Greetings from Ohio

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Ohioman
Posts: 9
Joined: Wed May 29, 2013 1:05 am

Greetings from Ohio

Post by Ohioman »

Hi;
I live in Canton, Ohio. That's about fifty miles south of Cleveland and twenty miles south of Akron. The reason the location is important is that it puts me in the cloud shadow of the great lakes. From November to early March, we are lucky to get one or two hours of sunlight a week. Sounds like a bad place to grow cacti, but we get by. Mostly, during that time, I augment my natural light with fluorescent. The lights are on a timer set to go on at sunrise and go off at sunset, giving my plants a short day in winter and a long day in summer. I also lower the room temperature and don't water at all, I just mist my plants once or twice a month. That gives my plants the dormant period they like so much.
I live on the ninth floor of a senior citizen high rise. My plant room is two, four by four foot, windows on the north corner of the building. One window faces north west and the other faces northeast. (The front street runs north and south but a crazy architect decided to place the building catty-cornered on the lot.) I get early morning light from one window and late evening light from the other. My cacti and succulents share quarters with two orchids(one phalaenopsis, one cattleya) , a couple variegated Serissas, one Amaryllis (Hippeastrum x Johnsoni), a poinsettia, four Clementine seedlings, and a small collection of Tillandsias. Naturally, in such cramped quarters, I tend to like plants that can live a long time without outgrowing a four inch pot. My oldest and tallest plant is a ten year old Bursera fagaroides that I've grown pretty much in a bonsai style with much pinching out and root pruning. It has an eight year old daughter, also working on becoming a bonsai. Both of these plants have been blooming and setting seed for about three years, but I haven't tried planting the seeds yet. Almost as tall is my Bursera microphylla. It's too young to be proportioned like a bonsai, yet, but I'm working on it.
My most floriferous cacti are: Gymnocalycium Mihanovichii var. Friedrichii, Echinopsis subdenudata "Domino", and Hamatocactus (Ferocactus) setispinus. The last is a fabulous plant. It starts putting out these huge yellow flower with a "Blood spot" in the center in spring and keeps on blooming until it goes into dormancy in late fall. Then it shrivels up and losses most of its mass during the winter. In the spring, it swells up and starts blooming again. Special mention goes out to Echinocereus Reichenbachii var. Baileyi. This species is supposed to be sub-zero hardy, but it's so pretty that I kept it inside, where it has bloomed every spring. Last fall, someone stole my plant from where it was summering outside so I ordered another one. This year the new bloomed, even though it was barely two inches high. Another oddball is Mammillaria Carmenae. I ordered this plant this January, and it arrived with the typical ring of flower buds. These started opening in late January and continued to open two or three at a time through march. Since the buds were set before I got it, so I have no idea of whether it will repeat this performance next year.
This has turned out to be quite a long posting, but I just love to talk or write about my plants, and I haven't even said a word about the seedlings I have coming along.
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gemhunter178
Posts: 2762
Joined: Mon Oct 31, 2011 6:10 pm
Location: Massachusetts,USA. Zone 6A

Re: Greetings from Ohio

Post by gemhunter178 »

Welcome!
A cactus and succulent collector who especially likes Ariocarpus. …Though I have a bit of everything! Want some pictures? See my flickr! I also do art and such.
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adetheproducer
Posts: 1576
Joined: Tue Sep 03, 2013 4:15 pm
Location: Porth, the Rhondda, Wales

Re: Greetings from Ohio

Post by adetheproducer »

Hello.
And as the walls come down and as I look in your eyes
My fear begins to fade recalling all of the times
I have died and will die.
It's all right.
I dont mind
I dont mind.
I DONT MIND
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