The geodesic domes

[iann]

I have several Mammillarias with very similar dense flat white spines. Most people will have heard of M. herrerae:

herrerae-0516.jpg (83.56 KiB) Viewed 1783 times

For some reason this one is called M. albiflora. It was once considered a subspecies of M. herrerae but is very different in very many ways:

albiflora-0516.jpg (61.06 KiB) Viewed 1783 times

Perhaps not so common is M. humboldtii. Same spines, but very different flowers:

humboldtii-0516.jpg (73.52 KiB) Viewed 1783 times

[Ron43]

Beautiful! Thanks for sharing.

[Tiggy]

What nice specimens. Love those flowers!

Susi

[DaveW]

Nice plants and pictures Ian.

[Thord Hakansson]

Love those "white " mammillarias! My humboldti´s are not as open as yours and offsets to a high degree.

[DaveW]

Forgot to ask Ian, how do you stop dirty water from the potting compost rising up such close white spined plants by capillary attraction? I always find the lower half inch or so of mine tend to get dirty, even though I do top dress the pot with grit.

[keith]

Beautiful plants Iann !! 2 of my favorite Mammillarias. Humboltii I'm still trying to figure out.

Dave has a good question about watering I have the same problem. One thing I have learned is watering from above so all the spines get wet I think this reduces capillary action from lower wet to upper dry spines. Has to be done on a sunny day so the top of the plant dries off quickly. I still get the dark stain if it doesn't dry out fast enough and its really hard to clean off once it stains.

E. Bokeii does the same thing

[iann]

I use top dressing, which prevents most problems. Also don't oversoak the soil. Excess water will soak up and stain the spines.

M. albiflora has the best flowers, but is otherwise the least attractive and most troublesome. Immense long taproots on tiny plants, plus mites seem to love them but are almost impossible to spot until they destroy the plant.

albiflora-0521.jpg (73.56 KiB) Viewed 1603 times

[Samee]

wow, I love the dense white.

[DaveW]

I use top dressing too Ian, so how deep is your top dressing? You say don't over soak the soil, so are you bottom watering rather than in the top of the pot?

[Eutow_Intermedium]

=^~^= I could only dream of having one of these stunning , and yes Geodesic plants.

So very attractive . .

Congratulations are due on these stonking little plants.

[DaveW]

"I could only dream of having one of these stunning, and yes Geodesic plants."

Why, you can grow them from seed? They are not species usually grown from offsets, so somebody had to grow them from seed.

Don't know about all those in Ian's pictures, but he grows a lot of his plants from seed I think and three Mammillaria herrerae and M. albiflora of a similar size in the pot looks like they came from the same batch of seed rather than a nurseryman?

[keith]

I wonder can you cross M. herrerae with M albiflora? What would the plant look like ? I did but only 1 seed sprouted and it's years away from revealing anything.