A small collection: 2015 and beyond

[Steve Johnson]

I'm about to start working on the next round of my 2018 review, and after I just posted Part 5, I couldn't wait to give you an eyeful from today's doings on the plant bench. Mammillaria deherdtiana in full flower:

[A_G_R]

Beautiful! I struggle with deherdtianas in my GH

[Steve Johnson]

Beautiful! I struggle with deherdtianas in my GH

Thanks, Alejandro!

From what I've seen elsewhere, M. deherdtiana apparently isn't exactly the easiest to grow on its own roots. In fact, this species may be the slowest-growing Mammillaria we'll encounter, which is probably why we rarely see them in US collections. Although my experience is limited, I've found that very slow growers do best in the soil-less mineral mix I use for a lot of my cacti -- deherdtiana included. Unfortunately Arizona is too hot and dry for soil-less mixes, but there's an expert grower in your state who might be able to give you some advice -- Miles Anderson. Miles is a great guy and really helpful, so if you email him at Miles2G@aol.com, he may be able to tell you about whether or not he has any success growing the species. And if he does, I'd recommend that you follow any advice he has to offer.

[keith]

I think M. deherdtiana don't do as well in the heat as some other cactus. Mine grow OK in California but when I moved to Phoenix it didn't grow very well during Summer.

[A_G_R]

Beautiful! I struggle with deherdtianas in my GH

Thanks, Alejandro!

From what I've seen elsewhere, M. deherdtiana apparently isn't exactly the easiest to grow on its own roots. In fact, this species may be the slowest-growing Mammillaria we'll encounter, which is probably why we rarely see them in US collections. Although my experience is limited, I've found that very slow growers do best in the soil-less mineral mix I use for a lot of my cacti -- deherdtiana included. Unfortunately Arizona is too hot and dry for soil-less mixes, but there's an expert grower in your state who might be able to give you some advice -- Miles Anderson. Miles is a great guy and really helpful, so if you email him at Miles2G@aol.com, he may be able to tell you about whether or not he has any success growing the species. And if he does, I'd recommend that you follow any advice he has to offer.

Thanks Steve! You are absolutely right about Miles, big part of my collection comes from him , as a matter of fact, my 2 deherdtianas came from him, I saved one of them as a small graft on Peresk and the second one is hanging in there on its on roots-but no flowers

[Steve Johnson]

Before we get to today's main event, here are a couple of "Easter eggs" -- Turbinicarpus klinkerianus and Gymnocactus ysabelae enjoying a brief spell of mid-April heat:




Echinocereus

• E. rigidissimus var. rubispinus (CoronaCactus Nursery, December 2012)

First photo on 12/21/12:



Perhaps the most strikingly beautiful columnar you're likely to see, I instantly fell in love with E. rubispinus when I found them at the California Cactus Center in July 2011. When I brought one home with me, there was an important thing about the species I had yet to learn. I didn't know then what I know now -- if rubispinus isn't given occasional light watering in winter, the plant will lose its roots. I kept the entire collection completely dry over winter 2011/12, and the newbie mistake cost me the rubispinus plus a Melocactus matanzanus I got from the CCC in the same month. (You'll hear more about my experience with Melo matanzanus in a future presentation.) Luckily the CCC stocked rubispinus again the following spring, so I tried another one. The plant came with a bud that went into bloom, and what a drop-dead gorgeous flower it was! Then suddenly the poor thing rotted on me, and the newbie mistake that bit me this time was failure to thoroughly clean the roots before I repotted it -- see lesson #1, which I learned only after I saw what happened to my Copiapoa hypogaea in summer 2013.

No disrespect to the CCC, but I figured out that it wasn't the best place to go anymore. By the summer of 2012, CoronaCactus became my preferred source, and it was also a major advantage to get my cacti bare-root from Darryl Craig. When I received his rubispinus, I asked him if there was anything I needed to know with regard to its watering needs. Bingo -- occasional winter sips so the roots don't die off to the point of no return. Thanks to his advice, I finally had a rubispinus that would grow for me. Here it is on 9/20/14, 9/17/16, and 10/21/18:



The plant gave me its first flower in May 2016, then another one in 2017 and '18. Now the rubispinus is working on not 1, but 2 buds, so we'll have something we can really look forward to later this spring.

• E. viridiflorus ssp. canus (Miles' To Go, August 2016)

First photo on 8/27/16:



After the success I had with rubispinus, my track record with 2 other Echinocereus species wasn't good. First, an E. pectinatus 'Coahuila' I got from CoronaCactus in July 2013 didn't want to grow at all, and I suspect that "dirty" mineral mix" prevented the plant from establishing its roots. I began doing business with M2G that summer, and when I went on the hunt for some new and interesting cacti in spring 2015, Miles Anderson's website was offering a couple of items that filled the bill. You'll see one when I get to my Mammillaria group, and the other was E. viridiflorus ssp. viridiflorus. Of course we see green skin on cacti all the time, but green flowers are rather unusual, so that was one of the reasons for my choice. Arriving on 5/16/15, the viridiflorus started out with clean mineral mix, and it was already taking up water that summer. Promising start until it rotted right after a hot summertime cloudburst about 4 months later. It was simply bad luck on my part, although truth be told, I wasn't inclined to find a replacement anytime soon. I'm glad I held off, because viridiflorus canus is a lot more interesting, and blessings upon the M2G site for this discovery. Here it is on 9/17/16, 9/17/17, and 10/21/18:



Not exactly the most attractive lighting in that 3rd shot, so here's a better one on 4/14/19:



Yep, the canus is growing quite nicely. The plant isn't mature enough to bloom yet, but when it is, I'll enjoy seeing the green flowers to go along with those pretty and colorful spines.

And now for something completely different...

Epithelanthas

• E. micromeris (CCC, May 2012)

First photo on 5/6/12:



I got it the same day as my ill-fated rubispinus #2, although my luck with this little guy has been nothing but wonderful. Didn't seem that way at first, which we'll see here on 5/6 and 6/10/12:



It was rather distressing to have the plant lose so much water in only a month, but I'm really glad that a senior member on the forum was there to help me out. Basically, he said "be patient, they can take a long time to establish". And he was right, as we'll see on 2/27 and 3/30/13:



Plumping and flowering, that's a good sign. Let's look at what the rest of the 2013 growing season had in store for us -- 5/4 and 7/7/13:



1 step forward, 2 steps back. Okay, what's going on? I had the micromeris in a 3" standard terracotta pot, and instinctively I wondered if the pot might be too deep for it. I moved the plant into a somewhat shallower plastic pot on 7/17:



Guess my instincts must be pretty good, since a couple of marvelous things started happening. One will be obvious, one not so obvious in these shots from 9/21/13 and 9/20/14:



Indeed, that's a brand-new pup on the right. What you see next might blow your mind just a little -- going from 9/20/15 to 10/21/18:




I don't have enough space for a seed-growing operation, so I usually give away the seeds I get to local growers. But in this case, I tried sowing some of the micromeris' seeds in the pot. The results -- seedling #1 popped its teeny-tiny head out in September 2013, then #2 and 3 the following May. The parent and seedlings are doing incredibly well, and everything in this pot is way better than I could've imagined. (Strangely enough, the micromerises are my only cacti still growing in "dirty" mineral mix. I could be tempted to give them a dose of clean mix, but as the old saying goes -- if it ain't broke, don't fix it.)

• E. micromeris var. dickisoniae (Mesa Garden, December 2013)

First photo on 12/22/13:



My success with the micromeris encouraged me to try other Epithelantha species. Since MG was known for its massive inventory of plants, I had a feeling that would be the place to go for what I was after. Steven Brack sent me 2 gems, and here's the first one on 4/26/14, 9/20/14, and 9/20/15:



The view from above on 9/20/14 and 9/20/15:



I just love seeing those pups in odd places, although I kinda thought that Steven's identification might be off. After doing some research online, it turns out I was correct, and the species is in fact E. micromeris dickisoniae. Given my experience with the CCC micromeris, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the dickisoniae was fairly easy to establish. Here it is doing a "runway turn" on 9/20/15:



The plant needed a change from "dirty" mineral mix to clean mix, and since I thought it might get top-heavy as it continues to grow, I moved it into a deeper pot for some added stability on 4/24/16:



The dickisoniae on 9/25/16 and 10/6/18:




Clean mineral mix did the trick for better growth, and it improved the plant's flowering too. A bird's-eye view on 9/25/16, followed by 10/2/18 with a pretty little flower in top:



Another bloom on 10/7, and the dickisoniae ended its summer with 3 more on 10/19:

• E. bokei (MG, December 2013)

First photo on 12/22/13:



I became fascinated by this species from the first moment I saw photos of them on Cactuspedia. Almost impossible to find as grown plants here in the US, so I was very fortunate that Steven still had bokei available for sale. The plant did take the better part of a year to establish, but totally normal since bokei is a very slow grower. On 3/16/14 and 9/20/15:




I assumed that the plant would be a singleton, so the pup poking its little head above ground in summer 2015 was quite a pleasant surprise. Time for my bokei to get a change from "dirty" mineral mix to clean mix -- and a bigger pot (3/5/16):



Ooh, looks like there might be a brand-new pup hiding way down in the base. Who knows how long it took for the first pup to announce itself, so I have a feeling that if this is pup #2 on the way, we won't see it anytime soon. In the meantime, we'll take a gander at what's been going on above-ground -- 9/25/16 and 10/6/18:




Not all that impressive, huh? It appears that the pup is doing most of the growing, although I like the way that the parent stem's growth point was widening out last year. Can't expect too much out of the slowest among my Epithelanthas, but with clean mineral mix on the job, we might see some really nice progress this year.

[mmcavall]

A good reading, as always. Thanks for sharing your experience with each of your plants. It inspires me.

[mmcavall]

And do you know if the watering tip for E. rigidissimus would apply to all Echinocereus in a general manner? I have only E. fitchii, and it is a slow grower or.... I may be doing something wrong. Thank you again!

[Steve Johnson]

And do you know if the watering tip for E. rigidissimus would apply to all Echinocereus in a general manner? I have only E. fitchii, and it is a slow grower or.... I may be doing something wrong. Thank you again!

You're quite welcome, and thank you for your kind words! Your question is a good one, and I believe occasional wintertime sips should apply to pretty much all Echinocereus species. What I've been doing with both of mine is light watering every 4 weeks November-early March -- just enough to moisten the mix without accidentally drenching it. The exception this year was holding off on the sips in February since it was an unusually cold month for SoCal. Obviously not a problem for me, though. With that said, your winters in the Cerrado Region aren't that cold, so you won't have to worry about cold snaps which could interrupt your winter watering routine.

[mmcavall]

Thank you, Steve. Indeed, even in the colder day of the year I think a light watering wouldn't kill most of my plants... I don't need , in fact, to stop watering during winter. But I tried last winter (60 days without water) and then in spring many plants rewarded me with flowers. So I think a dry winter is important even if it is not really cold. But I will do water some of the plants such as Parodia and the Echinocereus, now that I read your post.

Thank you again

[Steve Johnson]

We still have plenty of summer 2018 left to cover, but first, here's a review of a different kind. From my archive of 2019 pics...

Eriosyce senilis -- from buds on 2/16 to blooms on 3/9:




E. senilis and friends on 3/12:



A sweet flush on 3/12:




Mammillaria perezdelarosae standing watch over my Ariocarpus fissuratus on 3/15:



The species is a wonderfully prolific bloomer. Once it starts setting buds, you'll be in for a month or two of continuous flowering. Going from buds to blooms on 2/24, 3/15, 3/16, and 3/30:




A nice side shot on 3/16:



Stenocactus lloydii -- its first flower of the year hiding in all those long, long spines on 3/9:



Same flower on 3/13, and you'll be able to see several buds too:



The lloydii with 3 blooms on 3/15:




Gymnocactus ysabelae on 3/12 and 3/24:




On 3/24 -- the ysabelae joined by my Turb klinkerianus with its first flower of the year:




Mamm crucigera on 3/24 and 3/31:




Although the flowers on crucigera are tiny and unassuming, their colors are striking:



Nothing tiny or unassuming about these flowers -- Mamm deherdtiana. You saw the plant's incredible display on 4/13, and here's how it started (3/23 and 3/24):



The deherdtiana isn't done blooming yet, so I may have more of it for you in the very near future.

Turbinicarpus pseudopectinatus -- this follows up on a story I posted here. Sure took awhile, but it was nice to see a bud actually going somewhere this time (1/24 and 3/9):



The bud getting bigger and bigger on 3/16, 3/23, and 3/27:



Now for the bloom on 3/29 and 3/30:




What a beautiful flower, isn't it? And how long will it last? The answer -- 7 days:



While the petal color faded quite a bit, the flower was still beautiful at the end. Tiny cactus with a big attitude -- ya gotta love it!

This brings us up to April. Sulcorebutia callichroma longispina setting its first buds of the year (4/19):



The top shelf facing east on 4/23:



The longispina's first flowers look pretty good, but we can do a lot better. Howzabout this shot from yesterday?




Fantastico! South American cacti need a cool winter rest for flowering in spring. In fact, the cooler the better -- after a series of depressingly dry, warm winters, I'm hoping that the nice cold SoCal winter we just had will encourage my South Americans to bloom more than I've seen in recent years. The longispina is off to a good start, so I'll find out if the Rebutias and other Sulcos in my collection follow suit.

[Steve Johnson]

We'll mix in past and present for today's post, leading off with an update on the Eriosyce duripulpa I showed you in Part 3. Recent events going from bud on 4/13 and 4/28 to bloom on 5/2:



This is the duripulpa's 2nd flower, and its 1st one last June was awfully shy about opening. Maybe that's just the way they are? Wrongo! Give it a day, and the flower really opened up:




The beautiful cactus in wide-open bloom that ended my previous post springboards us to...

Rebutias and Sulcos

• Rebutia heliosa (eBay purchase, November 2013)

First photo on 12/1/13:



Cactuspedia has given me quite a few good ideas over the years, this being one of them. A nursery in Orange County had one for sale as a buy-it-now item on eBay, and of course I can't remember the name of the place. Doesn't matter -- the price was quite reasonable, and the seller sent me a gem. However, there was a small down side, so I'll put it to you this way. Whenever you buy potted cacti from a nursery, and if "rich, wet mess" describes what comes out of the pot, you really need to something about it ASAP. That I certainly did a few days after I received the heliosa. Growing in a potful of pure mineral mix, here's the plant in its 1st summer under my care on 7/18 and 9/21/14:





I moved the heliosa from terracotta and "dirty" mineral mix to glazed ceramic and clean mix in February 2015. We'll look at the before-and-after results on 9/21/14 and 9/20/15:




Pretty good so far. Then the plant went nuts -- we'll take the "after", turn it into a "before", and what we see on 10/6/18 may knock your socks off:




The heliosa's offsetting is simply marvelous, although it'll need a bigger pot soon. While there's nothing I can do about it now, I'll be putting some wasted space to good use soon, so the plant will be one of several offsetting cacti about to get more "leg room" this summer.

• R. pygmaea (Miles' To Go, October 2014)

First photo on 10/19/14:



I got a Sulcorebutia arenacea from CoronaCactus Nursery in July 2013 as I was filling my new 2-shelf plant bench. Lovely cactus back then, but it was bigger than I expected. When it got bigger and bigger, the plant slowly turned ugly and went monstrose, so I said "that's it -- off you go!" Not one of my best selections, and I gave it away to the California Cactus Center so this freed up the spot for a cactus that's more my style anyway. Goodbye arenacea, hello pretty little pygmaea! By the end of summer 2016, the plant grew well enough to need a bigger pot, which I took care of the following March. Covering 4 years of growth on 10/19/14, 9/18/16, 10/8/17, and 10/21/18:






Sorry, arenacea, but your tiny orange flowers were kinda ugly too. The pygmaea's big salmon-colored blooms are way more attractive, and if you'd like to see what they look like, you'll find examples from my 10/20/18 presentation here. (Not the only "eye candy" you'll see in that post either!)

• Sulcorebutia rauschii (California Cactus Center, June 2011)

First photo on 9/27/11, and what it looked like after its first winter on the old bench (4/2/12):



I wasn't sure if the poor thing would survive, but once I moved the plant from the CCC's soil-heavy mix to mineral mix, it turned out to be a major success story that summer. Going from terracotta on 9/20/14 to glazed ceramic on 9/24/16:




(Glazed ceramic pots really are a lot better than terracotta. Although we won't get into it now, I have a presentation on the subject I'll post over at the Cultivation forum. This may convince people who think there's nothing wrong with growing our cacti in porous clay pots.) The rauschii did well enough in "dirty" mineral mix, but we can do even better with clean mix. It needed a bigger pot too, and the deed was done in March 2017. The results on 9/24/16 and 10/20/18:




Holy guacamole! And when we zoom in on the bird's-eye view of the "after" shot, we'll see this:



Yes indeed, new pups -- and right where I was hoping they would show up. I can't get over how much of an improvement clean mineral mix has made in the collection's overall growing quality. The rauschii certainly shows it, and you'll find more proof of this with...

• S. callichroma var. longispina (CCC, March 2012)

First photo on 4/3/12, with its first flowers about 2 months later:



I had just discovered the Miles' To Go website thanks to the forum, and that's where I found this stunning little Sulco. I was still buying plants at the CCC back then, and when I went there for a couple of items I had in mind, lo and behold, they actually had a callichroma longispina right in front of me. I simply couldn't wait to bring it home with me, and it was the start of a love affair that keeps going. A "runway turn" on 4/26 and 9/20/14:




The longispina was on the verge of outgrowing its terracotta pot by the end of summer 2014, so it went into a much bigger high-fired ceramic pot the following April. And with all the nasty DG fines cleaned out of the mix, the plant was ready to take off. An aerial view on 9/20/15 and 9/17/16:



This is quite impressive -- the side view on 9/20/15 and 10/21/18:



The plant's west-facing side on 10/8/17 and 10/21/18:



We'll end for the moment with this shot from today:

[mmcavall]

A good reading as always...(did I said it before?). Very interesting to see the results of clean mix and glazed pots.

[Steve Johnson]

My current collection had the humblest of beginnings when I purchased 2 cacti from a local Armstrong Garden Center in May 2011. As it so happens, both species were in my first collection when I discovered the hobby as a young pup way back in 1970. In fact, the one that begins today's presentaion might've been my very first cactus -- which I found (oddly enough) at a Lucky supermarket in Glendale CA. Fond memories of my early collecting days led me to Armstrong and...

Mammillaria spinossissima

AKA the famous "red-headed Irishman", first photo on 9/27/11:



I potted the 2 Armstrong plants with the cactus mix they sold -- E.B. Stone's cactus, succulent, and palm mix. EEK! Hard to believe the poor thing would even survive in that crap, but once I moved it into pure mineral mix the following spring, the situation was about to change in a very good way. At the end of its first summer in soil-less mix (9/22/12):



The Irishman was definitely perking up, and we'll see more progress on 9/21/13 and 9/24/14:



The change from the E.B. Stone mix to mineral mix did the plant a world of good. But it needed a couple more changes, which I took care of as I moved it from terracotta and "dirty" mix to glazed ceramic and clean mix in May 2015. The Irishman reaching its optimum growth potential with clean mineral mix on 9/19/15 and 10/21/18:




In my previous post, I mentioned the possibility that I may be able to expand my growing space. Here's a hint:



That something will be done next month, and it involves big cacti that don't need to be under shade cloth. The Irishman is one of them, so it'll get a bigger pot soon.

Espostoa lanata

AKA the "old lady of Peru", and another old favorite -- first photo on 9/27/11:



Progress (such as it was) on 3/21/13, then 4/19 and 9/20/14:



The lanata turned out to be finicky about growing in "dirty" mineral mix, so I gave it a new glazed ceramic pot and a potful of clean mix in February 2015. Quite a transformation on 9/20/15, 9/17/16, 10/8/17, and 10/20/18:



I was pleasantly surprised to detect a furry little new item on the lanata's base at the end of April 2017, so let's investigate further -- 10/8 and 11/26/17, followed by 10/20/18:



Yuppers, that's a new stem! Since the old lady has a wonderfully thick head of hair, it'll be a good candidate to move out from under the shade cloth. And the young lady growing with it should enjoy that too.

Ending a 20-year absence from the hobby, I asked someone at Armstrong if there were any dedicated cactus nurseries left in the greater L.A. area. She said "yes, there's a place called the California Cactus Center in Pasadena." Hmmmm, Pasadena. I remembered a c&s nursery in Pasadena called Maleenee Desert Gallery, which I went to a few times during the '80s. Could it be the same place after so many years? Yes indeed, owned by the same family that started it in 1975. A month after my visit to Armstrong, it was time to reacquaint myself with the last of the old L.A. cactus nurseries and do some serious shopping -- the primary mission being a hunt for other old favorites from my first 20 years of collecting. Here's one...

Tephrocactus

T. articulatus var. papyracanthus, AKA the famous "paper-spine" cactus -- first photo on 9/27/11:



The CCC didn't have any Tephros in regular stock, but when I inquired, one of the good folks there brought out a paper-spine they had in the "back 40". Could I buy it? The answer was -- yes! In Part 2, I discussed the nursery's connection to a man by the name of Woody Minnich (if you haven't seen the story before, you'll find it here), and I was pleased to know that it originally came from his old Antelope Valley collection. The lady who showed it to me said that paper-spines are notorious for dropping segments. In spite of her best efforts to help me keep the plant intact when I drove it home, a case of accidental propagation turned 1 into 2 a week later. So that's Sr. and Jr. in the first pic. When I ditched the CCC's soil-heavy mix in favor of pure mineral mix the following spring, I assumed the mineral mix should be great for them, right? Bad assumption -- after no growth at all by the end of that summer, I had to wonder if I did something wrong. Then a veteran grower on the forum suggested adding some soil to the mix. The CCC's mix came in handy after all, so when I repotted Sr. and Jr. using a 50/50 mix with soil and pumice in March 2013, Sr. immediately started growing new segments. Took a bit longer with Jr., but 2014 was the year to see both paper-spines growing well under my care. There they are at a high point on 9/1/14:



And a not-so-high point almost 3 months later:



Sr. was getting ugly by then, and since I really didn't need both of them, I gave it away and made Jr. my one and only paper-spine. Moving from terracotta to glazed ceramic on 4/18/15, this gives us the opportunity for some insight on what a Tephro's root system looks like:



Those thin, scraggly roots can't be supported in a soil-less mix, so the change-over to 50/50 mix in 2013 was a good move on my part. Proof in the pudding as the paper-spine hit another high point, seen here on 9/17/16:



In the wild, T. papyracanthus goes through long periods of drought. Once they get soaked by a good rain, they plump up and drop segments that root in the ground. Do they behave the same way when they're under cultivation? Apparently so -- first soak of the year in mid-March 2017, then on 3/29 and 4/1/17 we'll see the paper-spine's response coming out of its artificial winter drought:



Kinda disappointing to see those new segments drop, but that's okay -- it'll make more (5/20 and 10/9/17):



Tephros are tough winter-hardy cacti, and it occurred to me that the plant might actually enjoy full watering once a month in fall and winter. The theory is that if my paper-spine stays plump throughout the year, it won't go through a drought-watering-dropping cycle so it holds onto its new segments. After 4 months of fall/winter soaks followed by regular springtime watering, now we'll put this to the test -- 5/19 and 6/4/18:



My theory is holding up so far, with the segments from 2017 staying nice and plump, and not 1, not 2, but 3 brand-new ones. (The newest segment is playing hide-and-seek in the 6/4 shot.) The paper-spine ending its latest summer on 10/21/18:



And the view on 11/24/18:



Nerts! Given my years of experience with the paper-spine, I have yet to find out why it wants to drop segments. If the theory was wrong, maybe there's something about the humidity in my climate that encourages the plant to keep doing it. As long as it continues growing, I won't complain -- and I have no problem finding a new home for dropped segments.

A return to Pasadena in March 2012 netted the Sulco longispina I showed you in Part 7, and the CCC also stocked a Tephro I hadn't tried growing before. And that'll be T. articulatus var. inermis, AKA the "pine cone" (or "cat turd", if you will), first photo on 4/10/12:



Unlike my paper-spine, the new pine cone wasn't shy about growing, as we'll see here on 5/6, 5/26, 8/5, and 10/7/12:



New growth aside, the plant looked awfully pruney. What I didn't know at the time was that it had the same rooting problem as the paper-spine when it was in mineral mix. Same problem, same solution when I repotted the pine cone in 50/50 soil and pumice mix. A happier pine cone on 5/25 and 9/1/14:



Moving from terracotta to glazed ceramic, and the plant is exhibiting a fairly robust root system on 4/18/15:



2 different views on 10/3/15 and 9/17/16:



The view on 4/1 and 5/13/17 -- things are about to get interesting:



Even more interesting by the end of that summer (9/30/17):



Wow, what a fantastically long segment! I didn't expect the pine cone would do that, but it sure adds a lot of appeal to a plant I already found appealing when I got it. At the end of 2 summers on 9/30/17 and 10/20/18:



One more time on 10/20/18:



Both Tephros have been getting monthly fall/winter soaks since 2017, and compared to the paper-spine, this strategy seems to work better for keeping the pine cone relatively intact. Although the pine cone is less prone to dropping segments, I'm sure it'll happen again -- and when it does (like I said earlier), it'll make more!

No disrespect to those of you who enjoy them, but I never found prickly pears or chollas to be all that interesting (and chollas are downright nasty!). Tephros are quite another matter, but they're not the only Opuntioids I find interesting enough to collect. The other 2 members of my Opuntioid group will come up in the next installment.

[Steve Johnson]

And who wouldn't like a cactus called "dead man's fingers"?

Puna clavarioides

An example from Cactuspedia:



It's the most wonderfully odd Opuntioid you'll ever see. The plant in this photo is pretty old, so if I could even find a P. clavarioides, I knew it'd have to be a young 'un. The finding was difficult, but when I put the call out to my usual sources, Craig Fry of C and D Plants finally answered. Here it is on 12/18/15:




Yep, that is a young 'un, so my first challenge was to find a pot that would be small enough for it. A diameter of 2 inches should be about right, although my 2" glazed ceramic pots were being occupied by other cacti. Luckily I'm a pack rat when it comes to pots, and I had a 2" x 2" terracotta pot that would do for the moment. Craig warned me that clavarioides cuttings aren't the easiest to root, and once they do, they take a long time to establish. Such being the case, my second challenge was to determine the mix I should use. Soil-less mix? My experience with the Tephros made me think twice about that. However, their 50/50 mix might be too much soil for the tiny guy, so I split the difference and decided on pumice and granite gravel with 30% soil added in.

When spring 2016 kicked in, I wanted to see if there were any signs of activity below-ground. Doing a check on 4/24/16, I was pleased to see a tiny new root stub:



Could this be the beginning of new roots about to grow? Let's find out -- the view on 5/14, 7/10, and 9/17/16:



There's only one way the clavarioides is plumping like that -- new roots! Then I accidentally unpotted the plant. Wasn't happy about seeing them torn off in the process, but at least it exposed 2 brand new root stubs (9/24/16):



I can only go by Craig's experience with the species, so if he was right, this is a setback. Or is it? A very pleasant surprise revealed itself in early April 2017, so let's have a look on 4/9, 4/20, and 5/29/17:



Take the "after", turn it into a "before", and we'll see another pleasant surprise to end the summer of 2017 (10/8):



With the progress I saw, I was confident about moving the plant into a somewhat bigger glazed ceramic pot. The deed done on 6/17/18:



The roots are sparser than I expected, and while I don't have much to go on, it's possible that cuttings may not have much of a root system compared to clavarioides being grown from seed. FYI, Tephrocactus have taproots only if they're seed-grown, and the same applies to Puna. Since my Tephros are cuttings and their roots aren't all that extensive either, my guess is it'll be normal to have the clavarioides growing rather sparse roots. Interesting to think about, but as a more practical matter, I was concerned about whether or not those roots would have to establish all over again after the repot. The 2018 results on 6/17 and 10/7:



Looking good, although I do have to wonder if the plant will be in the mood to grow anything new above-ground this year. Nothing so far, but we still have plenty of growing season left. If the clavarioides produces new activity worth reporting, I'll post an update in my 2019 end-of-summer review.

Craig was very kind about including a bonus gift with the Puna, and it is...

Cumulopuntia rossiana var. fuauxiana

Quoting from CactiGuide, the genus is "only found through specialist nurseries or traded between growers. This is not unlike other Opuntioids which are often hated or loved by cactus growers, with the former being more often the case." The Frys (hello, Denise!) and I are among the minority, so they must've instinctively known that I would enjoy having this gem:



The tiny plant needed a tiny pot, so I rustled up another 2" terracotta pot for the job:



Don't know why, but I had a feeling that the plant would A. have no trouble rooting, and B. do well in pure mineral mix. Was I correct? The results on 12/18/15, 9/24/16, 10/8/17, and 10/20/18:




Nailed it. The rossiana is ready for a bigger pot, and this time it'll be glazed ceramic. When I repot it soon, we'll get to see what the roots look like these days. I'm a sucker for miniatures anyway, and Craig chose well -- it's a gift that keeps on giving!

That wraps up my Opuntioid group, so we'll move on to the...

Fraileas

2 species are represented on my plant bench, and the first one has a C and D connection. (There's a nice story behind it, so if you haven't seen it before, you can check it out here.) First photo on 3/15/14, and the green arrow points us to the cactus we'll be reviewing:



Although I've purchased most of my cacti online, there's an advantage to buying them at a brick-and-mortar because you can see exactly what you get. And growing conditions are likely to change when plants go from someone else's place to yours, so in this case it was another advantage to actually see C and D's growing conditions, then observe the changes that took place after the cactus came home with me.

Repotting day on 3/18/14 -- do you know what it is?




If you don't, that's Frailea grahliana. Craig's mix for cacti is nice and lean, but there's nothing leaner than pure mineral mix. Okay, that's one change. Fraileas are sun-lovers, so the grahliana gets plenty of sun time -- that's another change going from the lighting in his greenhouse to the top shelf of my plant bench. The difference is significant -- the plant looked pretty angry about it on 4/17/14, but we have a happy suntanned grahliana 5 months later:



A side shot going from summer to summer on 9/20/14 and 9/19/15:



The grahliana was ready for a bigger pot, and the funky one you just saw is now occupied by my Copiapoa laui. Repotting day on 4/24/16:



Those roots look great, and the plant apparently wasn't bothered by growing in "dirty" mineral mix. Then again, clean is always better than dirty. The species offsets freely, and using clean mineral mix to work with, my grahliana could eventually fill its new pot with more pups. Let's find out if things are starting to go in that direction -- 9/17/16 and 10/9/17:



Hmmmm, not what I was hoping for. I remember reading that Fraileas are thirsty plants, so when I had the grahliana in its smaller pot, I was watering it every 2 weeks in the spring and once a week during summertime. When I moved it into a bigger pot, I thought it would be fine with watering every 2 weeks in spring and summer. If that was a boo-boo, it was easy enough to correct, so I went back to watering the plant once a week last summer. We'll take the "after", turn it into a "before", and here are the results on 10/6/18:



There we go, from thirsty and stressed to being beautiful again. With another summer just around the corner, I'll make sure it stays that way. Fraileas have a short lifespan, lasting only 10-15 years. When the parent stem dies, all those grahliana pups will be there to soldier on.

My interest in Fraileas began when I fell in love with an F. castanea I saw many years ago. (Can't remember where it was, but might've been the Huntington's desert collection.) I'm used to the fact that my tastes run toward hard-to-find species, and castanea is certainly one of them. I had it on my wish list when I went to the California Cactus Center in 2011, but they didn't stock Fraileas of any kind. My only other source in 2012 was CoronaCactus Nursery, and when I contacted Darryl Craig to inquire about the Echinocereus rubsipinus featured in Part 6, he offered to sell me a 2-year-old castanea seedling. Sold! Such a pretty little thing it was, and the plant did well until it died in the fall of 2016. Of course I didn't know what a dead castanea looks like, but now we do -- 2/25 and 4/20/17:



I was all prepared for a nice shriveling-plumping "before and after" pic, but no amount of water was going to bring the poor thing back. CoronaCactus didn't have any in stock, although Miles' To Go did at one time, so I emailed Miles Anderson and asked him if he happened to have a castanea available for sale. Indeed he did, and here it is on 7/8/17:



Looking back on it now, I realize that "dirty" mineral mix shortened the first castanea's life. I wasn't about to repeat that mistake, so it's nothing but clean mix with this one. On 3/27 and 4/21/18, here's the shriveling-plumping photo we'd like to see:



The view on 7/8/17 and 10/7/18:



Pure mineral mix and plenty of sun gives us a nice flat, chestnut-brown castanea, and the plant's growth is way better than my first one ever was. The bud you see in the 7/8/17 pics did go into flower, and that's because it started growing in the high heat of Arizona. The species needs a lot of heat to go from buds to blooms, so the only downside to my temperate climate is to have castanea go straight from buds to seed pods. And boy, does it produce! Kinda fun to watch too -- a pod about to pop (6/25/18):



Then 5 days later, it dehisced, leaving behind another bud:



Fraileas are remarkably self-fertile, so with the castanea, I'll just let it dehisc its seeds all over the pot. The idea is that if enough seeds get down in there (and I should probably help), sooner or later some of them will sprout. If this works, seedlings growing in the pot would be good "insurance" plants to cover the parent plant's death. Although you Frailea lovers out there may disagree, IMO castanea is the best of the genus.

By the way -- I track the number of new page views I get whenever I post, and the numbers I've seen recently are quite amazing. I can't thank all of you enough for being interested in the work I'm doing here on the forum!