Transcript:
Hi, friends! This is Carmen. Welcome back to my channel. If it’s your first time here, welcome. My channel is all about succulents and cacti in my balcony garden. Which is what I’m going to share with you today and house plants in an apartment setting. So if that’s something that interests you, and you want to learn some more about. Please make sure you hit that red. Subscribe button down below there before you leave. And if you enjoy this video, give it a thumbs up for me. That helps me out so much today. I am going to be sharing with you. Some of my stranger, things, some of my stranger, succulents and cacti. And I have a few of them. I have a little place in my heart for things That are a little bit wonky and a little bit strange. So I’m going to share with you today. The ones that I have so stay tuned and we’ll get to it. Okay, so I’ve been, Um, you know, slowly collecting cacti and succulents that are a little bit misshapen. I love crested cactus. If I can find it and things that just look a little bit strange and one of the great, um, characteristics of them other than they look strange is that they’re slow growing, so I can have them in a space, a small space and not worry about them out, growing that pot or outgrowing that space because they tend to be a little bit slower growing. I’m going to start off as usual with the smallest and work my way up to a big daddy that you’re going to be really impressed with, so lets. Start off with this little guy right here now. I have had this little guy going on three years and he’s grown. Probably I say about a third of what he is now. He’s grown and this is the serious for Bessie Monstrose. And the word monstrose can be applied to several serious type of cactus, and it basically just means this type of formation where it can grow out of a normal cacti, which I’ll show you a picture here What this normally looks like, and it can grow a kind of almost like an appendage that looks like this, but this one is a full one You can see, it’s even grown a couple of little arms there on the side, but it has been in this little pot. I have given it fresh soy. I think last year, um, and it sits out on my balcony. Year round, I don’t bring it in even in the summertime, and even if we get really cold snaps in the in the winter time, it stays out there. Slow, growing no spines on it. No prickly’s on it. So if I wanted to, I can touch it and it’s just so unusual now. Another one that’s very similar to that. Oh, and this is the Sirius Pruvianni’s monstrose. You probably heard of the serious priviana’s cacti kind of like apple cactus cacti. Well, this is a monstrous version of it again, very slow growing, and it’s probably I’ve had this one about the same time about three years, and it’s probably grown from here on up. It has grown another appendage and a little one down there that popped off that broke off a little arm and I just popped it back into the soil it rooted. And now I’ve got two. I do have a little bench there, a little fairy bench that I just put there to kind of take up that side of the pot because it was seem to be growing that way, but this one you can see has little red spines on it. They’re not prickly, They’re soft like little brushes really cool, and it’s just such an unusual plant gives me no fuss at all. This one stays outside year round with the other one. This is also called the Curiosity plant so you can see why, but it’s in a cactus soil that is very, very free draining in the summertime. I water. These probably about maybe every 7 to 10 days, depending upon the temperature in the winter time. Right now, I’m going way back because the soil just doesn’t dry out as quickly and probably about every 21 days to a month very unusual plant as I get soil everywhere. It’s all good, okay, now moving on from serious economics this here, you probably remember this from a recent haul I did. This is echinopsi’s caterpillar, cristada and doesn’t. It look like a little caterpillar. It has little fuzzies these. How, as I get one in my finger. These are not as soft as that curiosity plant. These little spines will poke you and it’s a little bit deceiving in the sense that it looks soft and you want to touch it, It’s it’s not, but it does look like a caterpillar. Um, almost even like a clam too. I think, but this economist here can grow very big, but it takes time. It takes a lot of time for it to get big, and I’ll show you some pictures. Here of some that are in the wild or in ground. That have grown very big, this one. Is, you know going to be in this pot for quite a while? I do have it in some fresh soil. This one here is in the tank’s green. Stuff cacti requires very little water about every 14 to 21 days in the summertime, even less in the winter time. Maybe once a month because it just doesn’t need it, it can go for a long time without water. So this is a great plant to have if you are forgetful about watering, but it does need bright light. All of these do need bright light they can take. I know they get about morning. Sun and, um, in the summertime When the sun is very harsh, I do cover them with an umbrella, but otherwise they do get morning sunlight and bright light in direct light, rather the rest of the time. So that is echinopsi’s caterpillar. Okay, now this one I’ve forgotten about this one. I have two of these. This is old man Cactus. And it is also an echinopsis. But look at how cool that is. I have two little old men, a little old man and a bigger old man, and they have just this fuzziness it’s easier to touch on the top. The fuzziness is soft, but within that fuzziness that’s hard to see are spikes That are pokey, and they won’t prick you, but you can see the lines in the center there in between the, um, texture or pattern, rather underneath all of that. What looks like hair which, you know is why it’s known as old man cactus. Because of all of that that hair, these are slow growing. This one has probably grown about an inch. In the two years I’ve had it. This one has grown probably about three inches in because I had this one first three inches in the three years. I’ve had it, um, and it’s theyre. Both I just recently well about six months ago. Put them both in this talavera pot Because it was empty and I was moving plants around. Oh, let’s put you guys together. You can hang out together, so I put them both in in this Talavera pot, get morning sun afternoon shade and they’re loving it very free draining cactus soil mix my mix, not the tank’s mix and eventually probably in the spring. I’ll switch them over. I’m not going to be re-potting anybody right now going into winter in the springtime, I will start switching them over, but this one is just really one that has no fuss. Sometimes if it’s windy, it will get some stuff stuck to it, and basically all I do. Is I use a brush because I don’t want to touch it with my fingers, so I’ll get a brush, paint brush and no paintbrush. I have several here and I’ll just brush that debris off because with the wind and everything, I’ve got a big pine tree right above my balcony and debris is always falling in my balcony and it can get stuck on these, so I just use a brush to take that off. So that’s my two little old men okay now. This one, it’s everything I thought you’ve probably seen in a recent haul, but I obviously it fits the category or theme of today’s video. Talk about weird and unusual stuff. This is my euphorbia lactia cristata. It is grafted onto another euphorbia. And I have it in this cement pot here and just move it a little bit closer. See if I can, and it’s just such an unusual looking plant. Some of the growth is coming in a little bit green as you can see there, which is unusual its growing arms. Some of it is a little bit more crested. Now I do have, um, the regular ghost plant, the regular euphorbia lactia ghost plant that has arms that look very similar to this. But, um, you know, right here you can see where it’s much more of a crested form, and it has the different color variations, the white, the pink as in the ghost plant. Also, the pink signifies where there’s growth where the, uh, plant is active and it’s going to be growing. So I’m glad to see that it has a lot of pink. It can also be a little bit of sun stress because this does get morning sun, but it’s developed such a wonderful coloring and the top portion. Right here you can see that It’s developed a green and white or cream color variation. Really cool, so definitely fits the theme. Don’t you think my lactia, chris, euphorbia lecter christata. So it’s doing beautifully out there on the balcony? Now, let me get the last one. This is a heavy one. Gosh, break my lazy Susan here. Okay, this one. I know I have not shown you before. This is a plant that I’ve had probably going on five years. Now, Rosie, no scratching. I’ve had it for about five years now. It was one of the first cacti that I bought. When after I moved out of my home and I was going into apartment life and live, You know, life in the balcony and stuff. And it was about this size right here. It has grown this entire arm in that time. This did I tell you what this is. Sorry, this is a needs needle. This is an Eve’s needle now. Eve’s needles are, um, normally cylindrical and I’ll show you a picture here. They’re cylindrical with these little rubbery looking spikes on them, but this is a crested eaves needle. These are not hard to find. I got this at Lowe’s in their clearance section. It was on clearance because on the back side here. It had some sun damage, but I didn’t care. I thought you know what you’re beautiful. Just the way you are, and I’m gonna take you home and you’re gonna grow and be happy and that’s what it’s been doing for the last almost five years with me. It has new growth growing inside there in between that huge arm whenever there’s very green areas that means in little spikes like this, that means it is actively growing and yes. It had some sun damage back. Here, you know, but I. When I put it on my balcony on the shelf, it’s on the top shelf. I face it this way, so you know, he doesn’t have to show that side of him, but this is such an unusual plant and I just like to see over the years how it grows. You know what formation it’s going to take? This part right here. Almost looks like a cup formation. It’s it’s concave. It’s just so unusual. So like I said you can get these at Lowe’s. I have seen them in little four-inch pots, little smaller versions of them. This one is big. This is a what an 8-inch pot Azalea pot, It’s shorter, it did not have very long roots on it or a huge root system, but it has been in this pot. Um, three years now. I think I repotted it. Once it really started to grow, took it out of the six inch container was in and put it in this eight inch Azalea pot, which I’ve told you before Friends. Azalea Pots are shorter, They’re great for cactus and succulents, because they don’t have big root systems. Oh, I’ve got a prickly on me. They don’t have big root systems. So, um, you can put them in there and they’ll do wonderfully. They do have little tiny spines. They may not look it because they have these little rubbery things up top, but in between here, they’re very tiny. And if you go to touch it, they will grab onto your fingers. I have, you know, done that. Before and later on, I’m like what is on my fingers and it’s a little spine from this, but that this one is my favorite of all of my crested ones, because it’s my largest, and it’s just really phenomenal. So there you have it. Those are the ones that are in my collection as far as strange, weird cacti shapes and succulent shapes. Um, I’m always on the lookout for them. If I see something unusual or crested, you know, I am all over it, so I’m always looking to add to my collection, so thanks so much friends. I appreciate your watching my video today. If you enjoyed it, remember to give it a thumbs up. I will catch you in the next video. Have a blessed day. Bye bye now!