I know we should be talking summer here, but I'll include 2 freebies I was pleased to get courtesy of the Long Beach Cactus Club last fall. Great bunch, although my weekend schedule rarely gives me the time to attend meetings. Anyway, I did manage to make one in October (that was a year ago -- wow, how the time flies!), and I drew a cactus or succulent of my choosing. I found a really nice selection too -- Leuchtenbergia principis. I had bad luck with them as a youngster, but my growing practices are light years ahead of where they were in my first 20 years of cactus collecting. Let's see if things work out any better this time around. Here's what the new Leuchtenbergia looked like when it came to me on 10/6/13:
I'm not a fan of plastic pots, and that had to be changed sooner or later. While the urge was to do it sooner, Leuchtenbergias do best with light watering care in winter, so I wasn't sure if disturbing the plant would be a good idea before the growing season started. Since I found the perfect glazed ceramic pot for it, 3/18 was go time to repot the Leuchtenbergia with my "trademark" pumice/DG mix. Repotting day on the left, followed by 6 months in its new home:
A new tubercle would be great, but there'll be plenty of growing time for that next year. I'm just tickled to see that my Leuchtenbergia seems to like what I'm doing.
The other freebie came a month before I got the Leuchtenbergia, a gift kindly given to me by a member of the LBCC. Being a fan of Escobarias, he asked me if I grow them. Don't think I've ever tried one, so he set me up with a lovely little E. minima. Here it is with the 2013 growing season about to end:
My friend advised me to grow the minima hard (i.e. deep watering once a month in spring and summer, no water at all in winter). I've been following his advice, and I really like the results. Here's the plant as it started growing toward the end of May, then said results 4 months later.
The only observation I'll offer here is that the plant came from growing in a greenhouse to being outdoors on the top shelf of my plant bench. The older spines definitely seem to have more of an outdoor look -- no disrespect to my LBCC friend, but I prefer that look over the GH-grown spines. (Does that observation make any sense, or am I off base?)
The Web has been a real game-changer in terms of access to a wide variety of cacti we can find online. While the quality of the plants you get may be a crapshoot if you don't know the seller, knowing a nursery by solid reputation beforehand will go a long way toward stress-free buying choices. I found that out already, when I made my first purchase through the CoronaCactus website in 2012. Although I heard nothing but good things about Miles' To Go in AZ and Mesa Garden in NM, I hadn't done business with them until my new plant bench arrived last summer. Then it was time to go cactus shopping, and I now had the pleasure of dealing with 3 highly reputable online sources. I'll identify the following plants by where they came from, and once again, the "before" pics are dated. If I don't give you a specific date on the "afters", they were taken toward the end of September 2014. Now for the "summer stock" players in alphabetical order...
Ariocarpus fissuratus (CCN). In my younger days, my only talent with Arios was knowing how to rot them. These days it's a very different situation, and the pumice/DG mix I've been using did wonders to give the fissuratus a good start on life under my care. Arriving in mid-July, I figured on the plant needing a summer to establish before I'd expect to see this slow grower do anything above-ground. 10/27/13 on the left as my new Ario was settled in well, and at the end of its 2nd summer on the right:
Maybe difficult to tell, but if you look closely at the "after" photo, you'll see a new little tubercle pointing toward the lower right corner. Here's a side view, 4/12 on the left with a thirsty fissuratus getting ready to grow:
That long beige tuft of apical wool is new this summer, and another sign that I'm looking at my first Ario success!
Copiapoa laui (CCN). 7/14/13 on the left, and notice how it's filling out in this "after":
I detected its first bud way back at the beginning of August. Took a long time before it did anything, but now we have 2 buds, and they may be going somewhere with this. Here's a top view of the laui, 6/9 on the left with some spring activity on the growing point. Check out those buds on the right -- cute little cactus, ain't it?
Will we see my first laui flowers? We'll have to wait together! (Late-breaking news -- if you haven't seen it yet,
check this out!)
Coryphantha hesteri (M2G). My observational prowess notwithstanding, sometimes I need before-and-after pics to tell me if a plant is growing or not. 7/27/13 on the left, and on the right -- is this cactus growing?
Coryphanthas don't do much in summer, so truth be told, the hesteri was probably doing its magic in spring and I simply missed it. Guess I really
was asleep at the switch, because the flowers I saw in August came from out of nowhere. Here's a view from the top -- 4/5 on the left, and on the right that hesteri is looking good coming out of its second summer:
Eriosyce napina glabrescens (CCN). I hadn't heard the term "earth cactus" before I joined the forum, but it fits the description of this very attractive plant. And fun to watch earth cacti go from "splat" in winter to fat after they take up water in spring. Here's the glabrescens 3 weeks after I transplanted it (8/3/13):
No appreciable sulking there, and Ian's advice about deep but carefully-timed watering got the plant through its first summer in fine shape. Okay, now for the splat -- coming out of winter on the left (4/5), but not quite fat after a few spring soaks (6/14):
Take the after, turn it into a before, then you'll see a summer of plumpness and growing:
This top view gives you the full "splat to fat" effect:
When you notice the green parts, it would be natural to assume that the glabrescens may not be getting enough sun. Au contraire, my friends! The back row of Shady Glen is under full sun pretty much all the time, and that's exactly where it sits. Because the species is a summer grower, the touches of green show us a glabrescens that's healthy and happy with what I'm doing.
Gymnocalycium baldianum. After I decided to ditch brick-and-mortar nurseries in favor of my preferred online sources, this was a rare departure from my current buying practice. Sunset Nursery in Silverlake, CA has been a local fixture for many years, and I do pop in there every once in awhile to see what they have cactus-wise. Mostly "garden variety" stuff (pun intended), but a
very nice baldianum caught my eye. Given their attractive form, spidery spines, and deep red flowers, it's no wonder the species is so popular! 3 weeks after the baldianum came home with me following on the July 4th holiday last summer:
The plant getting ready for its first spring (4/19), followed by the end of this year's excellent summer:
While its flowers have come and gone for the year, you can find the spring blooms on my baldianum over at the General forum. Not the most prolific, but we'll see more next year!
Mammillaria guelzowiana (M2G). A big beautiful puffball that keeps getting bigger and more beautiful as time goes by. Here's 14 months of progress starting on 7/27/13:
The pup looking right at us, 9/22/13 on the left:
For some unknown reason, I hadn't set benchmark photos from the top yet, so here's the first at the end of this summer:
It came with just the 1 pup, but guelzowiana is pretty good about offsetting. Let another pup or two come in, and the plant will need a bigger pot -- nice problem to have, huh? Speaking of offsets...
Mammillaria hernandezii (M2G. By the way -- Miles Anderson sends out such wonderful plants, doesn't he?). It came with a pup, so here we are with good shots from the side and top on 9/22/13:
This before-and-after blows my socks off, 3/16 on the left:
The hernandezii started showing a "baby bump" at the end of last summer, barely noticeable then, but you could sure see it in March. The amount of progress in this top view is amazing:
From Cactuspedia: "The hernandezii needs full sun!!! Poorer luminosity levels produce a green anaesthetic plant with open, far and wide spaced areoles." While I thought about that comment, I was kinda concerned about keeping the plant in Shady Glen. Didn't seem to do the hernandezii any harm last summer, but it's
such an attractive cactus, and playing "musical chairs" on the bench allowed me to move its position into Sun Valley. As the old saying goes, better safe than sorry -- the move really paid off. The compact form, deep green skin and dense white spines are simply beautiful, so I'm glad I was able to keep it that way when I remembered Cactuspedia's caution.
Mammillaria huitzilopochtli (MG. Steven Brack is no slouch at selling quality plants either!). Very unusual spination for a Mammillaria, and one of the faster-growing members of the genus. 3 months of growth in its first summer, 7/9/13 on the left -- need I say more?
The huitzilopochtli's first full growing season on my bench, 4/5 on the left:
I fell in love with this Mamm as soon as I saw it on Cactuspedia, and I'm glad that MG had them in stock. Hmmm, I wonder if it's mature enough for flowering yet...
Pygmaeocereus bylesianus (MG). Easy to get it going, 7/12/13 on the left followed by 3 months of growth:
Didn't take long for the bylesianus to show me a new pup, 5/4 on the left:
There was no doubt about putting the plant in Sun Valley from the get-go. Although the new growth does look good, I think I can tell the difference between growing it in New Mexico summers, and the not-so-blazing-hot-all-the-time summers in my part of L.A. Or is it just my imagination? If not, unfortunately there's nothing I can do about it. While we're at it -- my bylesianus gave me its very first flower in August, which I showed you
here. That's a brand-new bud in the "after" pic, although it being so late in the year and all, I don't know if the plant will make it into flower. October looks promising after an early fall heat wave, so if steady 80-plus daytimes keep going, we may see this night-bloomer at work again! (Update --
11 days of October heat did the trick.)
Strombocactus disciformis (CCN). I hadn't tried growing a Strombo before, although the same applied with most of my other 2013 cacti. I'm always up for challenges, and besides, how could I resist a spiny pineapple? I'm sorry that Darryl has disappeared from the forum's radar screen, but I was glad to have his guidance so I sorta kinda knew what I was doing when I introduced his plants to the collection. The disciformis came ready-made with a bud that went into flower on 7/27/13:
A lovely cactus it was last summer, so let's see if I'm doing as well. 4/12 on the left:
As you can tell, the plant shriveled a lot over the winter, but that's what desert cacti do -- no biggie. My miscalculation was not knowing how much water this thirsty plants needs during springtime. Every 2 weeks? Perhaps okay in early spring, but I suspect that it should've been deep drenches once a week starting when May heats up. I finally got a clue at the end of June, so I'll keep this experience in mind for next year's growing season. In the meantime, my disciformis ended its 2nd summer in decent shape. A bird's-eye view of the growing point:
Aside from my spring watering boo-boos, I was pleasantly surprised to see the disciformis flowering remarkably early and often. In case you were wondering, the species likes to send up flushes -- I wouldn't be surprised if we see a repeat performance next year.
I'll end this installment with...
Turbinicarpus jauernigii (MG). A great addition I selected for my Turb contingent, and I haven't had any trouble with it. Didn't grow much last summer, but I didn't expect otherwise. 7/27/13 on the left, and 14 months to the day on the right:
Nothing to see on top last summer, although the situation is different at the end of this one:
A couple of observations worth noting here. First, when you look at the before-and-after photos, you'll notice a distinct change in appearance when the jauernigii went from the dry desert heat in NM to my more humid semi-coastal L.A. microclimate. And since MG was growing the plant in a greenhouse, we'll throw in the difference between the sun there and its current spot in Shady Glen. The new spines are robust enough, although I'm not thrilled about how green the skin looks. There
is something I can do about that. However, in the interest of keeping my TMI under control, I'll just say that what I have in mind will hopefully make the jauernigii look less like a green jelly baby next year. The second observation goes like this -- we play a dangerous game if we water our Turbs too often. One problem is ending up with bloated, elongated plants -- consistent with what can happen to all Turb species. Luckily I haven't gone that far with any of mine, but some Turbs are also prone to splitting if they're overloaded with water. The jauernigii is still new to me, so I'm trying to use some reasonable judgement on whether or not the plant looks thirsty enough for a nice deep drink. It's tricky right now since the jauernigii clearly wants to keep growing. So far, so good, and there's another hope I have -- no splitting!
As we're on a roll here, it's time for a look farther back in time...
) to a good number of our longtime forum regulars, I just wanted to re-introduce myself over here on Member Topics. For those of you who haven't heard the story before...
