Notocactus horstii purpureus - July 15, 2008

The last post for today, to bring me "up to date" is the flower that was opened this week on my Notocactus horstii purpureus. I consider this to be one of my greatest successes, having grown this from seed, and it is the ONLY Notocactus in my collection that blooms. It has been blooming steadily since April, one or two flowers at a time, but most of the time the flowers don't open fully, or they open while I'm at work!

Notocactus horstii purpureus

Earlier this year, after the flower opened

This week's flower, up close.

Lobivia - July 15, 2008

This week, I had the pleasure of seeing the bloom on this small Lobivia open - although it failed to open fully on either of the two days I was around. There are a couple more buds coming up on this plant, but the other offsets haven't started budding yet. I've had such a struggle to keep this plant going but now I'm seeing the rewards.

Lobivia

Opened more the next day...

Echinopsis calochlora - July 10, 2008

I looked and looked but there are NO PHOTOS at the end of June - looks like there was either nothing happening in the garden or I just failed to take any pictures. No way to catch up on that week, so I'll just move on to the week after...

July 10, 2008

The first of my Echinopsis to bloom this season - Echinopsis calochlora. I nearly missed it, because I was watching the bud grow but didn't expect it to open when it did. Good thing it lasted till late enough in the morning for me to take the photo when I got out into the garden.

Echinopsis calochlora

I don't see much action in terms of buds on any of the others but I hope they will make some movement before the summer ends. Maybe I need to start dosing them with Bloom Booster to encourage them.

Bromeliad - June 23, 2008

Still working on updating with all that has happened in the last month.

This bromeliad has been sending out offsets (three so far) and I was wondering whether I would see it bloom. I think that after this blooms, the plant dies but the offsets live on. The spike here looks nothing like what was on the plant when I first got it , so now I am wondering if I have confused myself, but I don't have so many of these to mix them up. I will continue to watch it and see whether it changes as it matures.

June 23, 2008

Bromeliad

EDIT: The flower spike today, July 19, 2008

Catching up: Caralluma schweinfurthii - June 15, 2008

How far behind have I fallen? So far I can't count!

Today I will try to catch up, because I did take some photos and I SHOULD have been posting but just didn't seem to be able to get them uploaded and posted because there was so much else going on.

Sunday, June 15 - Going back to what I would have posted as my plant of the week.

One of the stapeliads that I got at the JHS Flower Show in April decided to bloom. I must confess that I have not been taking the best care of my stapeliads, but I still like them a lot.

Caralluma schweinfurthii

Edited on March 20, 2009 - was advised of a correction to the name I havd assigned to this plant so I've now changed it - not Caralluma hesperidum but Caralluma schweinfurthii. Comments welcome.