|
Post by cheerypeabrain on Sept 20, 2018 19:23:15 GMT
Mick! Mick! My son's just bought his first cactus...aw...
|
|
|
Post by mickthecactus on Sept 20, 2018 19:24:21 GMT
Mick! Mick! My son's just bought his first cactus...aw... A man of taste...
|
|
|
Post by cheerypeabrain on Sept 20, 2018 19:29:55 GMT
|
|
|
Post by mickthecactus on Oct 15, 2018 13:59:01 GMT
Ariocarpus time.
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Oct 15, 2018 17:11:00 GMT
Just wondering. All of us constantly see these adorable little cacti blooming in the shops and in your photos. But if you actually buy one of these, how many months of the year will you actually see flowers on them?
|
|
|
Post by mickthecactus on Oct 15, 2018 17:46:04 GMT
Some flowers only last a night. By and large they flower mainly once a year with odd flowers from time to time. A flush of flowers might last a couple of weeks. Some succulents can keep pushing out flowers for a couple of months.
|
|
|
Post by mickthecactus on Oct 20, 2018 15:59:21 GMT
|
|
|
Post by onlyMark on Oct 20, 2018 16:01:09 GMT
Mick, later on in my Zimababwe thread I've got some photos for you to look at. Maybe for interest you might be able to identify some of the plants/cactususususus.............
|
|
|
Post by mickthecactus on Oct 20, 2018 16:19:57 GMT
Mick, later on in my Zimababwe thread I've got some photos for you to look at. Maybe for interest you might be able to identify some of the plants/cactususususus............. Pleased to have a go. If it’s a reddy/brown Aloe it will be Aloe cameronii. That’s whete mine came from and it was called Rhodesia then.
|
|
|
Post by mickthecactus on Nov 25, 2018 18:36:55 GMT
Delighted to find 3 Aloes in bud, all about 20 years old. 2 of them, grown from seed, have never flowered before ( melanacantha and claviflora) and the other, bulbillifera has only flowered once.
Probably due to the hot summer.
Happy days!
|
|
|
Post by mickthecactus on Jan 9, 2019 17:10:49 GMT
I haven't posted anything here for a while so here is a selection;- Aloe melanacantha mentioned above - Crassula mesembryanthemopsis - Aloe deltoideodonta - Coleocephalocereus aureus - Melocactus - Obregonia denegrii -
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Jan 9, 2019 17:28:42 GMT
Wow! Gorgeous collection! Thrilled to see those cactus performing so beautifully. We never see Obregonia around here, even though it's a Mexican native.
In succulent news from my house, I repotted an Aloe ferox, a vicious thing. I was told it's very slow growing & it doesn't have very many leaves. But when I tipped it out of the pot, it was all root, no dirt any more. Now I want to see what the baby ferox is doing, but it's in a pot with a budding Crassula, so I'm reluctant to disturb them.
Also repotted Ferocactus recurvus, always a nervous activity. Bit by bit I'm going through everything else I have to give the ones that need it new soil & pots. It would help if I had access to reliably good potting soil.
|
|
|
Post by mickthecactus on Jan 9, 2019 20:41:48 GMT
We are so lucky here with our choice of composts. I can get a dozen different ones at the GC. In fact for some time now I have been adding cat litter and use it neat to root cuttings.
Ferox is in my top 5 Aloes and a big one is so impressive.
Ferocactus is the quintessential spiky cactus. I used to have a decent collection but reluctantly had to sell them on. But I still have the scars... Fero macrodiscus is my favourite. It's a spiky flat disc. I still have Ferocactus texensis but it is yet to flower.
The Obregonia was struggling about 5 years ago having lost most of it's roots so I have had to nurse it along. I have just repotted it and the roots were in good shape I'm pleased to say.
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Jan 9, 2019 22:54:28 GMT
F. texensis was my introduction to Ferocactus, as it grew wild where I lived in S.Texas. I still love it. Agree about Ferox and what a great name it has, too.
Obregonia likes severe dryness, doesn't it. I think it is from the far northern desert area of Mexico.
|
|
|
Post by mickthecactus on Jan 10, 2019 8:43:23 GMT
It was originally called Homalocephala texensis, the horse crippler. A very evocative name and when I first saw it I had to have it. This is the second one I have had.
Mine hasn’t been repotted for a good 10 years but it’s getting a new home today! Maybe that will persuade it to flower.
Yes, a very delicate watering hand for Sr. Obregon.
|
|
|
Post by mickthecactus on Jan 10, 2019 13:43:55 GMT
Correction. Echinocactus texensis not Ferocactus texensis. Sorry!
|
|
|
Post by mickthecactus on Jan 10, 2019 13:57:27 GMT
And here it is showing how potbound it was - The next 2 are worth about £350 each on ebay. Aztekium ritteri - Aloe eminens, a rare tree Aloe originally collected in N Somalia -
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Jan 10, 2019 19:04:33 GMT
Yes, horse crippler -- that's the name I first knew it by. You would love it where I live, on one hand, because of not having to protect your babies from frost. On the other hand, you'd be daunted at how big some of those heavy spiny succulents get and how often they wish to be repotted. That Aztekum is absolutely wonderful!
|
|
|
Post by mickthecactus on Jan 10, 2019 20:33:13 GMT
I think I could live with it....
|
|
|
Post by mickthecactus on Feb 3, 2019 8:32:34 GMT
Bixa, do you still have that lovely Stenocereus from 2009?
|
|
|
Post by lagatta on Feb 4, 2019 22:48:06 GMT
I'll have to go through this thread - always a pleasure - to look for the dark-green, spiky-looking succulent I saw in a shop last week and that was sold. Not a cactus with spikes; the leaves are spiky-looking but not sharp. It didn't need as much light as my big crassula in the front (sunniest) window. Crassy is a bit potbound and I'll have to ask my horticulurist neighbour for help. I've made her several "daughters" as gifts for friends.
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Feb 4, 2019 23:28:50 GMT
|
|
|
Post by lagatta on Feb 5, 2019 1:01:38 GMT
Yes, and I'd have more if I had more light. I also have a ficus benjamina that is considerably taller than I am, though I suppose that isn't much of an accomplishment. And two years ago, adopted two plants (a tiny palm and another little tree that I haven't identified yet) that had been left outside on a cold autumn day by a young woman from France who was desperate to find them a good home.
I was very sad that the succulent I was smitten with had been bought, but the day I passed by the shop - which sells "vintage" garments, plants and little badges - it was so cold that I was afraid to kill the plant if I took it home, and discouraged in general...
|
|
|
Post by mickthecactus on Feb 5, 2019 8:12:25 GMT
That's the one Bixa. Still flowering?
Lagatta, that sounds like an Agave or Aloe.
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Feb 5, 2019 16:22:00 GMT
Now that I have a big new window in my attic roof, I may start considering more plants.
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Feb 5, 2019 18:15:58 GMT
Mick, no -- it hasn't flowered in a long time. Also it's been in that same pot for a long time. Sunday I got worm castings and also a foliar spray of worm urine, so we shall see if the whole patio can't be livened up.
|
|
|
Post by bjd on Feb 5, 2019 18:49:47 GMT
Do you water all those little pots separately, Bixa, or do you just wait for rain?
I bought a couple of succulents last fall but they have spent the cold and rainy winter outside. They were still alive at Christmas but definitely not looking very green.
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Feb 5, 2019 18:55:39 GMT
Bjd, since we can go five months here without rain, I do have to water everything. When I'm feeling really ambitious and the succulents are looking particularly sad, I put them in containers of water for deep soaking.
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Feb 5, 2019 19:26:33 GMT
Take them to Australia.
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Feb 21, 2019 16:15:43 GMT
Across the south-west [United States], cacti are being stolen from public lands in increasing numbers. From soaring saguaros to tiny, rare species favored as indoor house plants, the booming global demand for cacti is driving a shadowy, underground trade that’s difficult to police. Moreover, experts say, such trends risk destroying sensitive species forever. ... [Wendell “Woody” Minnich, the former president of the Cactus and Succulent Society of America] has been a cactus grower and nursery operator in New Mexico for 50 years. He said the internet had significantly accelerated theft of rare, slow-growing cactus species over the last decade. A case in point: Sclerocactus havasupaiensis, ... [is] just one of more than 365 internationally protected plant species that are openly traded on Amazon and eBay.www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/feb/20/to-catch-a-cactus-thief-national-parks-fight-a-thorny-problem
|
|