Hard to find cacti...

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cefalophone
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Re: Hard to find cacti...

Post by cefalophone »

For me, rare means crested or monstrose cacti. I started my collection with a montrose T. bridgesii and have been hooked ever since. They just look so amazing, like living sculptures. But for some reason I do not see them as readily available here in the states as they seem to be in europe. Recently I purchased the book Terratopia from Daiv's store and it has just made my wish list so much larger. But I have only found about 10% of the plants they have listed in the book available for purchase. Maybe I am just not looking in the right places.
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Peterthecactusguy
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Re: Hard to find cacti...

Post by Peterthecactusguy »

well, the think about rare vs un-rare is more about encounterability in collections. For example crested saguaros are very rare in nature, about one plant for every 3-4 million of the regular adult plants. They are listed as RARE because not many people have them. IT's illegal to collect them in nature. You can grow them from seeds but they TAKE a long time to grow into actual crested saguaros. Some people aren't into crested plants, and I won't argue with you that any of them are common really except maybe some of those cuttings you can find at any store in country.. some are Mamm/Echinocactus Grusonii, etc are fairly common. I don't know why there aren't more crested cacti for sale in the US but maybe they don't sell as well here as they do in Europe?
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majcka
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Re: Hard to find cacti...

Post by majcka »

How come that subfamily Opuntioideae doesn't have no tribes included?

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daiv
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Re: Hard to find cacti...

Post by daiv »

Because there are no tribes in Opuntioideae . :mrgreen:

Well OK there are according to SOME systems. There is also some shuffling of tribes going on with the other groups where I have a tribe listed. However, I will admit that I simply list the tribes according to Anderson at this point and do not have anything to recognize earlier or later publications.
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majcka
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Re: Hard to find cacti...

Post by majcka »

daiv wrote:Because there are no tribes in Opuntioideae . :mrgreen:

Well OK there are according to SOME systems. There is also some shuffling of tribes going on with the other groups where I have a tribe listed. However, I will admit that I simply list the tribes according to Anderson at this point and do not have anything to recognize earlier or later publications.
Thank you for your answer. I asked because I found some tribe names for Opuntioideae in Wikipedia and Cactuspedia listed. ](*,)
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CactusFanDan
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Re: Hard to find cacti...

Post by CactusFanDan »

I've seen a handful of Austrocactus patagonicus, and a few other Austrocactus going around on ebay lately, although mainly throughout Europe, so i'm not sure if that would constitute upgrading it to rare. :P I've seen a number of Pediocactus' and Sclerocactus' on that list popping up as well. :)
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peterb
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Re: Hard to find cacti...

Post by peterb »

Huh. I just did an eBay search for Austrocactus and found two grafted plants for sale. Also a couple of grafted Pedios. I think the seller is from Great Britain. But I don't see very many for sale. It's mostly seeds. It is still extremely rare to see Pedios other than simpsonii, Scleros, Austrocactus and so on in collections. It is bound to remain so, as they are very slow and difficult from seed. eBay and other small scale outlets like that will be good sources, as they are nearly impossible to grow in any great quantity, at least as far as has been discovered by growers. Edit: oops, the plants are from the Czech Republic. I don't see any mention of phytosanitary or CITES paperwork, so one risks throwing one's money away.

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CactusFanDan
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Re: Hard to find cacti...

Post by CactusFanDan »

Yeah, there are a number of growers in the Czech Republic who always seem to have very rare plants for sale. I've bought a few plants off them before and since i'm in the EU, I don't think there is much need for phytosanitary certificates. I've never had any troubles buying plants from around the EU. Hungary is another country with some notable growers. Lots of old and rare plants keep popping up from there. :P
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peterb
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Re: Hard to find cacti...

Post by peterb »

Eastern Europeans have also been busted a few times smuggling habitat plants out of Mexico. It's cool that the ones I saw for sale from the Czech grower were obviously seed grown. But I have seen some huge, old obviously habitat plants in the trade, sold by Czech and Hungarian and Polish growers.

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iann
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Re: Hard to find cacti...

Post by iann »

CactusFanDan wrote:Yeah, there are a number of growers in the Czech Republic who always seem to have very rare plants for sale. I've bought a few plants off them before and since i'm in the EU, I don't think there is much need for phytosanitary certificates. I've never had any troubles buying plants from around the EU. Hungary is another country with some notable growers. Lots of old and rare plants keep popping up from there. :P
Very easy to buy plants from those countries, although some of them certainly have a dubious history. Look for the younger ones that will be seed grown and don't worry about it. They are great at growing things we find impossible. Perhaps there was nothing else to do before the Berlin Wall came down? Or better yet just visit my greenhouse, lots of impossible plants there :lol:
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rgiesecke
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Re: Hard to find cacti...

Post by rgiesecke »

I got seeds for Facheiroa squamosa a few months ago from Phoenix Desert Nursery. Listed as not in cultivation.
"Horticulture, after all, is a mode of articulating and feeling time."
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