The Wandering Minstrel

Posted by Minstrel on 05 May 2011

I don’t have any shots of the landscape crew (2 guys) digging up the cactus in nearby Congress, AZ, but I think that the slideshow should depict the arrival, the root system and the process of placing it into the ground.

5 Responses to “How Saguaro Happens”

drjim on 06 May 2011 at 1923 #

I thought they were “endangered” or something?
Guess not!
If you don’t mind, what did that big boy cost?

Minstrel on 06 May 2011 at 1930 #

Arizona requires a permit for *EVERY* saguaro that gets moved, regardless if it’s on private property or not. Not endangered, but closely managed.

It was a *BARGAIN* at $1.2K - could have cost twice as much but we were in a position to help our landscape guy out. Mature (> 75 years old) can cost to $250 per foot. We’re not complaining, that’s for sure.

drjim on 07 May 2011 at 1214 #

Ahhh….”regulated”. Well, at least they let you do things with them instead of just saying “NO!” outright.
Can you propagate them with their sprouts, or buds, or whatever they call them?

Minstrel on 07 May 2011 at 2018 #

According to Desert Tropicals:

The Saguaro blooms in May to June. The flower bearing areoles are closer together and have denser yellowish acicular spines. The flowers open in the evening and stay open until mid day the following day, 4 to 4.8 inches long (10-12 cm), 3.6 to 4.8 inches in diameter (9-12 cm). Bats and doves are the main pollinators. The greenish to reddish edible fruit ripens a month later and can be eaten raw or made into jam and pastries. It has a red pulp and black seeds and when the fruit is half-eaten by the wild life, with the distance, it looks like a red flower.

The seeds are extremely small and the seedlings stay extremely small for several years. You can keep a small saguaro for years in a pot, before it grows too big.

drjim on 07 May 2011 at 2102 #

Cool.