I can understand flowers being a bit too intense. My T. alonsoi are too young to flower, but my Trichodiadema densum and Echinocereus pulchellus have these intense, magenta flowers that can be quite blinding in the sun that I have to look away before long! Pachypodium is something I haven't tried gr...

keith is right. You can sterilize the substrate and pot all you want, but the pathogens can come from the seeds themselves. I use the baggie method and I heat my mineral based seedling substrate in the microwave (which is moistened) until it steams, wait a few minutes, then heat again. I soak pots i...

Fall is mesemb season. White flowering Lithops: Lithops julii C297. https://imgur.com/wG6Ox17.jpg Lithops salicola 'Sato's Violet - Bacchus'. https://imgur.com/aRa8Hin.jpg Lithops karasmontana 'lateritia' visited by a syrphid/hover fly. https://imgur.com/saPmocg.jpg A pot full of yellow flowering Li...

Yeah, the seed germinates easily. It's the keeping them alive, especially through their first summer, that I have trouble with!

keith wrote: ↑Sat Nov 18, 2023 9:42 pm Some seed grown conophytums not exactly sure of the species .

Nice conos, is it their first year flowering? The tiny fuzzy one looks like C. stephanii (subsp. helmutii?)

M. guelzowiana (currently classified as Cochemiea guelzowiana; you might want to add Cochemiea to the list of genus names, anttisepp!) can have gold-colored spines too. See these soon to be 2 year old seedlings of field number SB 1160, a mix of gold and red central spines on different plants. https:...

Aiko wrote: ↑Mon Nov 13, 2023 2:31 pm You must be one of the first to know that smell!
My seedlings are not there yet, and probably not for a few years.

It's a grafted plant, unfortunately!


It aborts most of its flowers every year, not sure why. At least it does grow!

Thanks, Dave. I did not know the meaning of the species name. Now I cannot see this plant without imagining it as a bunch of boats sinking with their bows up in the air!

Epithelantha chihuahuensis. I cross pollinated several flowers from each plant, but only one plant produced a fruit (with only 2 seeds!) :lol: https://imgur.com/K1Wenoa.jpg This one produced fruit much more readily, Cochemiea schumannii 'globosa' (grafted on S. megalanthus). https://imgur.com/zKTro...

keith wrote: ↑Sun Nov 12, 2023 10:43 pm The Mammillaria hernandezii I got from you flowered

Nice
The other seedlings from the same batch I sent you haven't flowered for me yet, though one does have buds.
But the parents have flowered:

Awesome collection, Lolavy! Interesting to see the fabric pots. I would think they would stay wet for too long? But that probably won't be an issue in our climate. Greetings to your furry friend with the curious nose and whiskers!

Those look like Astrophytum myriostigma 'Kikko' (=Kitsukou?) to me. I crossed A. caput-medusae with myriostigma twice last year, all seeds failed to germinate. I did it again this year, but this time one seed germinated. It's about two months old now, but has yet to grow its first tubercle. I did ot...

ADBLPS had seed of this species (with locality) for the 2022-23 catalog. Very attractive when in bloom. I was debating whether or not to buy seed, but ended up getting something else!

Pic from the catalog.

Welcome! Very nice Sclerocactus (Toumeya) papyracanthus!

I'd like to know who at CITES decides what is on Appendix I. Aztekium ritteri is on the list but the other 2 much more rare species aren't. There are many Sclerocactus on the list, but the one I've been trying to buy for years ( Sclerocactus polyancistrus ) is not. The relatively common Coryphantha...