Hamwild said: I wish I could grow an Easter Cactus. They always wrinkle and die on me.

I have that problem with my largest one. It's wrinkly no matter how much I water it. But it's still alive and been blooming. I don't want to push it though, because I've overwatered a few before and had them drop all their branches as a response.

There seems to be a fine line between enough water but not too much.

I can't tell the difference between Christmas cactus or Easter cactus but the cuttings seem very easy to grow. I found some that I forgot to repot and they got dehydrated so I just soaked them in water and they plumped up and now have roots.

That's what I did with the longer fallen branches. Just stick em in a pot and root them. So I have two small pots with plants growing in them from cuttings.

Some cacti blooms from this week.

The one purchased labeled as Trichocereus grandiflora bloomed. Definitely not white. I wish it had opened flatter. Maybe it will with more heat and sun than when this bloomed. I still can't see why this isn't an Echinopsis, though:




Kroenleinia grusonii -formerly Echinocactus - 'Golden Barrel Cactus' will be blooming for a long time if all the bumps in the velvet do what they did last year. A cloud came over when I took the 2nd photo. Interesting effect on the bloom:




Echinocereus reichenbachii busted. It's capable of putting on a great show and often does, but the window is short. This locally native plant requires a warm, sunny day to bloom well. It can and will delay opening buds waiting for those conditions, but it can't put it off indefinitely. That's what happened here. A few days of cloudy, cool weather and this was the best it could do. Enough some pollenators were digging into some of the buds, but this was it. Another characteristic is that all the buds on a single plant will bloom at once and only last a single day. These barrels all come from a single plant and are attached. If it had been two plants, the buds might not have been at the same stage and might have bloomed later, but they weren't. Maybe next year :



Astrophytum myriostigma 'Bishop's Cap' is really wobbly in the container. Makes me think the roots have been compromised so I'm being more careful than normal with water. No sign of soft rot yet and the bud grew and bloomed okay. Some incipient buds aren't growing, but they may yet:



Mammillaria matudae is blooming nicely, but I'd rather have seen a bunch of little offsets showing up than the blooms:



Parodia crassigibba aka 'Green Tomato Cactus'. Now there's a common name that stuck instantly . At least it's searchable. Definitely a clone that didn't have yellow blooms. The color here is incredibly intense and there are a lot of buds still to go:

I think the purple is standard and the yellow is uncommon.

And I got yucca gloriosa variegata at home

In case you missed the joke this is the one mom tells you have at home.
Being color guard or golden sword or something....also probably flaccida being the origin species. I just don't have the time or energy to look for or poach a proper plant.
Went for the AC checkup...aaaand I didn't use my car AC enough to show any leaks. Which of course is due to the cold spell. Gonna put my plants outside tomorrow. Also vacation time is near(our Easter).

It says Y. filamentosa in the database but I could of sworn mine was labeled Y. gloriosa too.

It wasn't...eh labeled as such per-say. It was labeled as what I told you. I was told by the garden centre's website that they had gloriosa in stock(they didn't last time I was there), and they sort of confirmed it on phone. But alas....
What bums me out more is that the drive there is long and across town.

Garden shots featuring the latest installations ...

Left two plants here are newly installed:



That pale aloe (hereroensis) looks like it went through the wars because over the winter it was in a place where it kept falling over on itself. Like from high up, on its head. It also was extremely limited by its pot (which I had to break to get it out). Hoping it powers through:



I didn't plan a row of agaves but this is how they ended up.



I have been sharing images of Mesembryanthemum spp. that showed up here as volunteers. Here is the only perennial volunteer from that family in the garden:



Almost certainly from seed generated by a neighbor's plant. It got to this size on rain alone in sandy soil.

These medusas ended up together, from 10-12 inch pots.



In order to get them out, I had to invert the pot and pop the plant out on its head. Surprisingly the flowers seem to mostly have survived:

Beautiful garden Baja! I wish hubby will get rid of weeds and convert our yard in no grass yard.

Those medusas look really good planted out like that. How large can they get when grown out of a container?

I guess we will find out. I think those are all more or less full size width-wise (which you can tell from the spacing out there), but they can still put on some vertical. Old plants in habitat will grow a relatively tall main stem (and lose a bunch of arms) over probably decades.

I put two of them in the public garden several years ago. Those are still going strong, more or less the same width, with zero water. I have 5 more medusas in 10 inch pots (landscape size in the near future), plus 10 volunteers in 4-5" pots that will be ready in a few years.

Gigi, the dry, lawnless garden probably makes more sense in some ways here than where you are, given the climate. I remember when we killed our lawn at the old house, the best part was the 45 minutes of watering that I got to avoid every week.

So this is what I have been working on.


It is a raised bed, made by staking out the circumference, and held by mostly surface tension. Its got work to be done still, by digging out the drainage moat, filling the insides a couple of cm more, and prepping the planting soil. Planting....hopefully on Wednesday.

So today I helped out in a charity sale of plants from a former chairman of our bcss branch . Full on cacti guy , no succulents I went in thinking I will resist and came away with over 30 plants 😂😂😂
They have not been watered for two years and exposed to unheates greehouse . A bit of tlc needed. I came away with. Copiapoa, some big old mams ,Corys etc . I will have post some better pics when I get chance to sort them out

Not watered for two years?!

Hamwild said: Not watered for two years?!

He fell sick with cancer and was unable to care for them . We have binned several hundred plants that bit the dust . These are the tuff ones that survived the trial 😀

Two years is a long time, even with my habits . I'll be interested to see how they respond to a bit of water. I'd advise not overdoing it or following up after an initial watering too soon. After two years, I'd suspect they have lost some of the root system which might make them unable to handle too much water on a regular basis. At least until they've had time to re-establish some healthy roots for water intake. I'd be careful and try to make sure they are near the dry soil stage before giving them the follow up drinks of water. The first one will probably work okay, but I'd be cautious after that first soaking.

needrain said: Two years is a long time, even with my habits . I'll be interested to see how they respond to a bit of water. I'd advise not overdoing it or following up after an initial watering too soon. After two years, I'd suspect they have lost some of the root system which might make them unable to handle too much water on a regular basis. At least until they've had time to re-establish some healthy roots for water intake. I'd be careful and try to make sure they are near the dry soil stage before giving them the follow up drinks of water. The first one will probably work okay, but I'd be cautious after that first soaking.

Hi don
Yes I thought the same , I gave them a splash of water today. Most are potted in a very heavy mineral rich soil . I think I am inclined to dry everything out and repot into a mix of my own that I understand
Might lose a few in the process, some also have frost damage to their bases but I am not sure me taking a knife to them won't end in failure

Try to see if you can find vitamin B1 Liquinox, it is known to br very good in treating stressed plants. Mix small amount of those in the spray. Hope all of them will be fine.
I like those with black spines and grey/bluish color cactus in the first photo.