Kosmik

When I'm at Home Depot, I always check the garden department. This usually leads to disappointment at this time of year, as outdoors there are few plants. Indoors there is usually a decent collection of houseplants though, along with some sad cactus displays.

Yesterday though, I saw something interesting. By "interesting" I mean "crazy".

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Here's another view:

What could these possibly be?

Oh, they're Kosmik Kactus. That explains it. But what are they actually?

This is apparently Echeveria shaviana, a plant which I'm pretty certain doesn't grow in bright purple or orange colors like this. (They're very orange -- my phone camera didn't accurately portray how orange they are.)

The deep chocolate color is nice though, almost nice:

These have been watered with dyes I imagine. What else could it be?

What about these guys next to the Echeveria?

They look totally natural to me! What are they?

I love when I'm watching a nature program about the desert and see such a wide variety of cactus and other desert flora. The subdued but varied tones, so many shades of browns and reds and greys -- the masses of pink and aqua cactus are especially beautiful when viewed in their native surroundings!

I think I'd rather have an encounter with a Teddy bear cholla than have to look at these every day. (Okay, maybe not.)

Actually, this one doesn't look too bad:

I suppose that these have also been dyed in some way, as the display label (on the Kosmik Kactus sign from the previous image) says "new spines emerge as a glistening white or gleaming yellow". In other words, this plant won't look anything like this in time. You're essentially paying for a gimmick.

These are not really my thing, but I suppose if they get somebody interested in plants who was not previously a plant person, then maybe Kosmik doesn't necessarily mean "bad".


So what do you think: interesting, or just plain ugly?

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