Discocactus placentiformis (sensu lato) growing in my front garden patch in various stages of budding and flowering. http://jp29.org/00br237.jpg http://jp29.org/00br239.jpg http://jp29.org/00br243.jpg http://jp29.org/00br244.jpg http://jp29.org/00br245.jpg http://jp29.org/00br247.jpg http://jp29.or...

cactidan wrote: ↑Wed Apr 11, 2018 7:36 pm I'm with Dave when it comes to pots in shows, as long as it is clean and neat it is just a container. The plant is what should be judged ..........

+1 for cactidan - and Dave.

A word regarding my current mineral substrate mixes: For the container grown eastern Brazilian cacti that I maintain at Bach’s Cactus Nursery here in Tucson - grown under 50% shade cloth - they are (mostly) in just washed raw pumice or decomposed granite/coarse gravel. The containers are medium to l...

Can you still get Buxbaum's fertiliser in Germany then? We used to get it in a small round tobacco type tin in the UK in the 1960's made by Atra, but I have not seen it for years, JP will probably remember these as in this old UK advert ....... Yes I do remember that Dave. Thanks for posting that n...

Discocactus horstii This dwarf cactus is one of the real gems of the cactus world with its symmetrical form, dark brown epidermis, clustered white appressed spines and white woolly areoles. http://jp29.org/dhorstii11y.jpg http://jp29.org/dhorstii11xx.jpg http://jp29.org/dhorstii09z.jpg http://jp29....

.......... I also want to say something about substrate. Even if I am not the scientist for this topic .......... everything is fine. . . With my puny little plants .......... Ah, “puny little plants” indeed K.W.!😊 The magnificent plants you grow are testimony to your skill in using mineral substra...

When I use raw pumice in my mineral based soil mixes I don’t screen out the small granular pumice fines - but I do wash out the dust using a fine sieve in conjunction with a "power spray head" garden hose as dust tends to migrate to the bottom of containers where it can form a drainage imp...

A friend of mine claims you can grow cacti in almost anything if you get the watering right .......... Or as on old-time grower used to say ..... “you could successfully grow cacti and succulents in ground-up automobile tires if you followed good watering and fertilizing techniques” (or words to th...

.......... Regarding Vera Higgins, who was still in the British Society when I joined and judged our branch cactus show a couple of years before she died. Her book was the bible for our older members. You can read the recipes we were given for potting soil in the 1950's in her book here:- https://b...

Much of my own approach in cultivating cacti is based on that espoused by Dr. Franz Buxbaum in his book CACTUS CULTURE BASED ON BIOLOGY (translated by Vera Higgins), Blandford Press, 1958. He was a pioneer in the use of coarse inorganic growing media to insure superior drainage and root aeration -- ...

I have updated the Cultivation Notes web page at .......... http://jp29.org/brcultx.htm .......... In particular to reflect the current soil mix that I use for these cacti. http://jp29.org/0br098.jpg Good evening James, that's what the root ball should look like. Perfect substrate! There is still m...

Mistake post - sorry.

Arrojadoa dinae in bud, flower and fruit: http://jp29.org/00br320.jpg http://jp29.org/00br323.jpg http://jp29.org/00br329.jpg http://jp29.org/00br319.jpg http://jp29.org/00br317.jpg http://jp29.org/00br321.jpg http://jp29.org/00br322.jpg http://jp29.org/00br324.jpg http://jp29.org/00br327.jpg http:...

I have updated the Cultivation Notes web page at ..........

http://jp29.org/brcultx.htm

.......... In particular to reflect the current soil mix that I use for these cacti.

My goodness, K.W. - you “out-dazzle” our Tucson Echinopsis/Lobivia hybrid flower displays by a good margin - congratulations - great photos (as usual)!