Spike

Many years ago, Eleanor gave me a cutting from her cactus plant.  When it grew and matured, it produced a beautiful red flower.  Its bloom is very like the lovely, waxy bloom of the night-blooming cereus, except that this lovely flower is red. 

As it bloomed more and more, my husband took notice of this plant and really liked it.  He liked to hang it in one of the arches on our front porch during summer months.  When we had a lot of work done on our porch, the man who did the work brushed up against this plant a few times.  Unfortunately, this plant has oodles of really sharp thorns.  Therefore, our carpenter named the cactus, Spike.  My husband liked that name for it.

Now Spike is so big that he needs to be repotted. His roots have filled the planter which is home for him.  He has to be in a hanging basket because his greenery trails down over the sides of the basket.

Yesterday I did the first step to transplanting Spike.  I put on a heavy coat and wore a glove and took the plant to the porch where I perched it on the porch rail while I trimmed back the dead parts and shaped it to be more easily handled.  I watered it thoroughly. But I brought it back indoors without transplanting it because it was too cold to keep working out there.

Even though I wore a glove, I got thorns in my paw!  I had to stop often and remove them and when it was all over, I still had several thorns to remove.  This morning I found one last thorn in my finger and I got that thorn out a few minutes ago. 

The problem is:  I still have to repot that plant when the weather gets warmer.  I'll be dealing with those thorns all over again.  However, those beautiful flowers are worth the trouble.

Posted by: NJ on 3/29/2005 7:50:37 AM , 2 comments