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walker87 wrote: ↑Tue May 29, 2018 10:52 am I have about 70 unique varieties of gymnocalycium.

Seventy Gymno varieties? SEVENTY?

Pictures... Show us some pictures!

PLEASE!

DaveW wrote: ↑Fri Jun 08, 2018 9:33 am I can also pick them up from him at our yearly Cactus Explorers Weekend he runs ...

Hullo Dave... Hows the weather where you are. It's been raining everyday here... Lucky for me all my outside cacti are under the plastic of the greenhouse.

Always being on the lookout for a new place to buy cacti, I'm curious as to whether or not he (Graham Charles) sells any of these gymnos (currently, I only have four) over the internet...

They keep predicting the UK equivalent of a heatwave here but, dull today and may rain.

Graham now does sell at Plant Marts in England, not just Gymno's but many new discoveries like Matucana roseiflora, Matucana rebutiiflora and M. hoxeyi etc. He used to give talks to British cactus clubs and bring plants for sale, but has retired from that now due to all the travelling it involved and only does British Cactus Marts, British Conventions, Cactus Explorer Weekends and ELK. I am afraid no British grower now will legally send plants out of the EU because of CITES certification problems. The EU is a stickler for CITES regulations and whilst everything exchanges easily within the EU countries there's virtually a CITES "Berlin Wall" around it regarding cacti in and out.

You will have a job legally importing plants from Europe to the USA, though seed goes through the post OK. The only European CITES approved nursery I know able to legally export worldwide is Uhlig's in Germany and the cost of the CITES paperwork they have to supply usually exceeds the cost of the plants, unless it is a very big order.

https://www.uhlig-kakteen.de/en/

If you want Gymno's from a foreign dealer you will have to raise them from seed yourself (as Graham Charles does with most of the plants he sells) and Piltz is a good source of seed since he originally collected many of the plants in habitat himself, hence the "P" numbers.

https://shop.kakteen-piltz.de/en/species/44

The "new" plants that come in to the EU come in through the far more lax E. European members backdoor to the EU and then spread throughout it within a few years since they are good propagators and graft a lot, both to propagate plants and also to produce seed for sale by pollinating the grafts.

DaveW wrote: ↑Tue Jun 12, 2018 9:49 am Graham now does sell at Plant Marts in England,..

I did think that Customs might have some say in the matter, but I didn't give "Cites" the first thought. Oh well... I didn't really give it too grest a chance of succeeding, but thought I'd ask. And, as usual, you have been ever so kind as to provide a valuable set of info in this regard.

I thank you very much for your time, effort and consideration. It was very kind of you. Some people would have simply answered "no, he doesn't", and left it at that.

This is kind of a random remark on my part, but I was looking at my lone gymno today, and I felt reminded of dinosaurs. Does anyone else think they somehow resemble dinosaurs? hahaha

Not dinosaurs, but the prehistoric sea life that you see so many fossils of... Trilobites? Sea urchins?

Maybe that's what I'm thinking of -- just a prehistoric look! It's funny that you mention sea critters, as I always found it remarkable how sea life such as coral often resembles cactus life.

saboten wrote: ↑Fri Jun 15, 2018 2:28 pm This is kind of a random remark on my part, but I was looking at my lone gymno today, and I felt reminded of dinosaurs. Does anyone else think they somehow resemble dinosaurs? hahaha

I do Saboten! They have this kind of tubercles that in my mind resemble dinosaurs and crocodiles too!
Here is a Gymnocalycium ragonesi, which I particularly like and my Schickendanzii, which flowered for first time.

It is not flowering season of Gymno in here.
They were in flower last November.

G. spegazzinii v loricatum sown seed in 2003


G. spegazzinii v ornatum sown seed in 2004


G. vatteri sown seed in 2004

I've grown 100s of Gymnocalyciums of the years
I really enjoy the heavily spined varieties

I haven't researched the true names on these 2
maybe someone can comment
I have the name G. schuetzianum on it
but not sure that is the real name, no flowers yet.

I think :

1st one is G. schickendantzii.
2nd one is correct name but you have to confirm it by pink flowers.

Not sure about the first one, maybe G. acorrugatum or G. castellanosii.

But the second one definitively looks like an Gymnocalycium spegazzinii ssp. cardenasianum.

C And D wrote: ↑Sat Jun 30, 2018 3:09 pm I haven't researched the true names on these 2
maybe someone can comment

7George thinks the second is a Gymnocalycium spegazzinii ssp cardenasium
Here's a picture of mine, although it is very youing ... its a recently acquired specimen ... just for comparisons sake ... I hope it helps

My G. spegazzinii ssp cardenasium, sown seed in 2004

Thanks for the picture Frank. That is an exceptionally good-looking Gymno specimen ... Now I know what mine will look like in 14 years... At which time I'll be, uhhh, 79

Joking aside, I must say that I think you are a most amazing grower. I do not think I have seen any pictures that you have posted that we're not VERY good-looking specimens of cacti.