From somewhere in Orange County CA (November 2013)
- Rebutia heliosa -- link from 2018 review Part 7
Easy to remember when I received the plant -- a few days before Thanksgiving. This was an eBay purchase, although I forgot to archive the order and I can't remember the name of the nursery. It doesn't matter where the heliosa came from, and what we're about to see is all that counts.
The heliosa's first 2 summers under my care on 9/21/14 and 9/20/15:
What happened next is pretty amazing -- 9/24/16 and 10/13/19:
My only complaint -- nasty-looking stuff getting on the spines. I don't know what it is, but not life-threatening plus it does come and go.
The heliosa has been a reliable bloomer ever since it favored me with flowers in spring 2016, although last year's flower production was a bit disappointing. The plant more than made up for it this year -- a healthy crop of buds on 6/5 and 6/6:
The flush beginning on 6/11...
...builds up to this a day later:
Give it one more day, and here's the heliosa's best display ever:
As new pups keep coming in, the pot is looking crowded, so I may need to give the plant a bigger pot next year. Is that a problem? If so, it's a nice problem to have!
A small collection meant that I could only go on a small holiday buying spree in 2013, which really began with the heliosa. It continued with the 2 Epithelanthas from Mesa Garden, and the spree's main event brings us to...
More cacti from Miles' To Go
- Cumarinia odorata -- link from 2018 review Part 5
I was pleasantly surprised to find that Cumarinia isn't shy about offsetting -- the parent plant showing pups on the its west-facing side (9/21/14 and 9/20/15):
Same dates on the east-facing side:
Now we'll see what those west-facing pups are up to on 3/14/15 and 10/6/19:
Nice! What would be even nicer is seeing new pups, although I had to wait a few years for that -- patience being rewarded on 10/21/18 and 10/6/19:
An aerial view on 9/21/14 and 10/6/19:
Cumarinia is self-fertile -- being a prolific bloomer, lots of flowers turn into lots of fruits that turn into an ooey-gooey mess when you harvest the seeds. The trick is to give the fruits a good long time to dry up, which will make seed extraction easier. The flowers themselves aren't much to look at live and in person, but photos up close might tell us a different story -- one of the pups in bloom on 6/22/20:
Something I didn't notice until I reviewed that "helicopter shot", so let's zoom in:
Yep, those are 2 brand-new pups on the right!
Cumarinia odorata certainly has its charms, but there is a downside -- those fishhook spines can grab you, so you'll need to be careful about not ripping them off when you handle the plant.
- Stenocactus lloydii -- link from 2018 review Part 15
Spanning 5 years of excellent growth on 9/20/14 and 10/12/19:
I don't have any benchmark views from above prior to 2016, so we'll use this one on 9/17/16 (left):
A side view of the lloydii spines and all on 10/12/19:
Didn't have the chance to post the following pics for my 2020 beginning-of-summer review, so we'll take care of that now -- flowers on 2/24 and a vibrantly active growth point on 6/27:
S. lloydii is one of the most eye-catching Stenos you'll ever see, although Miles' To Go seems to be the only place where we can find them. If you'd like to get a lloydii for your collection, you're in luck -- Miles Anderson has them in stock again.
- Mammillaria perezdelarosae ssp. perezdelarosae -- link from 2018 review Part 10
What a gem, and a relatively fast grower too -- 6/28 and 9/21/14, followed by the end of its next summer on 9/20/15:
The perezdelarosae needed a change from "dirty" mineral mix to clean mix -- same pot with a dose of clean mineral mix on 5/15/16, and the results at the end of another summer on 9/29/17:
Ah, yes -- the "leaning tower of Mammillaria" begins, and I think that burst of new growth in 2017 must've been due to the clean mix. The perezdelarosae as it keeps getting longer and more recumbent -- 10/21/18 and 10/13/19:
Wow, this is beyond anything I could've imagined when I first got the plant! Moving ahead to 2020, the following pic should give you a chuckle -- the perezdelarosae at the end of its long winter's nap on 3/29:
Sleeping right over my Ario fissuratus -- good thing too, because the Ario is the only cactus in my collection that's low enough to the ground to stay where it is. Okay, time to wake up (6/12):
These photos back up my contention that the perezdelarosae is thirsty enough to want watering every 10 days during summer, so I've updated the summertime schedule accordingly. Then we'll get to see if the plant stands up more by the end of this one.
I have one more item in Mr. Anderson's holiday package to show you, but we'll save it for Part 12.