Snowfella's cactus trials

[SnowFella]

After nearly 2 weeks of misserably wet weather the sun finally came out today and forced some of my winter flowerers to start opening.

First flower for this little M. laui


M. gracilis


M. kraehenbuehlii coming back from a mite attack and flowering again.

[SnowFella]

Loving that even during the coldest time of the year, was 2C this morning, I'm still seeing flowers and buds forming. Even one of my Haworthia's is throwing up flower stalks, got the timelapse camera set on that one with settings that should turn a days worth of photos into just over a seconds worth of video.

M. ? with first flowers in my care, more buds coming.


M. carmenae, likely hybrid, starting to budd up.


Same with M. bombycina


Bit more advanced than I thought it would get, Parodia haselbergii.


Newly purchased Rebutia/Sulco clump in 12cm pot


And some gardenbed progressions.
M. Mystax once again putting out longer spines.



M. compressa starting to form a nice clump.

[aarondeeza]

Just joined this forum, and read through this thread from start to finish.

this is great, im starting to feel the addiction now too.
its a strange feeling being on my computer having countless tabs open about a million different cactus related things, grafting, strains, soil mixtures etc

also just went to hamiltons the other day for the first time and it was pretty awesome to see all the different types of cactus. is this the nursery you visit most?

[SnowFella]

Once that addiction kicks in that's it

Acctually been quite a while now since I went out to Hamilton's. Not that I've slowed down much in getting new plants but I seem to of more or less exhausted Hamilton's supply, they seem to have a set amount of staple species and new plants doesn't seem to turn up all to often. So nowadays when I head out there I tend to look for the odd one out, trying to pick something out of the ordinary out of those 100's of plants they tend to have.

[aarondeeza]

which nurseries are you go to at the moment?

[SnowFella]

Lately I've picked up alot of plants from Flower Power, generally have a decent cacti selection but nothing comes with labels. So it's total guesswork as to what you are getting....that's half the fun though!
Lots of the plants in the below thread came courtesy of either the Penrith or Blacktown Flower Power.
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=28382

[Arjen]

lovely flowers, especially considering that it's winter!

[SnowFella]

Cheers.

Been nice and sunny the last few days and it's forced out some more flowers, though with next to no cloud cover overnight it's been cold and getting colder.
M. bombycina desided to start playing.


Extreme closeup of the M. lauii flowers, or rather flower.


P. haselbergii...should really be asleep at this time of the year.


And I suspect that in a week or 2 I'll have flowers on both the M. mystax and compressa in the outdoors bed, there's buds galore starting to form.

[SnowFella]

Even though we are nearly a month away from it officially is classed as spring it sure is starting to feel that way now. Still cold during the nights but like clockwork it climbs up above 20C during the day, and boy are my plants starting to take the hint.

M. mystax is going to explode with flowers soon, some early birds have already opened.


M. compressa close behind.


Even M. geometrizans is pushing out new growth, going to have to prune it soon as it's starting to grow into the fence.


On the bench things are taking off aswell. Didn't bother with any fancy setup and just shot these straight off the bench.
M. wildii with a full head of flowers


M. scrippsiana, somewhat lopsided but still.


M. marksiana that only had a handful of flowers last year is working on nearly 20 buds at once.


M. bombycina


What I originally though to be M. carmenae but now have to rethink that ID


2 new purchases from the other week, one Lobivia something and the second a total unknown.



And lastly my timelapse in the making, started it when the tallest stem was just starting out. Pot on the right will show quite the opposite as the plant is rotting away from the base up.

[majcka]

Nice close-up that M.geometrizans of yours.

[SnowFella]

Bit more progress on the benches now that temperatures really are heating up, first day of the season that I've desided it's shorts weather and it's just the 5th day of spring down here.

Sad little M. wildii that none the less flowers, flowers on the left are on the main stem that's leaned over 90 degrees.


M. marksiana with just about a full ring.


M. ? with a scattering of flowers.


And some buds in progress.
M. pilcayensis I think.


M. spinosissima


M. spinosissima "un pico"


Wrinkled little splat of Thelocactus hexaedrophorus working on it's first bud in my care. A second smaller plant is doing the same but isn't as far along.

[SnowFella]

Just another 2 random photos from the collection, both unknown.

Mammillaria something with it's first flowers.


Total unknown that looks like it's setting buds. Cleisto?

[SnowFella]

Some more spring shots from the last few days here, likely be more plants in bloom over the coming week or so.

First 2 Epi's for the year opened the other night.
"David Copperfield", unfortunately didn't open wider than that.


"Pegasus", bit more open.


Was followed by the first 2 Rebutia's, don't really have solid ID's for them.



Second T. hexaedrophorus kicked in.


Even one of my Weingartia's is sporting a lone flower.


Welcome lifesign from the Mamm, though it was dead as it sat all last year doing nothing.


General look of the Mammillaria side of the bench.

[adetheproducer]

Nice collection some really good looking plants wish had the room for that many.

[gemhunter178]

I see you got a lot of Mamms! Very nice looking collection!