dasyacanthus, great! I got a few seeds out of an open fruit so I'll post back in 3-5 years and show you the flowers!

Thanks for all the tips everyone. We had a great time! I was so amazed to see cacti in the wild like this. They are not just native to home improvement stores! The first was just East of Ruidoso, NM on highway 70 up on a hill. I don't know which Echinocereus it is. It had a lot of small, dried up fl...

Nice potless Rebutia! Thanks for all the replies. No, I was just reading, in 500 Cacti: Species and Varieties in Cultivation by Ken Preston-Mafham, I think, and there was several mention of growing in pans and I was afraid I was missing some cool growing method. Azalea pots are great and bonsai pots...

I've seen mention in several books that shallow rooting cacti can be grown in pans, but have found no specifics. Anyone do this or have any practical tips? I thought clay saucers might make a nice pot for something shallow rooting but I'm afraid I'd just break them trying to put drainage holes in th...

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate the info! I'm glad to hear the nursery is still there. I'll definitely post some pictures when I get back! --rob

Thanks Peter, that's just the kind of practical advice I was looking for, slopes and rocks! Glad to hear reichenbachii is fairly visible. many thanks! --rob

Hi all, I'm taking my kids to Roswell, overtly for the alien festival at the end of this month, but really it's just to visit nurseries and cacti in the wild spots in the El Paso - Alamogordo - Roswell - Carlsbad loop. Can anyone suggest any nurseries I should stop at, or places to visit? I'm a bit ...

Hi Harriet, I didn't mean to imply Florida was dreadful, just the monotonous interstate drive. Selby is very nice, I actually interned there one summer back in the 80's. That was in my orchid days, now I'm a cactus snob and I'm itching to get to the west. Almost half the trip to San Antonio will be ...

Yeah my mature one grows like a weed but has a distinct dormant period. I thought maybe the seedlings might do that too. Well, 2 out of 12 are growing so maybe the others a weak, hate the soil, or are just thinking about growing...

I have some on a window sill on a ENE facing window getting broken sunlight and some under florescent lights. Maybe I'm just impatient, but the rigidissimus and misc Rebutias seem to be much farther along.

I'm thinking of taking a drive from Miami, FL to San Antonio, TX in a few weeks and I wondered if anyone had any suggestions for good cactus viewing spots or nurseries to stop at along the way. My guess is the cacti don't really get started until San Antonio, but maybe there are some neat Opuntias a...

Quick question. I've had luck with all kinds of cactus seeds, but I noticed my Echinocereus pentalophus seeds seemed to have germinated fine but then sort of sit there while everything else (save the Aztekuim hintonii) outgrows them. This happens in natural and artificial light. Out of about a dozen...

I was pretty surprised and very happy to see Copiapoa haseltonia bloom this year. Of course the flower is typical of Copiapoa, but its the event that got me jazzed. Cool! It's really great to see something when it decides to flower for the first time. I have two Copiapoa that are pushing 3mm in hei...

Won't most monstrose/cristate/fascinated form sometimes start to grow noramlly? I think most fascinated things are a result of the meristem getting messed up somehow, maybe somatic mutation, although certainly some species are more prone to mostrosity. I have a Mammalaria elongata cristate form that...

I was reading about Pereskiopsis spathulata, and in one book I read the flowers are unknown (elsewhere I read that they are probably synonymous with P. diguetii, which does flower). I got to wondering if there are any cacti for which flowers are not known? Maybe they only propagate vegitatively, may...