Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens’ arid garden vandalised
Via the ABC.
Cacti in the Arid Garden were hacked with a sharp implement, such as a machete or axe, according to the garden’s staff.
About 80 per cent of the columnar cacti and succulents were attacked, staff said.
Many of the plants were more than 30 years old and the collection contained some rare and threatened species.
The garden’s chief executive, Tim Entwisle, says the damage had shocked staff and visitors.
He says it is difficult to comprehend.
“Someone’s come in overnight and they’ve just hacked away at some …

Two aloe butts worth checking out.
It’s Aloe Butt Day! So let’s celebrate with a couple pics of my two favourite aloes.
The top pic is a fan aloe (Aloe Plicatilis), it a massive old plant that has been moved around a lot.The other pic has an Aloe Ferox in the foreground with Cleistocactus strausii (silver torch or wooly torch) dominating a few cool cacti in he background.
Here’s some older pictures of the aloe’s flowering.

My favourite cactus flower is in magnificent bloom again. I love the lilac fringes. These flowers are tall trumpets.

Bees love my large Cerus cactus. Every morning the flowers are covered in bees. Their buzzing provides a wonderful song as they go about their busy work harvesting nectar.

As this next photo shows, my Cerus cactus is huge and is covered in flowers for about four weeks a year. It is one of the few times a year I see bees in my backyard, the other being when our large bottle brush tree is in flower.

As an avid cacti and succulent enthusiast I prefer form over flower. However, when the flowers come they really are spectacular.