This year has allowed me to expand my small collection a little (while I'm not at uni), until now it was mostly seedlings, my family have moved house so I have the partial use of a nice south facing conservatory. Partial because I've only filled two 2 foot by 6 inch trays and my Mum has already firmly said 'No more'. She doesn't know about my ever-increasing wishlist though, or the seeds I've ordered Although we now have a much larger garden, so my own greenhouse is a distinct possibility
I'm in Somerset now so I payed a visit to the Cactus Shop, the first cactus nursery I've visited and it was great seeing so many cacti in one place! I didn't have any cash on me so had to pay by card with a minimum spend of £10, what a shame!
Showing some encouraging signs of growth since I've had it over the last couple of weeks
I also managed to get an order from Succseed, I've been meaning to for a while and couldn't resist the Sulcos and a Rebutia (I blame K.W. for my love of these two genera), and they really are amazing quality, beautiful plants. The aforementioned seeds were also from Succseed
This one is stunning, I can't wait to see if I can encourage it to flower
As you can see there's three buds, one seems to have aborted but the other two have continued to grow since I received the plant, so I'm looking forward to see what happens
My three A. asterias, unfortunately haven't really done anything since they were sent to me about 2 years ago, although the 'Super Kabuto' might be showing some signs of growth
Haworthia truncata from the same person as the asterias (from the BCSS forum, not sure if she has an account on this forum). Growing a nice new leaf in the centre
I've had this Echinocereus adustus for a couple of years too, but it also hasn't done anything in the time I've had it, I re-potted it a couple of weeks ago and its roots weren't great probably due to the bad potting mix I used to use, hopefully it can recover now it's in a better mix
Finally I have plenty of seedling, all 1.5-3 years old, mostly kindly sent by Aiko, and they're showing some good growth, (hopefully the Anacampseros isn't getting etiolated, it is in full sun)
The Anacampseros have been flowering almost non-stop for a long time
The first cactus I have grown from seed to flowering, very rewarding Plus I have 2 more plants with buds, and the one pictured has 12 yet to open
I hope they all look good, and hopefully this isn't too many pictures at once, it looks like there's a lot of wasted space in the preview but I think that might just be the way it's laid out on my 24" screen
My small collection
Re: My small collection
Gorgeous! Do you just do pumice as a top layer or how much is mixed in with your soil? It takes on such a nice color after watering with slightly acidic water...
See my current wanted lists here: http://www.u.arizona.edu/~mdpillet/cr.html and http://www.u.arizona.edu/~mdpillet/en.html.
Re: My small collection
Yes it does go a nice colour! I use it in the mix too, about 70% pumice, with 15% coir and 15% mix of John Innes No. 2 compost and sandy topsoil, the top dressing pumice is about 1 cm deepmdpillet wrote:Gorgeous! Do you just do pumice as a top layer or how much is mixed in with your soil? It takes on such a nice color after watering with slightly acidic water...
Re: My small collection
Nice! That's more or less exactly my default soil mix (though I use local compost).
See my current wanted lists here: http://www.u.arizona.edu/~mdpillet/cr.html and http://www.u.arizona.edu/~mdpillet/en.html.
Re: My small collection
Bit of a cloudy day today but the temperature in the conservatory must have convinced my new Sulcorebutia langeri to open one of its flowers, and the second doesn't look too far behind I think this plant is quickly becoming one of my favourites
Edit: The second flower opened today
Edit: The second flower opened today
Re: My small collection
Beautiful.
Re: My small collection
James, are those in pure pumice? Do you fertilize each watering?
Re: My small collection
They're in about 60-70% pumice, with the rest made up of (mostly) coconut coir and some John Innes No. 2 compost (with any large organic pieces removed). So far I've fertilised them with a diluted low nitrogen fertiliser about once per month which equates to around every second or third wateringgraffiti wrote:James, are those in pure pumice? Do you fertilize each watering?