Blossfeldiana

30March2010

A special Kedrostis africana

Posted by Stuart under: Other Succulents.

I’m normally very, very good at killing these, so I’m rather glad of the fact that this one has made it through its second winter with me.

This rather unimposing plant (in just a 2” pot at present) has particular sentimental value, coming as it did from my late friend Len Bell, member of BCSS Clacton branch, who died last year. His adult kedrostis was in the habit of self setting seedlings around his greenhouse, and this is one of two that he sent me when having a bit of a tidy-up in 2008. The other I sent to my friend Ray in Norfolk as a memento of Len.

I remember fondly a long conversation with Len about folk music at the last BCSS national show – he was a great character, and a talented grower – and sadly someone who I knew all-too-briefly in real life. I did, however, enjoy corresponding with on the BCSS discussion forum for a good while.

So, as you can imagine, it’s important to me that I keep this little fellow going.

23February2010

Sweet sweet bulbs

Posted by Stuart under: Other Succulents; Propagation.

Herewith, my current crop of Bowiea volubilis seedlings. It was suggested to me that I might want to chip away some of the seeds’ hard coating before sowing to improve their germination rate.

Needless to say, I did nothing of the sort; I can be a bit clumsy, and the sum of “me + knife” all too often equals “A & E”. Hence, I sowed these as I would normally, sealed them in a plastic bag, and Hey! Presto: lots of long, grasslike leaves.

I’ve peeked beneath the surface of the compost and they are starting to produce tiny little bulbs. One of the seedlings (third from the left at the front) is just making its second leaf.

21February2010

It’s worse than that…

Posted by Stuart under: Cacti.

…it’s dead, Jim.

Herewith, a couple of failed experiments at growing outdoors. First, some unknown echinopsis hybrids, which have taken on that horrible pale translucency that non-hardy cacti go when they’ve been frozen solid and snowed on:

Meanwhile, the majority of Cylindropuntia x kelvinensis has merrily turned into unpleasant black mush. I don’t hold out much hope for the recovery of any of the stems that are still green – I think they’re on their way out too:

There are some brave soliders that have got through the rain, ice and snow without batting a metaphorical eyelid – take these two opuntias, both of the same species, although I’m not now sure what that actually is. I think, given the severity of this winter, that it’s safe to describe these plants as completely bullet-proof for growing in UK gardens:

21February2010

Cintia knizei

Posted by Stuart under: Cacti.

What a difference a year makes. Here’s my Cintia knizei, on its own roots. It took second place in the “One plant in bud, flower or fruit” class at the BCSS Birmingham Branch table show last week, which I found quite entertaining given that it’s such an unprepossessing plant. Beneath the photo taken today is one taken early last year with its first flower of the season fully opened. The plant itself has grown a good deal and is looking much happier now.

21February2010

Seedling progress

Posted by Stuart under: Other Succulents; Propagation.

Here are a couple of yearlings – on the left, Gasteria baylissiana in a 2” pot, and on the right, Aeonium nobile, already in a 3.5” pot. As the latter is something of a giant species, I was expecting it to grow quickly, but not that quickly! I’ve no doubt that if I’d known what I was doing with it, it would probably have grown still faster.

These plants have been grown under artificial lights indoors, and have now been moved out into the greenhouse – the aeonium is looking a little drawn and obviously wants more light.

Click the images for larger versions.

21February2010

Adromischus diabolicus

Posted by Stuart under: Other Succulents.

There’s not a great deal in flower in the greenhouse at the moment, apart from the ever-present shambles of Haworthia flower spikes. Elsewhere, though, this at least is having a go. The flowers of Adromischus diabolicus are tiny, but not without their charms, and appear singly on a (relatively – for an adromischus at least) short flower stalk.

17February2010

Where did all those come from?

Posted by Stuart under: Other Succulents.

I developed a liking for haworthias and gasterias in 2007, when a couple of very kind people from the BCSS forum sent me some plants and cuttings. At that stage it was a little more than idle curiosity, but not a lot more.

Unfortunately, they proved to be rather fascinating to grow. Oh dear.

Now, as a group, the Asphodelaceae as a family – which includes Haworthia and Gasteria, plus a load of other genera that I don’t grow at all – is the second most numerous in my collection after the opuntias.

How on earth did that happen?

Well, the rot really set in when I was helping at the BCSS 2008 National Show; I was assisting with manning the Tephrocactus Study Group stand, as well as doing some shopping.

Robert Wellens, from Succulent Tissue Culture, was there with a vast assortment of these plants, all wonderfully well-grown. As if I hadn’t already spent enough before I got round to him, I proceeded to give him more money than I’d handed over to all the other traders put together. I came back with, if I remember rightly, about eight or nine plants, including a fabulous hybrid between Haworthia springbokvlakensis and H. comptoniana which, to all intents and purposes, looks like the former. It even has its habit of pulling itself down into the pot.

Then, last year, as well as an abundance of haworthias, I was given a load of gasterias by a friend in Norfolk (thanks Ray!) and that started me off with them. If anything, I’d have to say that of the two genera, I’m probably slightly more besotted with gasterias than I am with haworthias. This may have something to do with the fact that they’re easier from seed. More of that in a moment.

A good number of my haworthias are pretty tatty. In fact some of them look like they’re (still) at death’s door.

There’s a good reason for this – when I acquired those particular plants, they were indeed at death’s door.

I was given them by the widower of a former member of Birmingham Branch of the BCSS, who was clearing out his late wife’s plants. She had been ill for a while before her death. When I spoke to him about them, he reckoned that the plants had been without water for at least two years, possibly three. That they had survived this treatment, dry and cooped up without ventilation, for that long is testament to their extraordinary survival skills. And it’s given me a tremendous amount of pleasure to revive these plants as I remember the lady in question from when I was a member of the BCSS as a young lad in the mid-to-late 1980s.

I said I’d return to the subject of seed-raising. I’ve already grown two forms of Gasteria pulchra, G. baylissiana, and a hybrid of G. bicolor x excelsa. It’s anyone’s guess how the last of those is going to turn out. Gasteria seed seems to yield similar results to mesemb seed, i.e. sow 10 seeds and you get 12 plants, whereas haworthias are a lot less accommodating. That said, I have a few nice H. springbokvlakensis seedlings sown last year which are doing well, and a beautifully dark H. bayeri.

I’ve sown seed of 15 different species and forms of gasteria this year, obtained from Steven Brack at Mesa Garden. Most of them have some habitat data. Swaps anyone?

(click on the images for larger versions)

16February2010

Growing Austrocylindropuntia malyana

Posted by Stuart under: Cacti.

Or, “How to look after a cactus that doesn’t like being treated like a cactus.”

Austrocylindropuntia malyana, or Austrocylindropuntia lagopa as we should now be more correctly calling it, is one of my very favourite cacti. It tends not to be offered for sale terribly often, and when it is, it’s usually grafted onto something like Opuntia humifusa or Austrocylindropuntia subulata, as there is a common conception that it’s hard to grow on its own roots.

I’d venture to suggest that if you try and grow it like a normal cactus (water only from spring to early autumn, allow to dry out between waterings, dry in winter) it’s pretty much impossible to grow on its own roots.

I’m pleased, therefore, to say that the two flourishing specimens above are mine, and, indeed, are ungrafted. It’s not a hard plant to grow, but a few things need to be borne in mind.

It comes from very high altitudes, and experiences cold and wet at the same time. Moreover, if you see photographs of it growing in habitat, huge clumps can be seen overhanging mountain streams and rivers.

That’s the most important thing to know about this plant. Don’t, under any circumstances, allow it to dry out for very long. I keep mine – as you can probably just about see – standing in one of those plastic containers that Ferrero Rocher chocolates come in. I try and keep between half an inch and an inch of standing water in there. The plants are always wet at the root, even in winter, which is when they seem to want to grow most of all, although mine grow all year round.

I haven’t found strong light or high temperatures to be a problem, but I do have strong ventilation in my greenhouse. I’ve heard it suggested that if you can’t provide adequate moving air in your greenhouse during the summer, you’re better off putting these outdoors.

Repotting is something I haven’t tried yet. I’m told, by René Geissler, that it’s best to try and keep the whole rootball intact, and not disturb any of the relatively weak root system. The plant can be lost if the roots are disrupted too much.

27December2009

Rhipsalis

Posted by Stuart under: Cacti.

What a poor year’s blogging. I must try and do better in the next twelve months. However, I’m not going to make a New Year’s resolution of it, as that’d be the kiss of death.

As I’m sure many plant enthusiasts do, I bought myself a couple of Christmas presents last week – a couple of rhipsalis from the local garden centre: Rhipsalis cassutha (left) and Rhipsalis micrantha (below).

They weren’t cheap, but they’re super plants, and in remarkably good condition considering the fact that they’ve been living in a garden centre for several weeks.

The Rhipsalis cassutha comes with some interesting (i.e. pretty inaccurate) information and advice. Apparently it is a “robust, trendy plant that can be positioned almost anywhere.” Really? Since when did rhipsalis become trendy? I must have missed that. Even the majority of cactus growers tend not to give them house room. I’ve always liked them, myself, but then I’m odd.

I was amused by the non-commital advice regarding light conditions: “Plenty of light to full sun, but also thrives in semi-shade”. Handy hint: full sun will not do the thinner-stemmed rhipsalis species any good at all. Keep them out of direct sunlight, as they’re forest plants.

The watering advice isn’t really any more helpful: “Water sparingly; once a week is often enough. The plant can occasionally go without water.” Well, yes, sort of. That really doesn’t give a non-specialist buying one of these things anything like enough information to grow it well. Basically, they don’t like being waterlogged, but they don’t like to dry out completely either. They can go without water, but they won’t enjoy it, and will often get the hump if left dry for any length of time.

It’s an age-old problem; nurseries and garden centres like to shift units, so it’s not in their interests to give full cultivation advice – so, if you’ve bought one of these and happen to stumble on this article, hopefully you may have slightly more of a chance with them. They’re lovely things.

25May2009

Aztekium ritteri

Posted by Stuart under: Cacti.

Aztekium ritteri fascinates me.

It’s a very tactile plant, extremely rough to the touch, and its wrinkly texture reminds me of the face of poet W. H. Auden in his later years.

I don’t grow this species on its own roots, simply because I haven’t come across a reasonable-sized plant for a reasonable price. I suppose that’s inevitable given how slowly it grows, but it does seem to be the case that one can get hold of a mature plant of Aztekium hintonii fairly easily, but not its close relative. On a graft, like the majority of slow-growing Mexican plants, it offsets far more readily than on its own roots.

My plant is approaching 2 inches in diameter, and is shown here with its beautifully delicate pale pink flowers. It’s grafted on Myrtillocactus geometrizans.

16May2009

Dwarf opuntioids in flower (part one)

Posted by Stuart under: Cacti.

Difficult to handle, often capable of outgrowing the most accommodating pot in a matter of minutes… there are plenty of reasons why people decide not to grow members of the opuntioideae. A major plus point for me is that I like to be able to watch things grow and opuntias in general provide a pleasing contrast to a tray full of ariocarpus that have sat still for years.

And who’d've thunk it, but they flower too. Here’s Maihueniopsis minuta WG299 putting on a tremendous display. The plant is in a pot that measures 4″ wide by about 5″ deep, and is the first dwarf opuntioid that I’ve grown from a rooted cutting to flowering size.

It’s astonishingly heavy for a relatively small plant: the bulk of it is subterranean. When you see the size of the flower-cup you begin to understand why the plant needs to establish such enormous underground energy reserves before it can set about flowering, and why the majority of buds abort:

16May2009

A broken Leuchtenbergia

Posted by Stuart under: Cacti; Pests & Diseases.

I have a good number of adult plants of Leuchtenbergia principis; it’s one of my favourite species of cactus. I’m not sure why, as it’s an unprepossessing, scruffy-looking thing. It’s probably because it has lots of personality.

I found a few years back that the more water I gave them when they’re in full growth, the happier they are.

Giving them a similar watering regime to fraileas generally stops the tubercles drying up and encourages them to flower beautifully. You can’t really overwater leuchtenbergias as long as they’re in a very free-draining growing medium. This plant started looking peaky about halfway through last year, and I foolishly didn’t unpot it and check what was wrong.

Through the autumn and winter, it gradually shed more and more tubercles. When I did get to unpotting it a few weeks back, I realised that it must have lost its roots a good long while ago. I didn’t repot it when I bought it a couple of years ago – and the compost it was in turned out not to be terribly airy, which could have been the cause. There is definitely life at the centre of the plant, and the thickened roots are sound. I’m hopeful that now it’s sitting under artificial lights in a nice warm heated propagator tray it will think about rerooting.

Certainly a cursory lesson in taking notice of what your plants are trying to tell you!

28April2009

Tephrocactus Study Group meeting

Posted by Stuart under: Cacti.

A quick note to the effect that the Tephrocactus Study Group will be meeting on the 10th of May at the Great Barr Ex-Service Men & Women’s club in Birmingham. There will be illustrated talks, members’ plant sales, and much dwarf opuntia-related chat.

For more information phone Alan Hill on 01142 462311 or email  alanhill3@sky.com

You can join the TSG using the subscription form on the TSG website; if you are interested in opuntias it’s well worth considering.

28April2009

Watering ariocarpus

Posted by Stuart under: Cacti.

This year, as soon as there were hints of spring, I turned the heating up to keep a minimum of 12C and started watering everything quite early; even the arios were watered in March. After a couple of reasonably light waterings, they had their first real dousing the weekend before last.

I’ve adopted a new technique for this. To imitate river-bed conditions, I’ve taken to filling a bucket with rainwater, and submerging them in it completely, until air bubbles stop rising from their growing medium. They’re then left to drain and dry off somewhere shady before being replaced on the top shelf.

They seem to have enjoyed it. There are no immediately obvious casualties, and they have all visibly inflated, suggesting that none of them has failed to reroot after the winter drought.

13March2009

Early red spider mite attack

Posted by Stuart under: Cacti; Pests & Diseases.

I’ve discovered that a handful of my fraileas and a lobivia have all been marked by the little beggars, and it’s fresh damage. The reserve collection at Winterbourne has also been hit, and several plants damaged. I’d be interested to know whether this is peculiar to Birmingham, or whether others are experiencing something similar.

Has anyone else had unseasonably early trouble with red spider mite this year?