Mrs.Green windowsills-growing cacti against the odds (links on page 9)

[mikethecactusguy]

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[Mrs.Green]

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Ah, you are refering to the cactus on the first page! I had to look at all the numbers closely to find out which cactus you meant

[Mrs.Green]

First flower to open on this H.gaertneri . This cactus survived the rather harsh treatment it got to get rid of rootmealies. I ‘boiled’ the roots several times but in the end it worked( I hope..).

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..and I bought these..wanting the G. mihanovichii friedrichii ( I belive it is) .

[greenknight]

That doesn't look like a typical H. gaertneri flower, more like H. rosea. Probably Hatiora x graeseri, which is a hybrid of the two. Very pretty, I like it!

You're probably right about G. mihanovichii friedrichii in that dish garden, but you'll find out for sure when the flowers open. The others are well worth growing, too.

[Mrs.Green]

That doesn't look like a typical H. gaertneri flower, more like H. rosea. Probably Hatiora x graeseri, which is a hybrid of the two. Very pretty, I like it!

You're probably right about G. mihanovichii friedrichii in that dish garden, but you'll find out for sure when the flowers open. The others are well worth growing, too.

Thank you very much Greenknight I did notice that the flower looked a bit unusual , good to know I wasn’t wrong then The cactus is a cheap , grocerystore bought ‘holiday’ plant. The thing is , I can’t remember that the flowers looked quite like that or was so big? Unfortunately I don’t have any pics of it, from when I bought it ( in bloom) .

I hope so but anyway it’s a nice cactus . A pity the flowers on the Notocactus (?) are already gone but hopefully it will bloom again next year.

[greenknight]

H. rosea (which I used to have) is a very charming cactus, but the flowers are much smaller - this one is like pink fireworks.

H. rosea also has a distressing habit of shedding stem segments at the least provocation, would probably have fallen apart entirely if subjected to what this one experienced.

The one with dried-up flowers in the second picture does look like a Notocactus/Parodia - might be a form of ottonis, or Notocactus uebelmannianus/ Parodia werneri. Has it set seed?

[Mrs.Green]

H. rosea (which I used to have) is a very charming cactus, but the flowers are much smaller - this one is like pink fireworks.

H. rosea also has a distressing habit of shedding stem segments at the least provocation, would probably have fallen apart entirely if subjected to what this one experienced.

The one with dried-up flowers in the second picture does look like a Notocactus/Parodia - might be a form of ottonis, or Notocactus uebelmannianus/ Parodia werneri. Has it set seed?

Thank you Greenknight

In fact I have a H.rosea and it have behaved very well, grown well and not lost a single stem segment ( knock on wood..) I bought it last year and no flowers yet but I am happy it seems to thrive in my care. I wanted one for years and made several request at the local florists over the years but no luck. So I got very excited when I saw an ad in Norways biggest online buy/sell marketplace. I bought the H.rosea, a H. herminiae and a S.opuntiodies. All have survived and grown to my satisfaction.

I opened one of the dried flowers and there seemed to be a small pod beneath the flower but if the very small black tings ( couldn’t see more than two) that came from it really is seed ( which I doubt) the pollination of this flower couldn’t have been very succesfull.


Better pics of the new cacti;

[Mrs.Green]

Came home to this , lovely colour. To my disappoinment the E.subdenuta is aborting its buds.

[Mrs.Green]

Flowers

[Mrs.Green]

Temptations, hard to withstand...

To quote Oscar Wilde;
“I can resist anything except temptation.”


I ‘happened’ to visit a garden center today and look what came home with me.. The Ferocactus latispinus is quite big, almost 15 cm .in diameter and I got it very cheap. The reason for that you can see in the close up pic.. it came with its own ‘pets’. Now I am cross-eyed, trying to get between those spines , looking trough a magnifying glass. After much fiddling I have gotten rid of several of the annoying critters but no doubt it will need more attention and treatment.

The crappy pic with two small cacti, the one one the right I belive is an Echinopsis subdenuta? This tiny plant, not much more than 3,5 cm.in diameter came with a tiny bud. Surprised that such a small plant came with a bud.

[Mrs.Green]

I really got a lot for the money when I bought that Ferocactus.. On closer inspection it had not only mealybugs but also rootmealies and possibly RSM too.. Apart from that the cactus itself looks very nice and the roots very good.

Not willing to give up, it got a bath ( totally submersed) in hot water with neemoil and soap. Hopefully it will tolerate this treatment, as I have to repeat it after a while. I successfully got rid of mealybugs and rootmealies this way with other cacti, so I hope it will work this time too and the Fero will survive the treatment. At the moment its hanging barerooted in its pot to dry. Unlike other cacti boughtfrom the same place, the Fero was potted in a mix of lecaballs and soil. But again clearly repotted in a much bigger pot before sale.

The lump of Mammilarias on the other hand seems to have been growing in soil only. ( see pic) and I am not sure what to do with them at the moment. Leave them or try to separete them. It is risky ( afraid of rot since they are so close together) but the Mamms got a quick bath too in neemoil/ soap, just in case of uneanted ‘pets’ on these too. The pic its not upside /down, I was hoping any excess water would run off.

[7george]

We are all tempted by lice plants from time to time. I think your Ferocactus is rather F. herrerae that grows much bigger then F. latispinus.

[Mrs.Green]

We are all tempted by lice plants from time to time. I think your Ferocactus is rather F. herrerae that grows much bigger then F. latispinus.

Oh..so it’s not just me then.. Thank you for ID’ing the Fero I do hope it survives the treatment, it looks very healthy apart from the pests..

[Mrs.Green]

The same Hatiora x graesnei as pictured above, but with more flowers. I am very happy with it’s progress , especially since it went trough a rather rough treatment for rootmealies.

[Mrs.Green]

Ooops,ooops...I got very carried away..

As mentioned before, there aren’t exactly lots of cacti on offer locally. Today a friend drove me to a new florist. I didn’t have high expectations, used to find a couple of species of the most common types at best.

Going through the shop I got very excited! I came home with no less than 15 new plants, among these two Euphorbia’s and a Lithops.. a genus I decided not to try , even though I find them very fascinating. After reading a bit about their care ( and frankly got a bit confused..) I decided to admire them on photos only.. What happened; Me seeing the Lithops ‘Oh! Lithops! I must have one! ‘ In my defence, I did check the potting mix to see if the soil was wet. The soil seemed and felt completely dry . Although not the ideal substrate though.

Yes, I am very aware of the foolishness of buying a lot of new plants and the risk ( pests) but I will keep them separated from the ‘older’ plants and use the magnifying glass a lot! To my ‘defence’ , I am not used to have such an assortment to choose from and on top of that the prices was reasonable, compared to what I am used to here.

The Euphorbia pseudoglobosa seems to be a bit etiolated . The Sulcorebutia was on my wishlist, very pleased to find it

What are the red dots on the spiny Euphorbia? Flowerbuds?