What are your favourites?

[Wilk]

Here's my contribution. No "trophy" cacti just nice plants some of which I grow and others I hope to :

1. Mammilaria senilis (top of the list every time and criminal that it is not on any other list posted so far!!)
2. Matucana ritteri
3. Astrophytum ornatum
4. Bolivicereus samaipatanus
5. Copiapoa dealbata
6. Echinocereus scheeri
7. Echinocactus texensis
8. Echinocereus nivosus
9. Mammillaria humboldtii
10. Echinocereus papillosus

As for succulents;

1. Cabbage
2. Turnip
3. Parsnip........

[adetheproducer]

Oh I completely forgot about Geohintonia and I got one, what was I thinking. 10 is really not enough.

[cefalophone]

Here's my contribution. No "trophy" cacti just nice plants some of which I grow and others I hope to :

1. Mammilaria senilis (top of the list every time and criminal that it is not on any other list posted so far!!)
2. Matucana ritteri
3. Astrophytum ornatum
4. Bolivicereus samaipatanus
5. Copiapoa dealbata
6. Echinocereus scheeri
7. Echinocactus texensis
8. Echinocereus nivosus
9. Mammillaria humboldtii
10. Echinocereus papillosus

As for succulents;

1. Cabbage
2. Turnip
3. Parsnip........

What is a "trophy cactus"? Never heard that term used before.

Nice list.

[Robb]

Oooh, this is a tough question!
Ariocarpus agaviodes
Pygmaeocereus bieblii
Pygmaeocereus bieblii kuehhasii
Pygmaeocereus Familiaris
Pygmaeocereus bylesianus
Frailea pumila v aquatica
Frailea phaeodisca
Epithelantha bokei
Yavia cryptocarpa
Aztekuim hintonii

Succulents are a different story... Give me a while to think.

[DaveW]

"I was friends with the late Terry Hewitt in the early 1980s when I started my nursery."

Not wishing to hijack the subject but I only visited Holly Gate Nursery twice in it's heyday Iain since it was a bit far from Nottingham, firstly when Clive Innes owned it and later when Terry Hewitt had just taken it over. It was one of the best collections in the UK at that time. It is a shame how it degenerated and closed after Terry died:-

http://sea-of-immeasurable-gravy.blogsp ... cacti.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Particularly when you compare it to how it originally was in Clive Innes time and the Hewitt's early days:-

http://www.pbase.com/edgegallery/hollygate" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Our coach trip south also took in Edgar and Brian Lamb's Exotic Collection, alas another UK collection now gone. But I gather Brian Lamb took two van loads of plants over to where he now lives in Spain, therefore the plants survived. Brian also became Curator of the Gibraltar Botanical Gardens for a time.

Still trying to decide what are my favourite plants, but surprisingly the common old Chamaecereus silvestrii would be among them as I don't just grade desirable plants on rarity!

[Iain]

Hi DaveW

I really appreciated the link to the sad story of Hollygate's demise, including Clive's granddaughter's comment. I didn't actually know of Terry's death until earlier this year; I then telephoned his widow to pass on my condolences.

There must be so many private collections that just disappear or are binned.

The age-old truth that "everything passes" is correct. It's what inspires that matters most.

All the best

Iain

[Iain]

Hi Phil_SK: Your photos saved me time and looked good together. I especially liked Rebutia tarabucoensis.

Hi BRC: Dorstenia foetida/crispa looks like it would make a great bonsai succulent. (I have the pots!) Good to see Lithops on your list.

Hi Wilk: I'm now doubting if my "Mammallaria hahniana" might actually be Mammillaria senilis. They look very similar to my beginners eye, but the flowers will be revealing. Both look lovely. I particularly appreciate cacti that multiply into attractive clumps.

Hi Robb: I look forward to your succulent list. (Please ignore Wilk's! )

All the best

Iain

[oldcat61]

#1 hands down is my beloved rescue Saguaro named Al ( 5ft tall & plumper)
2. any of the epis, species or hybrids
3. my Halloween Schlumbergera, what ever he is
4. Selenicereus grandiflorus - leftover from my first cactus life
5. all my melos, still not sure of who is what
6. aporocactus, or whatever it's called now.
7.Ecinocactus horizonthalonius
8. Echin texensis
9. Thelocactus bicolor
10. Stetsonia coryne

Still thinking about succulents but Aloinopsis, adenium & some Haworthias should be on it. Sue

[Iain]

Hi Sue

We have some giant plants of Stetsonia coryne in the garden of one of our nature reserves in South Africa. The large white flowers, early in the morning, are always a pleasure. However, I'm not sure they would be so great in my 8ft x 16ft greenhouse at home in England!

Your country is packed with amazing wild places and nature - and you showed the world the way with the first national parks, preserving natural beauty for us all and itself, and encouraging the rest of the world to do so too. Two of my coffee-table books feature photographic images from the USA, but another book simply retold the story of "nature fights back". And I quote:

"In February 1982, David Grundman from Phoenix went out into the desert and fired shotgun blasts into a giant sanguaro cactus. Grundman's target was 27 feet tall [so likely over 100 years old], but he concentrated his aim about four feet up from the base of the plant. As he shot for the third time, the trunk gave way; the 23 foot upper section of the heavy and prickly cactus toppled down on him. Grundman was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital."

All the best

Iain

[oldcat61]

Shooting the cactus reminds me of when I lived in Maine. There was a guy who walked into a bar near the Bath shipyard wearing a hat with eagle feathers. Quite a few Abenaki (local tribe, along with the Passamaquoddy) are iron workers at Bath & they explained that eagle feathers should not be casually worn. This idiot bragged that he shot the eagle just to get the feathers. He was knocked about a bit & thrown out of the bar. Came back 2 weeks later with a dead eagle in a sack & dumped it on the bar. One of the regulars had a lobster boat, so they took him on a little midnight lobster fishing trip. Never seen or heard from again. Not a tall tale, I was there. Moral of the story: don't mess with eagles & don't shoot cactus on Tohono O'odham land. Sue

[DaveW]

Yes there are a lot of people who delight in shooting at and destroying things, but are unable create anything worthwhile during their lives Sue.

Mammillaria (Mammillopsis) senilis is quite distinct from hahniana Iain, for a start it has hooked spines:-

http://www.cactus-art.biz/schede/MAMMIL ... enilis.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Iain]

Yes there are a lot of people who delight in shooting at and destroying things, but are unable create anything worthwhile during their lives Sue.

Mammillaria (Mammillopsis) senilis is quite distinct from hahniana Iain, for a start it has hooked spines:-

http://www.cactus-art.biz/schede/MAMMIL ... enilis.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thanks, Dave. That's one less option! Here's a (poor) photo of our plant.

Mammillaria.JPG (354.88 KiB) Viewed 2059 times

Is it M. hahniana?

[Wilk]

I would say that's hahniana. It's certainly not senilis. There's an easy test. Put your hand firmly on top of the plant and if you cannot take it off for 20 minutes until you get the hooks out of your hand it's senilis.

[DaveW]

Wilk is probably right and it's the more recently introduced freely clumping form of M. hahniana (the old original hahniana tends to stay single headed until a much larger size) although Mammillaria lenta looks very similar but it has much larger flowers than hahniana, so flowers should sort it, but whatever it is it's a beautiful plant!

Freely offsetting form of M. hahniana:-

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/163743/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Old original M. hahniana:-

http://www.gopixpic.com/640/mammillaria ... niana*jpg/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Mammillaria lenta:-

Mammillaria lenta.jpg (97.79 KiB) Viewed 2032 times

[Iain]

Dave: Many thanks. Your help is much appreciated. Terry's book arrived earlier today! (Good to have, even if the photographs could be much better.)