wet feet). If you live in Antarctica or some other god-forsaken ice forest, a sunny windowsill is probably a better spot that outside exposed to the elements.
• In So-Cal we use Halloween to April Fools as a rough gauge for the Fall/Winter season, but these dates fluctuate depending on a variety of factors. Pay attention to the weather, and most importantly, to your plant. She will usually tell you what she wants. When in doubt, call a friend who knows.
*These rules apply to a broad spectrum of shrublike winter growers. However, for some of the more unusual geophytes like Lithops and Conophytum, the rules are different. Likewise, always do your homework.
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TAMING OF THE SCHMOO
Speaking of winter growers, one of our absolute favorites is Muiria hortenseae, affectionately dubbed “the Shmoo”, is a runty pimple of a plant that populates South Africa’s Succulent Karoo (see Evan’s field report on the Karoo below).
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Although a resolute survivor in its habitat, keeping Muiria alive in cultivation is like getting blood out of a stone, damn near impossible. So difficult that befuddled growers the world over have resorted to all manner of shenanigan hoping to crack the Muira code, from flooding the plant, to starving it, to adding salt, battery acid, and even Gatorade to the water!
Perhaps Muiria’s difficulty is connected to the fact that it’s a monotype. For context, humans are monotypes. So are giraffes (we love monotypes so much we just made a T-Shirt about them). Being the sole species in your genus often means playing by your own rules. Or maybe, as one fretted grower suggested, they simply hate the human touch. But the Shmoo’s difficulty is also her charm. Too-much and also not-enough water both seem to kill it, with only a hair’s breadth margin of error. Another peculiarity of this plant is that, in cultivation, their flowers are often born by cesarean section. What I mean is, they don’t like to pop out on their own, so growers will actually make tiny incisions in the epidermis to help its flower emerge.
We strongly advise against trying to grow Muiria, as the attempt will surely trigger you into a bottomless depression. If however you are like us, totally lacking of sound mind, we got you. We've put two up for sale on the ol webstore
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FIELD REPORT: SOUTH AFRICA
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• Reports from our far flung flock of foliage freaks.
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South Africa: Karoo
Our friend Evan from the Theodore Payne Foundation sends evidence of alien life living in South Africa’s Succulent Karoo, an ecoregion that boasts the richest diversity of succulent plants in the known universe. A place teeming with winter-growing plants.
See the Full Report
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LECTURE: ZOMBIE ANTS, KILLER MUSHROOMS, & BEAUTIFUL MUSIC
If you live in Los Angeles you won't want to miss this! Giving our loyal newsletter readers first dibs on tickets (limited capacity!)
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On Wednesday, September 28th, we are hosting a lecture and musical event at our private studio/ greenhouse in Glassell Park, Los Angeles. The hyper talented William Padilla-Brown will be presenting on Cordyceps, everyone’s favorite zombie mushroom, after which our friend Olive Ardizoni, who goes by the moniker Green-House, will perform songs for the plants living in our own greenhouse while us humans wander and talk and consume complimentary drinks and snacks. A mushroom display with free boxes of edible mushrooms will be provided by our buds at Smallhold.
William Padilla-Brown is a legend in the mycology world. A multi-disciplinary citizen scientist, vlogger, writer, and lecturer whose broad palette of interests include mycology, molecular biology, permaculture, psychoactive cannabis resin, social science and psychology. Padilla-Brown wrote the first books in English on Cordyceps cultivation, has taught at universities including Cornell’s Small Farms Program, and conducts research for MUDwtr, Mydecine, Oxford Nanopore, MiniPCR, ExtractCraft, and OmegaBiotek.
This event is private, and space is limited. RSVP here.
$10/ TICKET.
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O D D I T I E S
• Some recent creations from our studio, more can be found at CACTUS.STORE
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Taxa Shirt 9: Insect Zombification by Cordyceps Fungi
A shirt to accompany William Padilla-Brown’s Cordyceps lecture at Cactus Store Studio on September 28th. This parasitic fungus commandeers the bodies of insects and turns them into zombies for doing the mushroom’s bidding. William is a kahuna in the mycology world and wrote the first books in English on cultivating Cordyceps. You don’t want to miss this one. If however you can’t make it out, get the shirt!
Price: $45
PURCHASE
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Taxa Shirt 10: The Monotypes
Question: What do platypuses and narwhals, and bird-eating Cephalotus plants, and the Allantomyces fungus that lives in the hindgut of a mayfly, giraffes, and humans all have in common?
Answer: The’re all "monotypes." The only species in their genuses.
This shirt is our homage to organisms that breathe the rarified Boschean air of the monotype, like that adorable venomous aquatic mammal with a duck’s bill that secretes milk from her fur because she has no nipples, or that clawless hairless bipedal monkey with a huge head, a symbol-based language, and a mouth full of cavities that stares back at you when you look in the mirror.
Price: $52
PURCHASE
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Gordon's Mesembs Shirts
Mesembs are some of our favorite winter growers, as seen on the vanity plate to our work truck. Of the 1,782 species of mesemb in our galaxy, 96% of them live in South Africa’s Succulent Karoo.. They come in every color and shape, and all of them are absolutely adorable. Whenever I see a plump little mesemb, all I want to do is touch it, squish it, or feel it burst between my teeth.
Price: $45
PURCHASE
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Stapeliad Shirts
Five hand-embroidered tees, each unique, each featuring a different species of Stapeliad, each lovingly stitched by the steel fingered Rosie Casey.
Hand dying, sketching, and finally putting hundreds of thread through t-shirt, Rosies interpretations of our favorite succulent plants are an earthworms delight. Check out her latest series of Stapeliads she did for the New York Store crew (it took them 3 months to finally decide what plants they wanted to do). Dyed naturally by Casey with good old Cochineal.
PRICE: $220
NYC Store Exclusive !
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Other Plants:
This is a rare offering of an ancient seed grown specimen from seed collected 25 years ago by our friend on an expedition to Chile with Rudolph Schulz. This plant is only recommended for the experienced grower and has "trophy table" potential. A perfect, clean specimen.
Notice: New plants posted weekly, also available in person at Cactus Store Echo Park and NYC.
PURCHASE
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CS Pots:
We know the online Pot store has been a bit bare recently... we've been slammed with lots of custom pot orders, but more are coming soon we promise! In the meantime, if you are interested in any large custom work please email the maestro at ilis@hotcactus.la
Notice: New pots posted weekly, also available in person at Cactus Store Echo Park
PURCHASE
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Thank you for reading,
Feel free to drop us a line with any questions, comments or compliments: boss@hotcactus.la
Wormly,
C.S.
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