@Baja_Costero Thanks for the info. Not sure what happened to it except sometimes I neglect watering it. So I will just leave it alone for now and see what happens.

Sounds good.

Echinocereus bud popped today. Here it is in the middle of the process:



That is a composite of several pictures to increase the depth of field (so the whole flower is in focus, down to the spiny bits at the bottom). If you look at the lower left on the full size image you can also see the weird artefacts that result from a spider web moving in the wind, and being captured in multiple locations on the different exposures I combined.

[quote="Baja_Costero"]
@ketsui73 That Mammillaria perbella is kind of spectacular. It giveyoung ones. I hope you are successful in this
@baja_costero
Thanks I will post the pics when repotted
Steve

Baja_Costero said: Sounds good.

Echinocereus bud popped today. Here it is in the middle of the process:



That is a composite of several pictures to increase the depth of field (so the whole flower is in focus, down to the spiny bits at the bottom). If you look at the lower left on the full size image you can also see the weird artefacts that result from a spider web moving in the wind, and being captured in multiple locations on the different exposures I combined.

Right, I heard you mention this before. How does one do this " composite photography "

Nice pic!

Stefan, regarding the method .... it's called focus stacking or focus bracketing (or other names) depending on who you ask.

First I take several pictures (up to dozens) with the camera focused on successively further points. Basically I pick the front-most point I want to use and tell the camera how many shots I want, then it automatically completes the process.

Then I go to the computer and tell it which shots I want to combine. The computer picks the parts that are in focus on any given shot (based on contrast, presumably) and combines them into a composite image where more parts are in focus than in any given exposure.

My camera (Canon RP) and software (Canon's digital photo app) are geared up to automate much of the process, so I do very little of it manually.

Baja,
Do you have to set the camera on a tripod to keep the same angle and distance in all the shots with varying focal length?

Yes, the tripod is necessary for me to make it work. I have heard of people doing this process with handheld shots, but it can't be that many of them, and their hands must be a lot more stable than mine.

That makes sense. There's no way I could do that hand-held either. That's a fun program. It would be an NGA photo contest disqualifyer, but a plus in our database for plant ID purposes.

is there something wrong with my yucca, tips look a bit yellow, little black bugs on them. This is the little pup I started a few years ago, bed is about 3 ft above street level so should be very well drained, but we got a lot of rain

That yellow color could be due to a spurt of really fast new growth due to the rainfall and warm temps. If that's the cause, it will adjust soon enough and look normal. Also, I have a few plants that will have yellow coloring because of cool temperatures they don't much like. The Crossandra is really picky about wanting warm nights, and growth when it's not turns a bit sickly yellow. Also, I have a couple of daylily seedlings that grow yellowish foliage until the temps get warmer. It got down below 50F here a couple of nights last week and some plants object to that when they start growing in the spring. Not sure how sensitive Yuccas are to temp ranges, so that may not be the cause. Just a couple of thoughts.

Just realized that fallen/bend lactea is easy to reposition. This lactea had 1 branch ( white arrow) that fallen till it was flat on the floor, didn't it was due to over water, not enough water or the rain + wind, I used bamboo stick to hold it back to its position, and after some time it is now back to its perfect position. It is around 1 meter plus in height.

Ta-da! After 13 years I have finally made some sort of cactus/succulent/xeric garden. Will see how it goes. In the meantime, I'll look for euphorbia myristines to collect from the wild, and sedums/phediums/hylotelephium to get cuttings or to buy....Also maybe delosperma nubigenum if I am lucky. Maybe semps too...







And the peony is ready to bloom

Good job, Stefan. I'll be interested to see how that looks (and fills up) over the next several years. Will the opuntias make large plants or are those from smaller species?

I keep watching the O. quimilo and think it must be a crawling plant in habitat. Sure seems to grow that way in a container and the joints detach really readily. A ground cover Opuntia, I guess . No spines and very few glochids on it, so things seem to like munching on it. I haven't figured out a way to grow it best in a container, but it is very cold hardy. Pretty sure it would grow in ground, just not sure how much of a nuisance it might become in that situation. A situation like you've built might work pretty well for it.

needrain said: Good job, Stefan. I'll be interested to see how that looks (and fills up) over the next several years. Will the opuntias make large plants or are those from smaller species?

I keep watching the O. quimilo and think it must be a crawling plant in habitat. Sure seems to grow that way in a container and the joints detach really readily. A ground cover Opuntia, I guess . No spines and very few glochids on it, so things seem to like munching on it. I haven't figured out a way to grow it best in a container, but it is very cold hardy. Pretty sure it would grow in ground, just not sure how much of a nuisance it might become in that situation. A situation like you've built might work pretty well for it.

The opuntias (humifusa) be from a jadiniere pot on my balcony that caught a severe case of the UV based degradation and just couldn't be handled anymore. It blooms every year outside. It should cope with the conditions more than anything else in there, really. If It can survive my balcony heat and winter rains and snow in a pot, it should do in a raised bed. One im least certain about is the agave- everyone seems to have different story regarding how hardy it is. Odd part is the regular one should be capable of surviving anything but the harshest winters. Might to have wrap it or something like the palm tree... and I haven't planted one yet because I want to see how this one behaves. Other opuntias and opuntiads are viable...but not terribly common. Except for microdasys which is like this one but meaner with the glochids. Might plant Cannas though. Enough pondering though-lets see what happens with what I already got and what I can find and plant easily...

@needrain, oh, btw, slipped my mind.
Saw a (what mostly looked like) an echinocactus texensis WITH a upward central radial spine, but no downward radial spine on facebook. Some claimed it was some strange hybrid between texensis and grusonii..

skopjecollection said: @needrain, oh, btw, slipped my mind.
Saw a (what mostly looked like) an echinocactus texensis WITH a upward central radial spine, but no downward radial spine on facebook. Some claimed it was some strange hybrid between texensis and grusonii..

Do you have a link to the photo? I'd be curious to see it.

That would have been a family species cross when grusonii and texensis were both Echinocactus, but now that grusonii has been relocated to Kroenleinia it would be a wider cross, I guess. I wish the classifications could be based purely on the DNA. A lot of cactus look really similar to my eye. The two I have as Ferocactus are really similar to texensis and grusonii in appearance. But some Coryphantha, Escobaria and Mammillaria have similar features as well. And the recent Rebutia I acquired is forming its buds in the crown formation like the mamms. Even the larger, tubular blooms are seen on M. senilis as well. DNA would resolve all that and the similarities could be attributed to parallel evolution rather than being closely related. The genetic knowledge would sure make it easier for hybridizers who dabble with crosses.

You are in luck, since I was able to find it.
https://www.facebook.com/group...




But just in case, photos...

What I assume to be a native variety of opuntia that grows here, was severely killed back by the past couple of winters - even some really large/old specimens. May I assume that it was an unusual combination of wet and cold?

porkpal said: What I assume to be a native variety of opuntia that grows here, was severely killed back by the past couple of winters - even some really large/old specimens. May I assume that it was an unusual combination of wet and cold?

Very likely. You had freak winters over yonder, a couple of times as of recent. We only had 1 fortunately. It killed most of the Skopje 2014 palm trees planted, since they were not wrapped and their sprayers were turned on in between. Then again, possibly laundering was involved and the palm trees were uh..probably not hard grown...