New bed finally underway.

[SnowFella]

Camera is charged and ready, off camera flashes all set with radio triggers and I've got my most light sensitive lens mounted

[Tiggy]

We're waiting...............

Susi

[majcka]

We're waiting...............

Susi

Susi, I think you already need a napkin. You'll need a whole sheet when SnowFella puts on the pics.

[Tiggy]

[SnowFella]

Unfortunately you will have to wait alittle longer as I'm stuck at work right now. Did get some photos of them last night though.

[SnowFella]

Finally home from work and able to take get some photos of the last one to open, as I took the first pics last night the third had just started opening and I didn't have a chance to grab any before heading in to work this morning. So I was plain lucky that one still was open when I got home this afternoon, starting to wilt now though just 2 hours later.

Last nights shots using on camera flash. Not great as it's an old manual flash and I have to trim in shutterspeed, aperature and flash intensity by hand.
Purplish flower



Plain white flower



And the one I caught this afternoon, think I've had this one flower once before when it resided in an old winebarrel that now houses a palmtree


Noto also opened that 5th bud with the heat of the day.

[majcka]

Ooooo. Beautifull.

I think I better send sheets to Susi with a fast post.

[Tony]

Great shots, Snowfella and your garden is looking great!
I have to admit unfortunately, that the first thing I see is the @!#$% oxalis!
I am so used to constantly hunting down and pulling this weed and its partner in crime spotted spurge, its almost instinctual.
Could your unknown little mammillaria be m. compressa?

[SnowFella]

Yeah, the weeds are alittle bit of a pain to say the least! And once they get in there's just about no stopping them either! We have had a silly dry winter but even that didn't keep em from growing rampant through the whole bed.
Then again, oxalis isn't really that bad if you compare it to 2 other weeds I have growing rampant through any season down here. First would be the the kikuyu lawn that whoever built the house put in! That stuff grows like a weed and sends runners everywhere, just spent the better part of 2 hours trying to clear the front gardenbed from it and had to try and rip out 2 meter long runners underneath the weedcloth
Second one would be onion weed. Bloody weed that not only sets seed of you look at it crooked but also grows from bulbs. So even if you think you got it all by ripping it out our using weed killer it just keeps on coming back. Once that sets in there's hardly a cure other than take the Ripley approach to weeding and nuking it from orbit!

And it could well be compressa, though it looks quite different from my confirmed compressa.
The unknown little one today.


And my outdoors living compressa, horribly hard to photograph well with those white pebbles.


It's starting to turn into quite a nice little clump by now.


Another first bloomer for the new bed kicked in today, N. ottonis


And though it's not in the ground or cacti this one is exposed to the elements all year around. Starting to regrow some of the leaves it lost over winter.

[majcka]

Looking at your last picture I remembered you had flowers on your cycads last season. Have you sow???? How did it work???

[Eutow_Intermedium]

I am loving your long awaited Echinopsis and Notocactus blooms.

Very pretty indeed. You must be a very happy chappie ?

Outdoor plants are always the nuts. Love em

[Tiggy]

WOW!!! Those photos are gorgeous. Don't know why you were concerned about the flash on those night shots, I think the effect is wonderful. Absolutely beautiful.
Just one question, How come your Pachypodium is so uniformly STRAIGHT? Probably because it is always s out in constant light?

Susi

[SnowFella]

To be honest I never bothered with the cycas seeds, they are still all on the plant but with dried out husks. Probably be picking them all off in the coming week or so as they are due for their annual trim. Tend to cut all the old leaves off in spring and only let them hold onto one years worths of growth, just to many pups down the base now and they get to bushy.

As for the Pachypodium, guess I'm just lucky having one growing straight. Well, 2 growing straight as the wife has one parked right next to the one pictured that also is straight as an arrow.
Can see from the growth though that it at one stage was in to weak light, about mid stem the spines are lots weaker. From memory I put it where it is now sometime last spring so it put on near 20cm last season, hoping for the same this year aswell.

Oh, and I have to say my most awaited flowers for this season would be from the C. peruvians! Only because this season likely is going to be it's last chance! Wasted blood and tears moving it last year into it's current spot but this most likely will be it's last season in the garden. That thing is just growing to darn big to have in a gardenbed and with the softish sandy soil I'm afraid it's going to get too top heavy and topple over in high winds. It was near 6 foot when I moved it and has since put on an additional 2 foot.
Just going to be an interesting operation taking it out without hurting any of the other plants growing all around it!

[SnowFella]

9 more buds on the same 3 Echinopsis look to be ready to kick off tonight, including one funky one that seem to be an offset that reverted back to flowerbud. Be interesting to see what it will turn into.
Also seem to be getting buds on some of the other plants, though none on the C. peruvians unfortunately.

[Tiggy]

It's so nice to see all of your plants in flower as we progress into winter. Lifts your heart to see what we have to look forward to in the forthcoming season. (Just another month and the days will start drawing out again, can't wait). Do post some more photos when poss.

Susi