31 May 2008
Naturalistic Blossfeldia planting
Posted by Stuart under: Cacti .
The natural habitat of Blossfeldia liliputana is out of harm’s way in small South American rock crevices, with little by way of organic material for growing medium and a degree of shade.
Having three plants on their own roots, I decided that they looked rather lost in a 2" pot on the staging and cast around for some raw materials to make them a new home.
I found a nice piece of Cotswold stone in my mum and dad’s garden, and armed with a tungsten drill bit, a masonry chisel, and a lump hammer, I set to work.
It’s been said to me that using tufa would have achieved similar results with less work; if only I’d thought of that before I started. As my drill is of the rechargeable cordless none-too-powerful kind, it took leaning my entire body weight on it to get it started. And I thought Cotswold stone was meant to be soft. Once there was enough room to get the chisel in, the going was actually slightly easier. With one particularly hefty whack I split the stone slightly. Disaster. But then it occurred to me that in actual fact that would allow any excess moisture to drain away very rapidly, so it was all to the good.
They’re planted in a mixture of coarse and fine grit and a small amount of John Innes no. 2 compost, about an inch deep. I’m quite pleased with the result, and it will be interesting to see how they perform in their new home.