My cool-hibernating cacti

[Tofterigen]

Hi everybody

A part of my small indoor collection consists of cacti on the windowsill of an unheated staircase, 8 to 10°C during winter. The windows are roughly south-west-exposed. In the moment there are some 7 hours of direct sun everyday (if it is sunny anyway). During winter the sun will not reach over the roofs of the other site of the street, so there are more than three months without direct sunlight.

I will show two fotos (left window, right window) with numerated plants and short comments. If I am wrong in some place, please let me know!

left window:

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01: Notocactus ottonis
02: Trichocereus spec. (terscheckii?)
03: Gymnocalycium schickendanzii (bought recently)
04: Oreocereus celsianus (I like it!)
05: Pachycereus pringlei (growing slower than I expected)
06: Ferocactus (stainesii?) (I had a much nicer one which was unfortunately stolen this winter)
07: Browningia hertlingiana (up to now, has kept it's beautiful colour)

right window:

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08: Echinocactus grusonii var. pachyspinus
09: Trichocereus spec. (candicans?)
10: Echinocactus latispinus (bought recently, with some subtenant)
11: Ferocactus pottsii var. alamosensis (one of my favorites, beautiful colour)
12: Echinocactus platyacanthus (bought recently, little big ball)
13: Gymnocalycium saglionis (rotted from the very beginning, didn't recover, flowered last year and prooved not to be pflanzii, as I thought)
14: Stetsonia coryne (longest spines in my collection (9 cm), young spines with beautiful colour ("spinebloom")
15: Ferocactus glaucescens (my largest globular, nearly 20cm diameter, two flowers this spring which didn't make it through the spines)

will be continued,

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[Marzhattan]

Hello, your collection is simply lovely! I was wondering how you care for your Browningia Hertlingiana, mines has been steadily growing but has slowly lost its blue shade and is simply greenish now. Was hoping maybe you knew something that could help it go back to its natural color? thanks!

[Tofterigen]

Hi Marzhattan

All cacti need a minimum of light not only to grow but to maintain their characteristic features like big and colourful spines, general shape or, in the case of B. hertlingiana, the blueish shade of it's skin. That's the reason I wrote:"up to now, has kept it's beautiful colour". Meanwhile it turned out that the Browningia gets sufficient amount of light to maintain ist colour. Nevertheless, my light-situation is restricted. For example, if I try to grow Echeverias, which I really like, they will always etiolate and loose their shape. If you do not own a greenhouse or a place to put your plants out at least in the summer, you are faced with restrictions like that. I mentioned my light-situation in general at the beginning of this post so that interested people may compare their situation and results with mine.

I assume that your Browningia gets enough light to grow but not the sufficient amount to maintain it's colour. Inside my appartment there is a Melocactus which is growing on but shows no evidence of a cephalium at all. There is a little more light at the presented windowsill, but the winter-temperatures are too low for a Melo, quite apart from the fact that all of the few places are occupied!

I hope that my informations will help you in some way!

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