Snowfella's cactus trials

[Peterthecactusguy]

Dean to answer your question, I think it is.

Nice blooms, like the Echinopsis!

[SnowFella]

Not really sure what's going on here right now but the casualties are starting to mount up. Lost 4 Mamm's and one Rebutia in just a matter of days now. Looks like I have atleast one more Mamm on the way too.
Guessing it could have something to do with the wonky weather we've been having lately, cold, rainy and humid.

Least took the opportunity to flower today as the rain stayed away, missed my first M. mazatlanensis flower last week as it just didn't want to open at all.

Parodia sellowii, this is asfar as it want's to open...doubt we'll get enough sun to open it fully before it's wilted.


And the recently purchased unknown Copiapoa opened one of it's buds. No clue what this thing really is other than that it's offsetting like mad.

[LazyD]

I enjoyed looking through your collection - I have made my 2012 wish list off of it! You have a beautiful collection SnowFella that is constantly increasing - keep it up!!

[SnowFella]

Thanks
Iv'e had great fun gathering up the plants I've got, probably did it alittle to quick as this time last year I only had a handful of them

[amanzed]

Is that last Copiapoa possibly tenuissima? Maybe a relative.

[Arjen]

sorry to hear about the casualties, do keep these ones alive if you can, they're beautiful!

[SnowFella]

Could be anything really, I was thinking towards C. tenuissima monstrose though. But could just aswell be some sort of hybrid as I doubt the place it came from uses 100% guaranteed seed.
I'll try taking some better photos of the whole plant and toss them up in the ID section tomorrow.

As for the casualties, I have a feeling they relate towards me not knowing fully what I did when I started out. Most of them are from my first lots of purchases and back then I didn't fully clear the roots from whatever they were planted in originally and used a dodgy soilmix with 50% sand to replant them in. Lessons learned I guess
The Rebutia I lost however I have no clue what killed, a month or so ago it was massively in bloom and just about every flower resulted in a fruit. A mere week ago it looked healthy and but as I looked at it yesterday it was rotting from the base even though it was in dry soil.

[SnowFella]

After a very slow couple of weeks now the weather finally seem to be picking up, with some flowers and new growth to show for.

First of all a poor chewed up Rebutia fulviseta that's been working on it's buds for a long time now. 2 warm and sunny days in a row got it going.

Unfortunately that's the bulk of flowers right now

Some has started feeling lonely in their pots and desided to send up new stems.
First an Echinopsis comarapana that's sofar done nothing since I got it, untill now.

Second an unknown, likely an Echinopsis of some sort did the same.

And yesterday I noticed my outdoors growing C. strausii has also followed suit.

One of my outdoors C. peruvians has finally snapped out of it's hiatus, sat without growing a single bit all of last summer. Not really sure what I should make out of the growth though.


E. lageniformis is finally starting to put on bigboy spines.


And last the current look of the cactii garden in the pool enclosure, so far it's been the doom of 2 beachballs Most everything there is growing nicely apart from the O. microdaysis (right at the pelican's beak), my potted one has put on more growth this season!

Got some weeding to do I think

[Arjen]

nice plants, however, that r. fulviseta looks like it has had a bit too much sun and heat

[SnowFella]

Unfortunatey it's most definately been eaten by something, it's been treated though and the damage hasn't spread anymore since. Hopefully it will grow out of it given time.

Closer look at 4 in that outdoors gardenbed, M. mystax, M. compressa and 2 largely unknowns. Think one is a Lobivia and the other one of the columnar Echinopsis/Trichocereus species.


The E. subdenudata that I was attempting to make a timelapse of, gave up after 3 hours when my camera flash started playing up.


M. duweii hasn't stopped flowering for months now. My hooked spined form unfortunately didn't want to play ball and wasted away.


My Disocactus hybrid has been going nuts lately, 4 open flowers right now and about 12 or so more buds to come. Looks ratty but the flowers more than make up for it.

[amanzed]

Those red Disocactus flowers are pretty insane (i.e. terrific).

[Arjen]

great looking plants and flowers, particularly the disocactus

[majcka]

To me pachypodium is the nicest on your pic. Lamerei I belive.

[SnowFella]

Cheers!
Got lucky with that Disocactus, planets must of alinged in my favour or something like that for the stepdaughter to buy a house where the previous owners having had that plant and left it behind just for me to score it since she didn't want anything to do with it. It's got 2 more flowers opening on it tonight too

Have to say I like that P. lamerei too, although you wouldn't of thought so from all the not so nice names I was calling it during repotting! Picked up 2 of them at the same time, the one in the photo and another virtually identical one for the wife's part of the yard. Mine's sheltered under an awning while her's is subjected to the elements and full afternoon sun, be fun to see what one fair's the best in the long run!

[SnowFella]

Finally some flowers again, this one greeted me happily on the bench as I came home from work today.
Came as M. mazatlanensis and it's the first time in bloom for me.


First Mataucana in bud, no tag as I bought it but I'd guess M. madisoniorum.


My oddball Mammillaria that sprouted something weird from a tubercle a few weeks ago keeps on being weird.


And lastly what one tiny little hungry caterpillar did in a matter of hours yesterday. Newgrown pad from this year so I guess it must of been tasty, not that I'd try it with all those glochnids!