A small collection: 2015 and beyond

[Steve Johnson]

Nominally it's still winter, but aside from the cold storm front that went through on the cusp of February and March, a good number of cacti on the plant bench are acting more like it's been spring for at least a month. Here's what SoCal's touch of winter looked like as I visited a job site in Pomona last Tuesday:







For those who feel like their winter may never end, hopefully the following will cheer you up a bit...

We'll begin this post with Mammillaria crucigera. (Misidentified as huitzilopochtli? If you'd like some controversy, you can follow the discussion here.) A crown of wool developing among the tubercles piqued my curiosity about what could be happening -- as we go from mid-November to 2 months later:



I sorta kinda figured the situation would lead to buds. Was I right, or was I right?



It's interesting to note that one of the faster-growing Mamm species has such a slow "gestation" period when wool develpment finally signals the appearance of buds. My crucigera's very first flower on 2/18:



The plant wants to parcel out its blooms in dribs and drabs right now. No sign of a wreath yet, although this view from the top is a nice look at the growing point with springtime activity:



2 side views:





There are still plenty of buds ringing the crucigera, so we can count on more flowers through the end of the month. It may not be the wreath I was hoping for, but that's what I said about my spinossissima before I saw this -- the red-headed Irishman showing the best display I've seen thus far:





I'll definitely keep my eye on that crucigera. Next, here's another Mammillaria gift that keeps on giving -- perezdelarosae:





This Strombocactus disciformis didn't want to be left out, getting an early start on the year with its first bud of 2015 in mid-January:



Going from bud to bloom:





Ah, what a warm winter can do! Here on 2/21:





More evidence of an early spring -- Epithelantha micromeris cramming in 3 flowers. Tiny, but they're unusually colorful this time:



The highlight of any cactus grower's winter should be flowers on Eriosyce senilis. Here's my old reliable in its 4th year of blooming -- from zero in January to full throttle in early March:















We have about 2 months of the rainy season left, so a few more soakers would be wonderful. And with every day that goes by, it becomes less and less likely that whatever rain we get will include a late-winter cold front. Such being the case, this small collection says "on your marks, get set -- grow!"

[luigonz]

your Eriosyce senilis is magnificent !

[Cleistocrazy]

I 2nd Luigonz's comment, that Eriosyce senilis is a impressive plant with fantastic flowers!

Thanks for sharing!

Bob in Chula Vista

[tomo]

All the newly repotted plants look great. And wow! what a beautiful parade of flowers! especially the Eriosyce senilis, it is awesome!

[Steve Johnson]

The repotting project continues to be educational, so I'll begin this installment with opposite sides of my experience moving a couple of 2011 "veteran" cacti from their original soil-based California Cactus Center mix to the pumice-DG mix I've been using since spring 2012...

This Sulcorebutia rauschii didn't take kindly to being in the CCC mix, although you wouldn't know it by how the plant looked at the end of its first summer under my care:



A different and rather sad picture before the rauschii was ready for its move into pumice-DG mix in April 2012:



Coming out of the CCC mix, the plant had a taproot and nothing else. Furthermore, the bottom part of it was gone -- apparently torn off, although I was mystified about what actually happened. Now we get to see what 3 years in mineral mix have done for the rauschii's roots -- wowza!



Into a glazed ceramic pot it goes:





Sulco rauschii always comes out of its winter looking nutrient-deprived. But give it regular watering and fertilizer over the growing season, this cactus takes on a beautiful, healthy green color in the summer. All those pups are another sign of excellent health, and we'll see its brood increasing. Don't be surprised if the rauschii needs a bigger pot in a few years!

My Gymnocalycium ochoterenae vatteri didn't mind being in the CCC mix, as it established easily and grew fairly well during its first summer. With that said, mineral mix moved the plant's progress along quite nicely. As we check out the repot, this entry includes a sneak preview of my "trademark" winter shriveling/spring plumping presentation. The vatteri could've used a good soak in early March, but I wanted to make sure its roots were dry before repotting. Therefore it was a sip instead of a soak on March 8 -- like I've seen with a number of my other cacti, a sip was all it took to demonstrate some pretty impressive plumping when an efficient root system wakes up at the start of spring:



While the "archaelogical dig" analogy appplies to every other plant I extracted up to that point, the vatteri was remarkably easy -- it just popped right out of the pot! Can you say "rootbound"?





In Gymno terms, vatteri can be something of a monster when it gets bigger. I have a feeling that mine is on its way there, and with the appropriately larger pot I selected, I'm sure it'll love being in its new home:





Next up, here's something that was a must-have when I started buying plants from CoronaCactus 3 years ago -- Mammillaria blossfeldiana. IMO one of the most attractive fishhook Mamms you'll ever see, and big, showy flowers on this miniature species make for an unusual display I find irresistable. Even better is when flowers produce fruits. Although I don't see it all that often, I held onto this pic from January, a fun little red-hot touch of color in wintertime:



Rewinding back to spring 2012, I didn't think about photographing my cacti "in the nude" back then, so of course I couldn't remember what kind of root system blossfeldiana has. Does it have a taproot? I'll make up for that little oversight now:



Oh yeah, a taproot and then some!



Unlike the practically spring-loaded Gymno vatteri, my blossfeldiana really didn't want to let go of its pot. Trying to untangle the roots from the drain hole screen was a major undertaking, which unfortunately didn't turn out as well as I had hoped. Here's the plant plus the piece of taproot I had to leave behind:



Okay, not the end of the world. However, intuition told me that soaking the roots in Hydrogen peroxide would be helpful to the healing process in this situation. Since blossfeldiana is such a strong little grower, it won't have any problems re-establishing in its new pot:





The repot was 2 weeks ago, so the plant gets a deep drench tonight. Should be back on track in no time, and given the great history I have with my blossfeldiana, the return of flowering in summer is a safe bet.

I'll end this installment with another CCN cactus -- Gymnocalycium stenopleurum. I received the plant in July 2012, and I was finally making it part of my standard practice to photograph cacti roots and all whenever they arrive. Here's what the roots looked like upon receipt, and then repotting time last weekend:



Not bad, eh?





I'll sign off for the moment with a brief weather update. The overnight lows in my area have passed above 50 over the last 10 days, so that's the cutoff which indicates a solid no-doubt start of the growing season here. For those of us living in a coastal or semi-coastal SoCal microclimate, "June gloom" usually starts in March. As in right now, and it helps to keep the overnights from dipping back down into chilly territory. Naturally this also means that daytime highs tend to be on the cool side, although portable GH 3.0 has been doing a great job with keeping the temps up on the plant bench when the marine layer burns off. Not so much as a hint of precipitation in my 10-day forecast either, so unless it changes between now and then, the GH will come off next weekend. After that, I'll throw caution to the wind -- or more to the point, rain! A good April shower would come in handy, and if it happens I'll be ready for a session of watering the natural way!

[Steve Johnson]

And since March 20 was the first day of it, why not send out an eyeful right from the get-go? These early spring bloomers are happy to oblige...

Mammillaria crucigera about to end its flower run for the year:



Turbinicarpus pseudomacrochele:







3 flowers already, and seeing them this early in the year indicates that my lovely old Turb should be blooming often over the growing season.

Astrophytum asterias -- what a tease! Since the plant started flowering for me in 2013, I've been able to catch a fully open one on camera exactly once. The other half-dozen times were during the work week. However, I won't complain at all because my success with the species makes up for the huge trouble I had trying to grow them in my younger days. Now here's an early start for you. First bud of the year was detected in January, so we'll fast-forward with a look at its progress beginning on March 8:





Thursday the 19th was flowering day, although of course this was the only view I'd have before I headed out for work that morning:



2 days later, the flower was on its downward curve, but still worth posting a couple of pics:





If your powers of observation are keen enough, you'll notice a brand-new bud (possibly 2?) next to the dying bloom. I'm more than happy to let the asterias tease me as much as it wants. And one of these days I'll catch it in flagrante delecto!

In the first official weekend of spring 2015, my Mammillaria deherdtiana had to be the star of the show. Let's follow along as this beautiful cactus goes from buds to blooms:





The view from above on 3/15:



As the buds continue growing:





The flowers are starting to open:



And now it's showtime!











Strombocactus disciformis waiting in the wings:



Also on the way, I have a Mammillaria grahamii setting buds. What its flowers lack in size they make up for in numbers, and as the most prolific bloomer in my Mamm contingent, we'll see the grahamii more than once during the spring and summer.

[Steve Johnson]

It's always fun to see our cacti come out of their winter dormancy as they begin a new growing season. And since spring has definitely sprung here in L.A., it's time for the 2015 edition of winter shriveling/spring plumping...

I'll preface this presentation by noting a basic fact: In Mediterranean-type climates dormancy is more of a light sleep compared to what could be fairly described as "hibernation" in climates with cold winters. When I started my "terracotta out, glazed ceramic in" project almost 3 months ago, it was a real eye-opener to see roots that should've looked dead and yet were anything but. Then as the project continued well into January and February, what I observed was so remarkably consistent -- and from that I arrived at my analogy. Because the microclimate in Costa Mesa is quite similar to mine, Craig Fry's winter watering care advice has been spot-on. I can put 2 and 2 together now that I've had the opportunity to look at how the roots of my cacti behave in winter, so this gives me a full understanding of why occasional winter sips should be recommended practice for those of us who live in areas that make it possible. Such being the case, most of the cacti in my collection didn't go through as much winter shriveling this year as they have in the past. However, I do have a few nice examples to demonstrate for you, so here are the following cacti as they go from "low tide" at the end of their winter dormancy to the response a week after they get their first deep watering of the year.

Turbinicarpus pseudopectinatus.



Mammillaria perezdelarosae.



Leuchtenbergia principis.



The Leuchtenbergia is starting on its 2nd growing season under my care, so I'll be looking for new tubercles soon. Maybe its first flower too?

Next, a couple of 2011 veterans -- Astrophytum myriostigma and Mammillaria grahamii.





The plant bench hosts a short list of cacti that shouldn't get any water at all during wintertime. On the list -- my first and only Escobaria just loves its first spring soak:



As with the Leuchtenbergia, my E. minima is starting on its 2nd growing season. I haven't noticed any signs of flowering or new offsets yet, although hopefully I'll see one or the other (or both) this year.

I let my Tephros go completely dry in winter, and their response to water in early spring is pretty amazing. Tephrocactus articulatus inermis:



This T. articulatus papyracanthus (AKA the famous paper-spine cactus) is another 2011 veteran. A before-and-after photo to show you how much water it'll lose over the winter:



The paper-spine filling up its water tank:



As fans of the genus will attest, Tephros can be real water hogs, and keeping them plump all the time is a great way to end up with stem drop. This is an easy method of propagation, but I'd rather have mine intact if possible -- while there's no iron-clad guarantee here, keeping them on the thirsty side over the growing season should minimize the potential for dropping stems. Unless that's what you want, of course!

I'll have one more shriveling/plumping post up soon, but in the meantime I think y'all should enjoy what's coming next!

[Steve Johnson]

Dateline last weekend of March: 2 activities we can look forward to as spring is underway here in cactus-land. First, buds for a new installment of my spring flower review in the making...

Astrophytum 'capristigma' -- this rather prolific bloomer is working on its first flower of the year.



Mammillaria deherdtiana with a 2nd flush on the way.



Mammillaria grahamii showing the 1st of multiple flushes in progress.







Gymnocalycium stenopleurum.



Strombocactus disciformis.



Next up, buds (well, flowers actually) and pups together in the same cactus. While there's nothing unusual about that in and of itself, this Epithelantha micromeris has grown into being such a wonderfully odd specimen. When I got it from the California Cactus Center in May 2012, I frankly had my doubts about whether or not I would do well with the plant. Now here we are 3 years later, and I'm thrilled with the results!



4 pretty little flowers on top:



No buds yet (that'll be a summer thing), but here's a Pygmaeocereus bylesianus with 3 brand-new pups:





My Cumarinia odorata is generous with its offsetting behavior -- a new one just popping its head out:





I'll sign off for now with a view of this gem getting busy -- Copiapoa laui increasing its brood:

[Steve Johnson]

Alright, I just filled the last of the ceramic pots I have on-hand. While the project is by no means over yet, this gives us a good stopping point to catch up on the latest installment.

Whenever I have cacti in need of a repot, I try not to disturb them if they're in mid-flower. Eriosyce senilis Sr. was done with its flush a couple of weeks ago, so here we are at repotting time:



Ooh, pot-shaped roots! Release the root ball, and in it goes!



This is a package deal, as the beautiful little seedling volunteer (AKA E. senilis Jr.) needs repotting too:





Coming up on 3 years since Jr. announced itself, the plant has turned out to be a strong grower. I wouldn't be surprised if it'll require a bigger pot next year.

Here's a shot I've been dreaming about for quite awhile:



No commentary needed for these 2 cacti -- Astrophytum 'capristigma'...





...and Coryphantha retusa:





Although I don't generally go to all-purpose nurseries for cacti, there are rare occasions when I'll poke around and find something worth bringing home. That's how I got a lovely Gymnocalycium baldianum in July 2013. It was a real mess cleaning the nursery's crappy mix out of the roots, but once I moved the plant into mineral mix, a happy baldianum thanked me with a good start on healthy growth and flowering that continued through the 2014 growing season. The roots coming out of the nursery's pot on the left, and on the right an excellent argument in favor of pure mineral mix:



The baldianum in its new glazed ceramic home:





Mammillaria crucigera was another summer 2013 entry into my collection. As the last of the cacti to be repotted in this round of glazed ceramic, it was fitting to see a wonderfully extensive root system fill the pot:



Here's a bare-root "then and now" look at the crucigera's progress:



(Forget the Mesa Garden label -- I'm still sticking with crucigera as the proper ID.) The silly thing wouldn't stop flowering, although I honestly don't think it would mind being disturbed. The crucigera on its way toward filling a bigger pot:





And how big can the species get? Cactuspedia says up to 2" in diameter and 4" in height. If that info is accurate, then yeah -- my crucigera has plenty of room to grow.

Saturday April 11 will be my first-ever visit to a cactus and succulent show. Of course it'll include a sale, so with 20 glazed ceramic pots I still need to obtain, hopefully I'll get lucky enough to make a dent in the list of sizes I'm on the hunt for. After that there'll be 3 shows I can make in May, followed by the big one at the Huntington in June. If my luck holds out, I'll have a few more installments of "Terracotta out, glazed ceramic in" for you over the next 2-3 months. Sooner or later terracotta will be a thing of the past in this small collection!

[Ralf]

I really like your choice of the new pots. It looks simply gorgeous.
The plants appear much more attractive in that kind of ceramic pots.
They are readdy for a plant show.
I guess that will be the next step what I have to do.

[Robb]

Great collection, Steve! Your micromeris looks great! It'll make a fine plant in a couple of years.

[Steve Johnson]

This post dovetails nicely with my "terracotta out/glazed ceramic in" project. What we're looking for is to see if the roots of cacti I repotted in January and February are going back to work after they settled in. Sometimes 1 good drench isn't enough to get the full plumping effect, so let's find out what happens after they get 2.

Here's the Turbinicarpus polaskii from the California Cactus Center...



...and the CoronaCactus polaskii:



Oh yeah, they're plumped up! Since these plants are prone to splitting if they get too plump, I'll wait for them to look a little thirsty before I water them again. Truth be told, I had a feeling that both polaskiis were likely to stop growing if I kept them in the same pot with the 2 I gave away. Now that they're in their own pots, each polaskii should grow normally from here on out. Inside diameter of the pots is 1.5" -- the view from above to give you some perspective:



It's a pretty safe bet to say that the polaskiis will need a bigger pot at some point.

Copiapoa hypogaea:



Rebutia heliosa:



Strombocactus disciformis:



Ariocarpus fissuratus -- a special case, but only because I wanted to see a good stretch of hot, sunny weather before I felt confident enough to give my Ario its first deep soak of the year. Then on March 24 the time was right, and here's the result 4 day later:



Indeed, indeed -- the fissuratus enjoyed its first drench of the growing season!

There's no bad time of year for getting cacti in SoCal, although fall may not be the best since new arrivals don't have the opportunity to establish before they go through their winter dormancy. However, Miles' To Go introduced Rebutia pygmaea on the list of new items in October -- such a pretty plant with beautiful flowers! Didn't want to miss out on one before they disappear from Mr. Anderson's inventory, so the only question was if the pygmaea would survive winter with occasional sips to keep the roots alive. Here's repotting day (10/19), followed by "low tide" toward the end of February:



"Low tide" again on the left, then the results after deep watering on 3/7 and 3/21:



While the pygmaea isn't back up to its previous summer weight yet, the roots are definitely working. The plant is still establishing, so I won't expect to see flowers out of it this year. But that's okay -- the R. heliosa's bunkmate has a good start on life under my care, and I'm sure it'll put on some decent growth before the growing season ends.

I'll end this presentation with a couple of cacti that are still in terracotta as they wait for glazed ceramic pots I have yet to find. The following plants go along with my Ario as special cases that need some hot, sunny weather before I know they're ready for their first deep drench of the year. This Eriosyce napina glabrescens didn't take long to respond after its big drink of water at the end of March:



After 2 efforts with the species broke my heart, I've been really pleased to see how well my current Echinocereus rigidissimus rubispinus has been doing since I received it in December 2012. A few experienced growers I know told me they can be tricky, so I put rubispinus down as another cactus that needs a spell of hot, sunny weather to get its roots going for a good spring drench. Sounds like a chicken-or-egg type of problem -- should rubispinus start showing signs of new apical growth before it gets watered, or does watering stimulate new growth? In prior springs I went with "chicken" (in other words, see new growth first, then water). But there were enough spells of heat this March to make me wonder if I should go with "egg" now. I got the sense that it was acting a bit too thirsty for my liking, so I had to pull the trigger. As with the responses I saw out of my Ariocarpus and Eriosyce, I called it right -- on 3/24 and 4 days later:



Here we are coming up on mid-April, and the rubispinus is growing:



The egg wins!

This wraps up the shriveling/plumping presentation for 2015. Next on the docket, more spring flowers -- coming soon, my friends!

[Steve Johnson]

I still need to put together the next installment of my spring flower review, so here's something interesting in the meantime...

After watching my first effort with a Melocactus matanzanus slowly die, it's been like night and day to see how well the matanzanus from C and D Plants has been doing. I'm eager to bust a couple of myths about Melos, and since the C and D matanzanus has provided that opportunity in such a nice way, I'd like to share my experience with you Melo fans out there. Before we continue, I'll mention that the following may not apply with all members of the genus. However, I'm sure that matanzanus isn't the only Melo capable of growing wonderfully under the conditions I'm about to discuss.

Myth #1 -- Melos have shallow roots, so they need to be in shallow pots. I'll bust that one as I show you the roots of an adult Melo being grown in pumice-DG mix with a little soil added (the mineral/soil ratio is 80/20). The C and D matanzanus coming out of its nursery pot on 3/18/14 (left), followed by what its roots look like as the plant was about to be repotted at the end of February:



Okay, we're looking at the results of a year's worth of root growth since I've had the matanzanus in a predominantly mineral mix. Although C and D was growing the plant in a lean mix, it's not as lean as mine. Yeah, I know -- not deep in general container-grown cactus terms. But for Melocactus, the evidence here indicates that a mix of the type I'm using should produce a deeper, more extensive root system. I understand if you still might be sceptical, so in case you are, I'll show you what was left behind when I took the matanzanus out of its 4" Azalea pot:



If the pot was a little deeper, the roots would've been able to continue growing down. We'll dispense with conventional wisdom about Melos and shallow pots:



The old and new pots side by side:



Because they go hand-in-hand, this brings us to...

Myth #2 -- adult Melos resent having their roots disturbed, so it can be a long and difficult process to get them established again when they're repotted. This matanzanus says otherwise -- light watering on 3/7, then deep watering on 3/13, 3/21, and 3/28. Now for the results from its repotting time on 2/28 to 4/6:





Another myth busted! Far from being resentful, the roots re-established rather quickly, and it'll be a pleasure to watch the matanzanus do its thing in good health over the rest of the growing season. While it may not work for everyone, I'd say that for most a very lean mix is just the ticket to keep your Melos happy and healthy over the long run. And if you do, there's no reason to fret over the prospect of repotting them.

[Steve Johnson]

And this month has been a very nice one here on the plant bench. We'll begin the festivities with tiny April blooms provided by Epithelantha micromeris:



At the rate it's flowering, the micromeris should end up with a gazillion fruits by fall.

Next up -- not so tiny as my Turbinicarpus polaskiis gave forth with their first flowers of the year:





That was the California Cactus Center polaskii, and here's the one from CoronaCactus sporting a double flower:









It's wonderful to see these guys in bloom only 4 months after their repot. Although it was certainly hot enough, the polaskiis didn't flower as much as they should've last summer, so breaking up the "family" came none too soon. Aside from getting them back on track for normal growth, being in their own pots means that the ones I kept are likely to continue blooming well into summer.

Mammillaria grahamii going from buds to flowers -- its 1st round of 2015:











M. grahamii flowers constantly throughout spring and summer. While the flush you're seeing here isn't its best, give the plant lots of summertime heat, and it'll put on real show later for you later!

Round 2 for Strombocactus disciformis:







I got the lighting just right for these shots:





Now it's all about the flowers!





I'll end this installment of my spring flower review with Mamm deherdtiana -- in a league of its own:













Although the deherdtiana has been with me for 3 years, this is its biggest display to date with a flush not once, but twice! Not easy to find, but definitely worth having if you can get your hands on a deherdtiana for your own collection!

[Steve Johnson]

After a brief hiatus when my supply of usable pots ran out, I'm back in action as this project continues.

We'll rewind to New Year's Day and a rare case of misjudgment, as I point out a couple of pots I couldn't use after all:



Nice design, although it turned out to be a case of buyer's remorse since overly thick pots and limited growing space don't go well together. The California Cactus Center has helped me out with glazed ceramic before, so a trip to Pasadena 2 weeks ago gave me the opportunity for a possible pot swap. There we go --- CCC to the rescue again! I was able to trade these...



...for these:



While the pot in the middle wouldn't normally be my style, I thought about a certain Eriosyce in the collection that should be perfect for it. Howzabout Eriosyce odieri?





Oval plant in an oval pot, plus the odieri's roots fit well in the pot's bowl-like design -- it's like they were made for each other!

I selected the other 2 pots for my Tephros, so here's more terracotta going out. Both plants came from the CCC a few years ago, and my initial experience with Tephrocactus happened to be an articulatus papyracanthus (AKA the famous "paper-spine") that didn't like how I was trying to grow it. I won't bore everyone with a lot of detail, so hopefully these before-and-after pics will be enough to tell y'all a nice story. Here's the paper-spine right after I corrected a few mistakes on 3/16/13, followed by its unpotting last weekend:



And now for the transplant:



I thought the paper-spine's roots would be a little more extensive, although if it's happy enough to keep growing stems, I won't complain. Dimensions of the new pot are pretty much the same as the terracotta pot the plant just came out of. Will the paper-spine ever need a bigger pot? Right now, I'd say no, but if top dressing starts popping out and/or roots are growing down out of the drain hole, I may sing a different tune.

Compared to my early boo-boos with the paper-spine, the articulatus inermis I selected in May 2012 didn't waste any time about growing new stems:



Then it lost a stem in a 2013 repot (the plant was a bit overpotted the first time), and picked up 2 new ones last year. Glad I was lucky enough to find matching pots for the latest go-round:



As they settle in for the rest of the growing season, the Tephros are looking good!



The president of the Sunset Succulent Society recently sent an email to our members announcing the grand opening of Desert Creations in Northridge, CA. Yep, that was today, and of course I had to check the place out. Too bad I don't have the ability to expand my growing space -- if I did, at least a dozen cacti would've followed me home! Aside from ogling a fantastic assortment of cacti and succulents, I was thrilled to find out that their inventory of ceramic pots included 5 I could cross off my list. In our next installment of "terracotta out, glazed ceramic in" we'll have a look at those pots, 2 of which will be gainfully employed tomorrow.