I like these plants too but the leaves on mine really get chewed up every time the winds get above 30 mph.

Yep, my fragilis and Claude Arno are budding too.

I've got a whipplei originally from Az. that's been doing great here the last three very cold and wet winters with no protection. Imbricata from seed also seems to do well here. They look great with a little snow on them.

Sweet Escobaria!

Thanks guys for the compliments! Daiv, I sure hope my trig flowers one of these years, after last winter it sure looked bad. It just started growing last month, a lot later than the rest. Yep, grew them all from seed except for the Opuntias against the house and the trig. That was my test garden in ...

Thanks!

Here's some pics of my two cold hardy C&S gardens. The first two show my newest bed which I made a couple months ago. I raised up the back of the bed a foot or so for my couple years old Escobarias, vivipara and missourensis; Echinocereus reichenbachii and russanthus; along with an O. imbricata ...

This one only opens it's blooms in the late afternoon. If it's a Notocactus I'm hoping for some seeds!

Awesome, thanks!

Hi guys, a little help on this one. Had it since last year and it finally flowered for me , and a nice purple it has, sweet! Any guesses?

Yep, those are definately jumping spiders. I've noticed that there must be about 4 or 5 different species of them in my backyard alone. They love crawling all over my cacti and the bricks of my house. They especially like the O. bigelovii, nothing's going to get them in there.

Thanks for the info guys, luckily the affected part was a separate plant in the same pot. No surgery necessary this time.

Take a look at this freakish looking growth on my sister's Aloe plant, any ideas what's going on here? At first she thought it was a flower coming up, but that was a month ago and this weird thing just keeps getting bigger.

I don't fertilze seedlings for at least 5 months, or until they start crowding up the pot.

I know the feeling, especially after that first 60F day in many months last week. I think it's a little too early right now to start them up for the year. Maybe in a month would be a good time to get them started. Mine are still sleeping, I always go straight from hibernation to the outdoors in earl...