Sometimes God Whaps You in the Face..

For a couple years now it seems just before we have to pay smog on a car, it breaks down, or if I buy a large plant, our car breaks down. So I've been resorting to buying things online and on Ebay. There is one vendor of epiphyllums on ebay which I've ordered from about 20 times in the last few months. It seems when I'd get one order, it was time to send in a money order for another. This time we've been without a car for about 6 weeks. A friend of ours gave us a car, but then asked for it back. We had it for about a week before having to return it, just long enough to buy a huge hoya at Grow Nursery. I hope we get a car soon, because he called me last week and has an order of epiphyllums waiting for me to pick up. Maybe one day I'll learn.

On Saturday I was lamenting the loss of our car, and not being able to go to town, we live 30 miles from the nearest grocery store, my husband calls me outside in a frantic tizzy. I run, waddle more like it, outside to see what he's all fired up about, then he points to the wall. Right below the porch light was a cross. It was beautiful. I knew God was in control, and even if I didn't like it, he'd make sure we got food. I hope we get a car soon because our washer broke last week and we've been washing by hand. My uncle offered the use of his washer, but although he's sweet and kind, he's really weird.

My uncle has been working on a car my grandfather is giving us. He has been for the last few weeks. Apparently the only thing it needs is a new steering column. I don't know enough about cars to know for sure, but I'd assume it should take about a week max to finish. He's been working on it for a week now. I'm supposed to pick up my 9 year old daughter at the train station today. So I asked him how much longer, he said that my grandfather told him not to worry about it, I don't know what that means, but ok. Last night I went outside to check my plants one last time for the night and I smelled something akin to roses with baby powder. I looked very carefully and my Hoya shepherdii was hiding a few blooms in the recesses of it's pot. Sometimes when things are going rough, God makes sure you find little things that are enjoyable.

I just got a call from my friend's niece, apparently her grandmother died last night and my friend hasn't been told yet. She asked me to call her after she found out. What an ugly affair. I hope my friend's sisters tell her where the funeral will be. This could be her breaking point. I hope not, she loved her grandmother. I pray that God gives her the strength and need to go on.

How It All Began

I have always had a love for nature. When I was little my Great Grandmother had a huge opuntia in her front yard and Naked Lady Amaryllis next to it. Every year she would have one of her sons cut the opuntia half way down, the pads would sit in the yard until somebody decided to throw them over the back fence. Since her property backed up to the creek bed the opuntia cuttings helped prevent animals from getting her chickens. I remember her swinging those chickens by the head to break their neck so that she could boil them into stew. When she died the opuntia was cut down and never seen again. My grandparents got some of the naked lady bulbs, which I now have a few of my own from her bulbs. Since I lived with my mom in one of my grandmother's houses, I couldn't have any of the opuntia.
My grandmother has a mint plant she curses ever planting, and has never let me grow any where I'm at, so I grow my mint in pots. It's not happy, but at least I have some. I would love to release it from it's confinement unit (pot) and let it run free! However I live in one of my grandparents' rentals and must abide by their rules. I have a love for all the plants she hates. I am down to four different mints, but at one time had over 35. I have been collecting opuntias also, and have about 15 different kinds, all in pots, waiting to be release out of their confinement. I may plant their seeds just to see if they will come up.
Another bane to my grandmother is 4 o'clocks. I love these easy to grow plants, they make huge tuberous roots. I have a few dug up that I planted 15 years ago, they have fairly large roots, but I'm thinking I must have got the edge of the group, because, they could be bigger. I want to try making a caudex out of them. It will be fun to see how it works out.
None of those compare to my real love in the plant world, jungle cactus. Epiphyllums are hybrids between epiphytic cactus and land cactus, most don't even have 1/10th epiphyllum in them, but they are called epiphyllums nonetheless. Schlumbergera the Christmas or Thanksgiving cactus started appealing to me, I have 15 of them now. Rhipsalis is a smaller cousin to epies. I fell in love with this plant when I bought about 5 pots of one from the plant shop at Cal Poly SLO a few years ago. I was thinking it looked like a plant I had called Epiphyllum oxypetallum, aka Queen of the Night. Which has enormous white flowers during the night, mine traveled with me from Tennessee to California when we were coming home. It didn't survive the winter.
A local nursery had a plant that looked like my oxy. When I asked about it, it turned out to be "Padre." I bought a cutting. Then I went back and got more and more, until I had a small plant of it.

I found another nursery which had a lot of epies, I bought a few cuttings. I was on my way! One day I was researching epiphyllums to see if I could find another, low and behold I came across a forum just for epiphyllums, so I joined. I was able to expand my collection, I have an epi called "Clarabella", my great grandmother was named Clara Belle. She and her twin sister both got a letter and picture of Ronald Reagan for their 98th birthday. Anyway, I gave a cutting of it to my mom, her plant looks way better than mine and she neglects things until they die, I hope she doesn't kill this plant.
I've lost a bunch of plants this last winter, mostly epies and rhipsalis. So I started again. This spring I remembered the old "Padre" so I went to the nursery with intent on buying it for whatever she'd take. It was frost damaged really bad, She gave me the whole plant for $5! I was able to salvage one cutting off of it. Sad but it was a beautiful plant, but I got some of it anyway. I hope one day Padre will look as beautiful as it did last summer.
Two years ago I found an old picture of an epi my other great grandmother had on her porch. This started another search, I was told this plant could be "Guatemala" an older hybrid. I have searched for this plant for two years. I finally found and bought a cutting on eBay for $25. It came with other cuttings, but this was the crown jewel! I can't wait to get it planted. Last month I got a plant of "Zola" I had been looking for this one for a year, this is just as exciting. I feel that my collection is and could now be complete. I hope so, since I have over 100 different epies, and by the size of the above plant, I am going to need a huge greenhouse to confine them all. Well, that's how it began, I was drawn to cactus by my inability to have some of Grandma's opuntia, other plants because grandma hates them and because I had an amazing bloom about 7 years ago one summer evening.