The "stumpery"

It was a lot of work to clean up this area - the stumpery had become overgrown with Cissus cactiformis and the Opuntia was out of control! Even the Apsaragus fern was trying to take over the place.

The Kalanchoe pinnata/Bryophyllum pinnatum had been blooming and blooming and every time we waited for it to finish another flush would appear. Strangely enough, though, the Kalanchoe tubiflora has grown very tall but just will not bloom!

Eventually we could wait no more, and this task had to be done. Good thing, too, because now it is raining like crazy and it would have been more difficult to deal with it.






HH dropped an Opuntia pad on his foot while cutting and clearing, and suffered from a swollen foot for a few days. The area is now even cleaner than shown here, and hopefully we will figure out how to keep it like this - the Kalanchoe is hard to contain but we have to try. Also still need to cut back the Consolea, because it might blow over in a storm and one plant is already leaning on the fence.

Now that I can see the Myrtillocactus cactiformis and the Opuntia subulata, I realise how much they have grown, as well as the Cereus pernambucensis that I grew from seed.