Strukto 2012

by **Arjen** » Wed Apr 25, 2012 6:05 am

thanks guys!

peter, no, I bought it at a convention last year, it was then already flowering size

by **Minime8484** » Wed Apr 25, 2012 6:09 am

Wonderful photos & plants - really love those beautifully grown Turbi's!!

by **Arjen** » Fri Apr 27, 2012 6:21 pm

thanks!

rebutia pygmaea MN031

: rebutia pygmaea MN031 270412.JPG (22.15 KiB) Viewed 214 times

rebutia brunescens

: rebutia brunescens 270412.JPG (29.4 KiB) Viewed 214 times

by **CoronaCactus** » Fri Apr 27, 2012 6:40 pm

Good stuff, Arjen!

by **Minime8484** » Fri Apr 27, 2012 7:12 pm

Beautiful! Really lovely color on that R. pygmaea!

by **fanaticactus** » Sat Apr 28, 2012 4:45 am

I guess the "pygmaea" really is! You can't even see the cactus under the flowers!

by **Arjen** » Sat Apr 28, 2012 6:16 am

thanks guys! you can actually see a tiny speck of spines if you look very close, but it's tiny

sorry about the blurry brunescens pic, the red is so bright I can't get a sharp picture of the stamens...

by **hegar** » Sun Apr 29, 2012 3:44 am

Hey Arjen,
are those spines you speak of located at the top between the two blossoms?

I do have a few of these pygmy cacti and I do love them. Many of them produce abnormally large flowers for their small size. Yet these plants can be very tough. Both my Turbinicarpus valdezianus plants were left in the ground when we had 72 hours of subfreezing weather, reaching lows of 7 degrees F one night and 8 degrees F the next (minus 14 degrees and minus 13 degrees Celsius). They were only covered by a tarp and both survived and flowered the same year. One of them already bloomed this year, while the other plant does not look very good. I have no idea why there is a difference between the two. The one looking worse is actually older (purchased earlier) but never looked better than the plant I bought later. They are less than 12 inches (30 centimeters) apart in the ground.

Harald

by **mughal113** » Sun Apr 29, 2012 5:18 am

Rebutia pygmaea flowers are mind blowing. Thanks for sharing Arjen

by **Arjen** » Mon Apr 30, 2012 7:21 am

mughal, you're welcome and thank you for the nice comment!

hegar, yes, that is where they are!
remarkable that your turbs survive outside, what's a tarp?

by **hegar** » Tue May 01, 2012 4:11 am

Hello Arjen,
what I called a "tarp" is actually a roll of brown plastic that is vented to allow the entry of water and air, but keep the weeds from coming up. I bought such a roll with tiny holes (pores) a long time ago, when I still had a garden for vegetable growing purposes. You can for example cut a cross-shaped hole into this material and then put a tomato plant through that opening. Now with the garden area having been used up by an addition to my house I had no use for this material. However, I found out that it works extremely well for covering up small cacti. It also does not get punctured easily.
Most of the time we do not get heavy precipitation when the temperatures get to be low enough for me to worry about the survival of my cacti. So I only leave this protection in place long enough until the low temperature during the night will be above 25 degrees F (minus 4 degrees Celsius).

Harald