Up close ...

... but not so personal.

Just some shots of flower buds.

Gymnocalycium damsii



Mammillaria karwinskiana


And a flower - Mammillaria magnimamma

Some photos of the recent "repots"

Last week I mentioned that I had moved up some of my larger plants grown from seed into 4" pots. I'm having difficulty figuring what to call them since they are now really too big for me to call them "seedlings' but since I grew them from seed I can't help but still consider them that way, and I feel I need to differentiate them from those grown by others.

Photos of a few of them...


Mammillaria dixanthocentron sowed August 2004
Almost glowing in the sunshine


Ferocactus gracilis 'coloratus' sowed August 2004


Mammillaria without ID sowed April 2004
I love these spines!

Echinocereus knippelianus

I particularly like this species but only have this one plant that I have managed to keep alive from seed for nearly four years now (Wow, didn't realise it was that long!)

It was attacked by some predator some time back, hence the disfiguration, which it overcame by sprouting a healthy branch/arm. Sometimes I wonder if it is really okay because the body shrivels, but I've come to realise that this is part of its self-imposed dormancy - also seen in other Echinocereus seedlings in my collection.

So last week (or the week before) I was happy to see another new growth... soon it will have two heads!



Now I'm looking out to see if more will sprout since it is seeming happy and fat for the time being, or maybe it will turn out to be a once-a-year occurrence. I need to check my photos to find out when the older head appeared.

My fingers are crossed for continued healthy growth!

More plants stolen!

This morning I discovered that I have seven or eight less plants than I did yesterday. Someone came in the garden during the night and helped themselves to some of my treasures. A few of them aren't important, in that they grow easily and I have more of them or I don't care for them much, but a couple of them were mature imports that I was nurturing and I won't be able to replace easily.

Plants missing include my Notocactus ubelmannianus, a yet unidentified Echinofossulocactus that was about to start budding, an undentified Mammillaria, a Ferocactus grown from seed, two Huernias, and two Echinopsis. I was planning to go to a Horticultural show today, but was so disturbed by the missing plants this morning that I have been home trying to figure out how to safeguard what hasn't been taken.

So, no photos today. Hope I feel better tomorrow about all this.

Been repotting my "seedlings"

This past week I have been potting up some of my plants grown from seed into 4" pots since I am trying to make space for the tiny ones under a year old that now need to be put out into the "open". The problem is, while I make space for small seedlings this way, the big ones now have no place to go. I think I potted up about 15 or so, and they take up at least twice as much space as before.

NEED MORE SHELVES!!

Actually, this may be the time that I need to get going on building that greenhouse since my collection is steadily expanding and demanding more space. I have just sowed some of the seeds that I got on my recent trip to San Diego and I have a lot more of those to work with. Don't know where they will all go but I still feel the need to try to grow all these different species. Not satisfied with just having a bunch of cactus - need to know what they are and feel that they are "my babies", so I don't even have the great urge to get pre-grown plants except for those that I know are really hard to grow from seed.

Still working on improving my success rate and keeping these babies alive to maturity. I think I'm actually getting better, but it's still hard when I watch a whole batch just keel over for no apparent reason when I thought they were well on their way. I think I 've found some conditions that are quite favourable, so my recent batches have had a high survival rate so far. Again I wonder - where am I going to put all those when they grow up?

I'm sure something will work out.

Second gymno

Very quickly - not much to say but just to show Gymnocalycium damsii v rotundulum's first bloom of this season. This one is another reliable bloomer so I should have many more to come throughout the summer.




Up close to the flower...