cactophyle

That's nice!

No, it's a blue myrtle, but it's great for grafting. It's worth keeping.

My experience has been that the branches with hardly any spines are 15+ years old and will likely be heavy as heck, and have wooden vascular bundles in their cores. The skin even hardens and becomes corky at this age, making it impossible to work with. I prefer to work with much softer cuttings, so my recommendation is to pick from areas that look are younger and GREENER with normal spines. I'm not saying the older cuttings won't make a good mother plant. They certainly will. I'm just saying that I would prefer younger, more attractive, and lighter cuttings in my collection. I think it would be a big mistake to focus on getting the oldest material only. There is a myth that older cuttings are better and it is nothing but a myth. Genetics is what makes a plant beautiful in its own special way.

I would suggest a fourth option of maybe just getting down to 30mg a day and staying at that level for as long as you need. Then you can fade it out as slow as you want -- if your doctor will allow that. You can add low dose naltrexone to the methadone to help it fade out with minimal withdrawals. The docs would probably be very happy to know that you were so dedicated that you would take a daily opioid antagonist, and eventually you could build up to a higher dose of naltrexone that would block all opiate activity. That's what I'd do, but I wish you the best in whatever path you choose.

Actually, they do use falconeers (spelling?) at LaGuardia airport in New York. I saw a Discovery Channel type special once showing them using the falcons to scare away geese. The problem is that there are simply too many geese.

I'm no P. viridis expert, but doesn't that come from South America? Have you tried putting it in a humidity tent to see if those leaves lift up? G'luck!

Sounds like an expensive cafeine buzz to me. I like an energy/health drink called Zola that has Guarana, Acai, and Cane sugar in it. It's expensive too, but the Acai makes it worth it. You should try just drinking four cups of coffee, or some cafeine pills and see if the results are the same. Some people are more sensitive to cafeine and may have more noticeable effects, but I doubt "empathy" would be a commmon effect. Honestly, I think any items labeled "legal high" are a complete rip-off.

Yea, I almost forgot. The doc will probably want to do a blood test first to see if you have an iron deficiency, which can be the cause of RLS. If your iron is low then simply taking iron supplements may help. You could always take an iron supplement without seeing the doctor and see if things improve. I'm not big on supplements myself, they've never made a noticeable difference in my life.

It is definitely not a Stetsonia coryne. The ribs are too pointy, and S. coryne usually have brown spines at the top. S. coryne also has thicker spines with one being very long, which is why it is called the "toothpick cactus". I'm honestly not sure what that is, but I know it is also not a Trichocerus, "blue myrtle" (Myrtillocactus geometrizans), or "blue torch" (Pilosocereus azureus), which are pretty common. You can check www.columnar-cati.org to see if there is a match, but their pictures are usually of mature cacti, and not always labeled properly or good specimens IMO. At least there is a good list of columnar cactus genera there that can get you on your way if you really want to identify it.

That's quite a collection! It looks like you have a sh!t ton of spachianus, how did you get that many?

Requip should take care of the RLS. Clonazepam may be prescribed if insomnia is also a seperate problem. Good luck mate! Edit: If I recall correctly, opiates such as Hydrocodone actually relieve RLS well too. Withdrawal is far worse than RLS, IMO, that's why they actually call it "kicking the habit"...because your legs aren't just restless, they want to kick really hard...it is awful. And you would probably also have fever/chills and want to jump out of your skin because you feel so icky, so it would be hard to confuse with RLS I think.

Wow, I was under the impression that there were no recent books classifying cacti as thoroughly as The New Cactus Lexicon appears to do. My (non-botanist) impression has been that most people really aren't interested in cacti enough to classify them as thoroughly as other plants and animals have been already. I do know there is still plenty of work to be done, so I think it is a great area of study!

Trichocereus may be fast growing vertically, but they don't spread like Opuntias. Cholla and "Prickly Pear" break off and reroot, spreading like a weed. Unless they are disposing of the pieces properly then their efforts may just help to spread the plant further. For example, taking a golf club and knocking all the pads off of a prickly pear would just allow each pad to grow new roots wherever they landed.

I'm no botanist, but a cactus collector and enthusiast. I think a good starting point is Britton & Rose.

I agree that topical lidocaine is probably the best pharmaceutical. If codein doesn't work then I doubt any ingested material will (except stronger opiates, but that's just too drastic imo). I can't think of a natural topical ointment, but I'm sure it would be a 'pain' in the arse and messy to get it all over your back! There are freezer packs commonly used in physical therapy that cover the whole back, and I can tell you from experience that the make the entire back, especially the skin, very numb after only about five minutes. I would suggest you try this before and after the procedure and I bet it would work wonders.