Hotglued flower

Hi, I was given a small dish garden with a small cactus in it and there's a flower hotglued to the top of it. So what would be the best way to remove it with minimal harm to the cactus? I thought about trying to pry it off with a butter knife, but I don't know if that would work or not......Any ideas?

Thanks,
Steven

Hi Steven, I've bought those too, and how easy it is to get off depends a lot on how big a glob of glue the morons used, and where it stuck. If it's really stuck, I take a small x-acto knife and heat it up in a candle flame so the blade is warmed up. It seems to make the knife glide a lot more easily through the glue blob. Slow and careful, and sometimes you can get it off without pulling off any of the spines. If you lose a few spines it really won't hurt the health of the plant, but the spines won't grow back, so I try to be as careful as I can.

I totally despise this practice of glued-on flowers, but it seems to be with us forever! I think it's false advertising, and of course it's not good for the plants. I would love to hot glue fake flowers into the hair of whatever marketing genius thought this up!!! Humph!
Sheri

So true, I have been in the plant section and heard ladies commenting on the "pretty flowers".....they are so shocked when I tell them they are fake...I wonder just how many poor unsuspecting people fall for this ploy? Such a sad practice.

My favorites are the Mamms with a nice ring of real pink buds forming, topped by a shocking yellow fake bloom plopped on top. Looks sad to me, but I'll bet those are the ones that ones sell first! Next they'll have Mamms with blinking lights, or fake blooms that glow in the dark. That's the ticket! :-)

Sheri

The flower is glued right smack on the top of the little barrel type cactus :( So it has to come off! I'll get a picture of it later so we can find out what type it actualy is.
I am glad the flower on mine doesn't glow in the dark, LOL, but if they actualy did that I bet it would sell like mad. "The new cactus with glow-in-the-dark-blooms!!!"

I'll try the warm knife later when nobody else is around, cause if somebodys there they'll be like a back seat driver :)

Steven

Uhoh ~ don't get Chantell started on the hot-glued flowers ~ she will forever be known as the "Masked Cacti Avenger", with her cape, stockings, tool-belt and tweezers - stalking the WM, HD and Lowes employees and removing the little straw flowers behind their backs!

hahahahahahahaha
Oh you girls, I've been one of those unsuspecting souls before that didn't know that the flowers were glued on. haha So much for my bifocals now huh?
Laura

Now ya'll know I simply could NOT - NOT comment when seeing this thread!!! I'm gonna picket one of those nurseries some day...sign will read "Just say NO to FO-flowers" mercy...how'd they like me to GLUE something on them...eh? Sheri's idea sounds perfect...I grab my tweezers (ha, you thought Becky was kidding didn't you?) and start to the side of the glue blob and gently lift...sometimes some of the spines come out but I've not been left with gaping holes to date.

Hi Steven,

I also dream of Medieval tortures for the people who do this. For one thing if glued right to the growing center of a cactus tip, damage can occur and the plant may grow strangely after that. Fortunately the epidermis of some cacti is somewhat smooth and waxy and the plastic flowers probably come off without too much damage. I think Chantells method is probably the best. But when faced with a plant that is exceptionally spiny or furry you may lose some of that and a small scar will be left. Fortunately with most cacti, especially the globular type, the older growth tends to "roll under" (can't think of a better term) as the plant grows. Eventually, when repotting you, can plant the cactus a little deeper in the pot and hide the scars with gravel. With the columnars howhever the scars are permanent and perpetually visable on the sides of the stem.

Thank goodness I've never come across this practice in Tucson. I think I would be tempted to hot glue a plastic flower to somebodies nose, LOL.

Dave

Thanks everybody!
I removed the flower with scissors, snipping through the blob of glue. It's not that spiney so I think I'm going to use Chantell's method with the tweezers to get the rest off. The cactus is fairly smooth and waxy so I hope it doesn't come off too bad.

Steven

Chantell

After giggling my way through your posts last year I found myself taking the flowers off cacti in my local WM this year.....I almost had a heart attack when I thought I had removed a real 1/2 blooming bud- then realized that it was just a soggy strawflower that had just been watered!

Still don't have my cape.....

hee hee

Erin

heehee! Love the comments!! Someday we will be reading in the news of members of this Forum being hauled away by big box store's secret police, to the local pokey, kicking and
slashing out with tweezers convulsively clicking madly.....

Oh Erin! I did this in Lowe's this past weekend. I actually WAS shopping for more plants, so as I picked them up and checked them out I pinched off that horrid straw flower and tossed it behind the shelving. "Nope.. don't care for that one. Nope.. not to my taste. Nope.. too many spines. Nope.. not enough spines." I gradually made my way through the display and happily left them in a much more natural state. Of course I couldn't get all of them off because I didn't have my "Chantell tools" with me and probably would have been arrested for damaging the goods if I had!!
Sheri, I used your method just this afternoon to remove the remains of a monsterous glob of glue from one. Took me a while to figure out how to hold the pot, the magnifying glass, the exacto knife and my tongue in just the right place to get the job done right, though! ;)

Barb

LOL! Sue... speaking of...

the sad part is that I would need my reading glasses to see the glue :)

OMG...ya'll are too funny!!! Poor Steven....he didn't know the Pandora's Box he was opening, did he? Hmmm, I've been thinking...we should do another co-op...this time it will include capes/tweezers/needle nose pliers....what else will we "need?"

A mask? HEHEHEHEHE!!

Marilyn (note the name change, left!!)

And why did it not change to TE?

And we need them lovely looking spandex hoses to go with outfit - cammie or any other fashionable color that might go with the masked, C&S avenger group that is slowly and quietly establishing itself all over the US. "From sea to shining sea, we shall rise and avenge ALL glued, under/over watered and otherwise mistreated C&S!"

Becky

Yes...I love green and black...my fav colors!!! Ummm, Marilyn is this a case of multiple personality disorder or did I miss something along the way? Ok....we ALL need "code names" - I'll be the "executer" (of fo-flowers of course) or is that tor? Or maybe something short like OT, since it's what I do best...sorry Steven.


This message was edited Apr 16, 2007 7:11 PM

Hehe, I'll be the "foreign fraction" - pronouncer of all names unpronounceable!

Ditto to Steven, we are hopeless with hijacking threads! But, to our defence, when it comes to hot glued straw flowers/rocks we are slightly rabid and can't help ourselves!

I'll be the Caped Comedic Crusader ..... or is that the Spastic Sarcastic Superstealth....hmmm......

Erin

You guys are just WAAAY too funny!

Marilyn

I dont want to impose any medieval tortures on them I just want to hot glue one of those straw flowers to their @#$ hole and see if they like it!!!! I hope the moderators dont find that too offensive and give me the boot but if they collected cactus and had to remove a few of those things i'm sure they'd feel the same way!!

dmichael

Complain to the suppliers. Not here. Norma

If you ever get to actually do that pls take a movie clip
IIl pay good $$ for it LOL!! 8D

Norma - everyone's just venting that's all. But that's an idea...we'll start a petition and send it to the guilty growers!!!

uh, Is poor Steven, the innocent soul that started this thread still here? lol! He didn't know what a sore point this topic is! sue aka The testy tweezer terminator of fo-fleurs....

so I was in wal-mart just now, peeking around the cactus rack pallet (which they always position so that two sides are blocked by other displays....plants still on the shelves...

I started talking to one of the employees because she was nice enough to fetch a stepstool for me so I could see the top shelf that had oodles of big succulents for the scanty price of $2.88 (I'm 5'8"...those plants shouldn't be up there if they want to sell 'em). anyway, she pointed me over to a new pallet of c&s that JUST arrived. with glee I went to check out what was there (again, two sides blocked). she followed me over there because she was clearly bored with no customers, so we started talking about the plants there. thinking of this thread, I made mention to her about the glue-on flowers. she promptly started plucking them off all the plants!!!

and I would like my super-hero crime-fighting costume to have a cape and a hat with a big flower spike

great post! now if we could only get the WM employees to water the poor things once in awhile! Mine takes "dry" to more than desert conditions...poor things...you are right, those stupid tiered displays block light perfectly, of course they then put them in a shady low light area to boot! sheesh!

I used the tweezers and picked the blob of glue off! It came off fairly easy with only a little scaring :)

Thanks everybody for your help!
Steven

Just a quick update, I took the cactus out for the summer and it's regrown it's lost spines and repaired itself quite nicely!

That is good to hear.

Welcome back, by the way.

This was so fun to read, we all think the same and I too have stood and picked some off in Walmart or HD. I love what dmichael said! ; )

hi, y'all
if you get the avengers going on this again I'm sure it will be worth a few belly laughs.....

time to get the tweezers and capes out of storage, the C & S will be showing up in HD, Lowes, Target and Wallyworld soon, there are little spiney lives to save!

Steven - great job!!!

Erin - who ya referring to....eh? LOL Yes the shipments are coming...the shipments are coming...

heh heh heh

sorry didn't mean to refer to anyone's secret identity...

HAHA! I just read this thread for the first time and...shamed faced....Chantell had to reassure me those awful straw thingys were not part of the plant☺I removed them and then thought maybe they were real☻

Next time I am in Walmart, I hope to see a Caped Crusader with a C on her cape in our neck of the woods, I will join forces with my pocket knife☺☺

LOL Posy...I'll see if I can round up the troops and hit all the east coast...to start with

Here is my brand new and straw flower free Cacti Garden and I hope I don't water the life out of them. I felt like watering them right now but I came in here and posted this instead. I am having over watering withdrawal☺

OMG, I thought I was the only one to bring a cactus home with the flower hot glued on it!!!