Well...I celebrated 'cause it's my birthday. But, re: the prickly pear, I placed a piece in the ground about 5 yrs. ago and it has spread quite a bit since. Great blooms, but you've got to be very careful around them, with the invisible stickers.

Happy birthday!
Yeah, those pickly pears have some vicious stickers not because they are big and painful, but because they are so small and about as thin as a strand of hair. They easily detatch from the plant also. I repotted the cactus using several paper towels and a shovel, but some good gardening gloves are usually good enough to keep the thorns from getting to you. The flowers look so nice in the pics I see and I hear that it also fruits. I wonder if the seeds inside the fruit are viable or if the fruit is edible. Another plus is that they are native and its nice to have a native plant that few people see around the area.

Good luck!

Hi
You can get them without the thorns . I sort of like the fruit but the leaves are rather bland to me.
For "Earth Day I actually weeded some of my garden . Some of my neighbors applauded lol gary

Thanks for the great plant show. I think you have to throw a palm photo in there b/c we're the palm forum..lol. Its certainly the nicest Spring I recall with consistent temps in the 60s to 70 almost every day.

We did not get much from the Thunder-cloud yesterday but my mom on Long Island's south shore was slammed with a major T-storm.

TZ7,

Happy Earth Day to you as well!!!

Love the pictures...especially the Camellia!!!

I spent the day watering all of my palms, repotting plants, buying all of the herbs that I like and making up my seaweed mix with all of the extras ( B-1 superthrive) for my Plumerias!!! Smelly mess but good for my Plumies!!!

Hope everyone had the chance to get outside and enjoy the sunshine!!!

Laura in VB

Thanks for the comments!

Garyfla, Glad to hear they are edible. I dont plan on eating the fruit, but its good to know anyway. Weeding is a great way to celebrate earthday. Im pretty sure a lot of the common weeds are not native species so getting rid of them gives native plants less competion. Plus they look pretty ugly.

Greg. Yep since this is a palm fourm I should probably show a pic of at least one of my palms, so here is a pic of my areca that I bought a few weeks ago. Also comming in the mail is a pindo palm (to replace the potted pindo palm that died) and sabal domingensis (which I might try in the ground when its a little older). As for the pindo palm that survived the witner, its doing really well and is finally starting to grow some new leaves.

Heres that pic of the new areca...

Laura, Glad you like the pics. The camellia isnt blooming as much now and only has a few buds left. New leaves are comming up now which always happens right after it finishes flowering. I gave my plumerias some miracle grow, but I think they want more and might be looking for something better to start them off. Where did you get the seaweed extract. I can only imagine how bad that probably smells (probably like raw fish) but it seems to help them out a lot. I wonder if it works for palms also. I still have lots to do with my plants.
Right now I think my double peach hibiscus has impressed be the most as far as growth. It lost all its leaves indoors because of countless bug problems. Then in march it saw 28F and only had one leaf and a tiny flower bud left. Now only one month later it has leaves emerging everywhere and the single flower bud that has been on the plant since november is still there and is getting closer to blooming. My coconut is also growing pretty fast despite the recent lack of really warm weather. As for my other plants they are alive and mostly green, but not growing too much yet. Last frost date this year in my area was March 27 which is about a week or 2 early compared to average. Lowest temp in april has been 40F which is pretty good for april. Usually there is at least one or 2 nights in the upper 30s, but we got lucky this year.

Good luck!

Hey TZ7,

I purchase my liquified seaweed, fish emulsion, B-1, superthrive (also ST can be found at super Walmart in the gardening section) cocowet, cal mag, at my local Hydroponics store. Check to see if you have one nearby...You can also purchase them online (Kimis Plumeria) if i'm not mistaken. But I do recall that they are available if you can't find them locally. Yes, the formula smells terrible!!! Especially the fish emulsion!! The Superthrive smells pretty bad as well!!! I do use the Superthrive on my potted palms and sometimes use the fish and or the seaweed. But most of the time, all of the brew is used on the plumerias. I'm sure all of the neighborhood cats come around at night looking for a treat with that odor!!! But it's all good stuff and the smell goes away after a day or two. I def- wouldn't use indoors or even in my greenhouse.

The P- love it and respond to the mix pretty quickly.
If you need more info, you know that I will gladly pass it along... You can always reach me by email or here!!!

Take Care,

Laura in VB

Thank you so much! Some of my plumerias are getting a really slow start this year and Im afraid if they dont get some good growth soon, they wont flower until late summer if at all. In going to look around for some of the things you mentioned. The grocery stores by me have some pretty interesting things for the garden so maybe they have that too. I just got an Aloe for 2.99, not bad! Anyway, I will definitely be looking for something to speed the plumerias up. The espom salt is working to some degree, but just not enough.
Thanks again, if I have any questions I will email you but Ill tell you if I find it!

Good luck, looking forward to seeing some pics of blooming plumerias from you! Sounds like you are doing everything right :)