25May2009
Posted by Stuart under: Cacti.
Aztekium ritteri fascinates me.
It’s a very tactile plant, extremely rough to the touch, and its wrinkly texture reminds me of the face of poet W. H. Auden in his later years.
I don’t grow this species on its own roots, simply because I haven’t come across a reasonable-sized plant for a reasonable price. I suppose that’s inevitable given how slowly it grows, but it does seem to be the case that one can get hold of a mature plant of Aztekium hintonii fairly easily, but not its close relative. On a graft, like the majority of slow-growing Mexican plants, it offsets far more readily than on its own roots.
My plant is approaching 2 inches in diameter, and is shown here with its beautifully delicate pale pink flowers. It’s grafted on Myrtillocactus geometrizans.
16May2009
Posted by Stuart under: Cacti.
Difficult to handle, often capable of outgrowing the most accommodating pot in a matter of minutes… there are plenty of reasons why people decide not to grow members of the opuntioideae. A major plus point for me is that I like to be able to watch things grow and opuntias in general provide a pleasing contrast to a tray full of ariocarpus that have sat still for years.
And who’d've thunk it, but they flower too. Here’s Maihueniopsis minuta WG299 putting on a tremendous display. The plant is in a pot that measures 4″ wide by about 5″ deep, and is the first dwarf opuntioid that I’ve grown from a rooted cutting to flowering size.
It’s astonishingly heavy for a relatively small plant: the bulk of it is subterranean. When you see the size of the flower-cup you begin to understand why the plant needs to establish such enormous underground energy reserves before it can set about flowering, and why the majority of buds abort:
16May2009
Posted by Stuart under: Cacti; Pests & Diseases.
I have a good number of adult plants of Leuchtenbergia principis; it’s one of my favourite species of cactus. I’m not sure why, as it’s an unprepossessing, scruffy-looking thing. It’s probably because it has lots of personality.
I found a few years back that the more water I gave them when they’re in full growth, the happier they are.
Giving them a similar watering regime to fraileas generally stops the tubercles drying up and encourages them to flower beautifully. You can’t really overwater leuchtenbergias as long as they’re in a very free-draining growing medium. This plant started looking peaky about halfway through last year, and I foolishly didn’t unpot it and check what was wrong.
Through the autumn and winter, it gradually shed more and more tubercles. When I did get to unpotting it a few weeks back, I realised that it must have lost its roots a good long while ago. I didn’t repot it when I bought it a couple of years ago - and the compost it was in turned out not to be terribly airy, which could have been the cause. There is definitely life at the centre of the plant, and the thickened roots are sound. I’m hopeful that now it’s sitting under artificial lights in a nice warm heated propagator tray it will think about rerooting.
Certainly a cursory lesson in taking notice of what your plants are trying to tell you!
28April2009
Posted by Stuart under: Cacti.
A quick note to the effect that the Tephrocactus Study Group will be meeting on the 10th of May at the Great Barr Ex-Service Men & Women’s club in Birmingham. There will be illustrated talks, members’ plant sales, and much dwarf opuntia-related chat.
For more information phone Alan Hill on 01142 462311 or email alanhill3@sky.com
You can join the TSG using the subscription form on the TSG website; if you are interested in opuntias it’s well worth considering.
28April2009
Posted by Stuart under: Cacti.
This year, as soon as there were hints of spring, I turned the heating up to keep a minimum of 12C and started watering everything quite early; even the arios were watered in March. After a couple of reasonably light waterings, they had their first real dousing the weekend before last.
I’ve adopted a new technique for this. To imitate river-bed conditions, I’ve taken to filling a bucket with rainwater, and submerging them in it completely, until air bubbles stop rising from their growing medium. They’re then left to drain and dry off somewhere shady before being replaced on the top shelf.
They seem to have enjoyed it. There are no immediately obvious casualties, and they have all visibly inflated, suggesting that none of them has failed to reroot after the winter drought.
13March2009
Posted by Stuart under: Cacti; Pests & Diseases.
I’ve discovered that a handful of my fraileas and a lobivia have all been marked by the little beggars, and it’s fresh damage. The reserve collection at Winterbourne has also been hit, and several plants damaged. I’d be interested to know whether this is peculiar to Birmingham, or whether others are experiencing something similar.
Has anyone else had unseasonably early trouble with red spider mite this year?
6March2009
Posted by Stuart under: Cacti.
I’m rather pleased that my Echinocactus grusonii seedlings, which didn’t have the best care in their first couple of years, have produced good strong spination which catches the spring light nicely.
They’re in 2 1/2″ pots - well, actually, whatever the closest metric equivalent is - and are much, much spinier than plants of a similar size that are found in garden centres. Why would you want a plant all lush and pumped up with water when you can have something as dangerous-looking as these?
If you’re wondering, the plant growing in the washing powder container below is a cutting of Opuntia quimilo, which produces robust roots very quickly indeed. And spines like knitting needles that appear to never stop growing.
My first year’s worth of juvenile lithops are now progressing well with their second true pair of leaves. These are Lithops julii ssp fulleri, one of three pots of that subspecies from different localities.
Given my disastrous track-record with mesembs prior to the last couple of seasons, I’m really pleased that I’ve kept these going through their first winter.
They are starting to get a little crowded though - I suspect I may have to prick them out in the summer.
Here’s another group shot of seedlings sown between December 2007 and March 2008. You’ll need to click on the photo to get a bigger version of the image to see the detail.
Mammillaria perbella ‘infernillensis’ (two pots on the right) are proving to be really attractive young plants, while the three adjacent pots of Pygmaeocereus bylesianus ‘akersii’ have grown rather better than expected and left me with an awful lot of plants to dispose of!
2March2009
Posted by Stuart under: Other Succulents.
I had an appointment at Selly Oak hospital this morning, to see Claire the lovely Hand Therapist, as I recently had a week-long stay there for treatment of a badly-infected cat bite. I was told this morning that I’d made excellent progress, and could expect things to return to normal eventually. More important, for me, is the fact that she told me that I can start playing the piano again.
So, always on the lookout for an excuse to buy a new plant, I stopped in at the Wyevale garden centre in Bournville on the way home and treated myself to this rather nice Haworthia pumila to celebrate the occasion!
28February2009
Posted by Stuart under: Cacti.
Birmingham branch of the BCSS have been helping out with the arid house and reserve collection of cacti and succulent plants at the Birmingham university botanical gardens at Winterbourne. I’ve done a little work on repotting the smaller opuntioids; while I was down there with Derek and Arthur a couple of weeks ago I took a few photos - click the nice big Cumulopuntia rossiana for a virtual tour!
28February2009
Posted by Stuart under: Cacti.
Here are some more things getting their act together for spring.
My home-grown seedling of Ecinocereus viridiflorus is now in its fourth year, due to a rather shaky start in life, owing to my then extremely poor seed-raising skills.
Still, it’s turned out well, and this year it looks as though its first wave of flowering will consist of two blooms. Last year it managed a second flush later in the summer as well.
Cintia knizei’s single flower bud (below left) coninues to develop well, while it’s nice to see Haworthia cooperi var. cooperi (below centre) and Cumulopuntia boliviana “pentlandii” (below right) putting on some new vegetative growth. Click the images to see bigger versions - apologies for poor photos; the light’s been rubbish today!
28February2009
Posted by Stuart under: Cacti.
So far, touch wood, my losses haven’t been too heavy. Off to the great compost heap in the sky are:
- A nice Astrophytum myriostigma that I’d had for a good few years.
- A small gymnocalycium seedling given to me by a friend (I forget the species)
- Two plants of Opuntia bentonii which didn’t cope outdoors in the cold snap
- Opuntia decumbens, already illustrated on here a while back
- Echinocereus ochoterenae which got wet in the cold frame and gave up
I nearly lost both my digitostigmas due to the drying out of their ferocactus stocks, but have rehydrated them in the propagator. One is definitely out of trouble, the other should, I think, be OK. As soon as they’re well, they’re coming off those grafts for rooting.
28February2009
Posted by Stuart under: Other Succulents.
A frithia that I haven’t killed. Yet. I don’t do very well with Frithia pulchra usually. In my care,they seem to head immediately for the bottom of the pot and then gradually disappear as they turn up their toes.
Having used some Homebase vouchers up rescuing this plant and its friend, which were sat in caked peat with hardly any root, I wasn’t necessarily expecting to do any better this time, but the occasional dash of water through the long dark winter months appear to have done the trick for now, and it’s looking fairly perky.
Incidentally, if you weren’t yet aware, all images on this site are clickable and will take you to larger versions of the photos.
27February2009
Posted by Stuart under: Cacti.
Excuse the poor lighting of this photo, which was actually taken a little over two weeks ago; it shows new growth already appearing on a Cumulopuntia boliviana “subinermis”. The bolivianas seem to be awake quite early this year; three of mine (yes, that does mean I have more than three clones of Cumulopuntia boliviana - but don’t ask how many!) are already well in growth without any encouragement from the watering can!
27February2009
Posted by Stuart under: Cacti; Other Succulents; Propagation.
It’s good to see that a large number of seedlings have put the last few months to good use.
My juvenile plants of Gasteria pulchra sown in December 2007 have really got a move on in the last few weeks, and will soon need pricking out.
The temptation is, of course, to keep several to see how variable the markings are as the plants mature, but given my current problems with lack of space in the greenhouse at the moment, it’s not really practical.
I kept some of the less robust cactus seedlings indoors under lights in order to get them ready for a full growing season in the greenhouse, and the results have been encouraging. My only Pygmaeocereus bieblii from the 2008 sowing is romping away, as are the Mammillaria pectinifera and Turbinicarpus alonsoi, although I’ve lost one or two of both the latter species. While it’s OK to keep them pretty wet if the temperature is high enough, I forgot that the temperature would drop when the central heating was turned down after the really cold snap we’ve had, resulting in some rot.
Even more impressive, though, are the Eriosyce subgibbosa ssp. castanea and Frailea santaritense seedlings, sown last May and October respectively. I’ve come to the conclusion that fraileas really are very easy from seed indeed, as long as you have fresh seed. If the seed is viable they grow like weeds.
25February2009
Posted by Stuart under: Cacti.
All my blossfeldias bar one are now in bud; these photos are a couple of weeks old now but speak for themselves I think.
