A beginner's English windowsill collection

[Grimm]

Maihueniopsis glomerata sown in mid March, photo'd today in mid-late May - these guys are seriously fast growing (for cacti)!!!!

[DodoBrooke]

Yeah, those seedlings are giant considering when they were sown. Perhaps such species, I am no expert.
How is your sick G. Horstii? Is it looking better now after re potted?

[Grimm]

Yeah, those seedlings are giant considering when they were sown. Perhaps such species, I am no expert.
How is your sick G. Horstii? Is it looking better now after re potted?

The G.horstii is doing fine, as far as I can tell. The stem/body is growing slowly, hopefully it's putting on plenty of roots! I may get a new photo of it soon, along with a couple of other recovering cacti.

As for the Maihueniopsis glomerata seedlings, I'm guessing that the weather patterns where it grows allow just a couple of months for the seeds to germinate and get to an adult size. After just two and a half months they dwarf my Lobivia famatamensis seedlings that were sown last summer!

[Grimm]

Here's Gymnocalycium horstii this year showing a little healthy new growth:



And also Sulcorebutia rauschii violacidermis recovering after a fairly severe mite attack. It etiolated at first, as the skin was so badly damaged it obviously thought it was in the dark, but is settling down now:

[Grimm]

Last year I bought a multipack of unlabelled Semperviviums with two cultivars of tectorum and one cultivar of arachnoideum. The latter I split into lots of separate heads/crowns, some of which are trying to flower this year:

[Grimm]

Some more Semps and seedlings, first a few Sempervivum tectorum budding:





Then my monstrous S.tectorum in its summer colours:



and some more S.arachnoideum (in the shade) budding:



Then my Maihueniopsis glomerata seedlings, still growing fast, already living without a cover:



I was lucky enough to be given a load of Eriosyce (Thelocephala) esmereldana seeds for free. I split the pack in two, the first lot were planted on the 10th March. These suffered from a severe fungus infection, and I had to transplant them really early, saving about 20 plants:



The second set of these seeds I soaked in dilute bleach before planting, and they have grown without any fungus, suggesting that the fungus arrived on the seeds themselves (sorry for the blurry photo):



I also bought some seeds from what I thought would be a reliable seller, but I've had some trouble with these as well. First Homalocephala texensis, one seed germinated out of 10 with another 10 yet to be planted. Not so much of a "horse crippler" as an "ant crippler" at this size!



Next, Echinocereus triglochidiatus, with about 30% germination of 100 seeds, so not bad considering my inexperience:



I also got 100 Echinocereus papillosus seeds from them that have done absolutely nothing! But worst of all were 100 Echinocereus viridiflorus var. davisii that turned out to be some kind of Opuntia, and have a severe fungus infection:



A little better were 30 Eriosyce (Islaya) maritima with 9 germinated, although 3 died of fungus:



Moving on from that seller, some older seedlings starting with my Rhipsalidopsis gaertneri which are still going well:



Next, my Titanopsis calcarea which weren't doing too well inside, but after a "sink-or-swim" decision, they are doing fantastically well outside!



And finally, my sickly Astrophytum capricorne was also thrown outside for a "sink-or-swim" chance, and has turned a rather fetching purple in the sun!



As an aside, some none succulent stuff, starting with Pyracantha which provides an excellent roost for the local sparrows, flowers for the bees, and fruit for blackbirds. It has lovely fragrant flowers, reminiscent of Hawthorne/Mayflower:



And Angelica archangelica, a plant where almost all parts are edible, supposedly given to mankind by the Archangel Michael as a cure for the plague. It is literally buzzing with bees!!!

[ElieEstephane]

I love sempervivums. We have tectorum natives here. Mine has spent around 17 years with me and still going stromg with no sign of flowering (thank the succulent gods. I recently got some other varieties very close to yours to keep it company.
I remember once i saw on your flickr you were restoring a peugeot 205 if i'm not mistaken. Is that still going on? I had for a brief time a 1.8 with a 6 speed transmission. I've driven bmws, amgs, v8s and i gotta tell you that the happiest i have been was in that 205 (and a renault r5 turbo). Man are they full of spirit!

[Grimm]

I love sempervivums. We have tectorum natives here. Mine has spent around 17 years with me and still going stromg with no sign of flowering (thank the succulent gods. I recently got some other varieties very close to yours to keep it company.

I like them, but the main reason I have them is because they're hardy and easy to keep, I never meant to end up with a small collection! I'm surprised to see them flower, I'm guessing it has something to do with how they were grown by the nursery. I have a 10 year old mound of Sempervivum calcareum that has shown no desire to flower at all!

I remember once i saw on your flickr you were restoring a peugeot 205 if i'm not mistaken. Is that still going on? I had for a brief time a 1.8 with a 6 speed transmission. I've driven bmws, amgs, v8s and i gotta tell you that the happiest i have been was in that 205 (and a renault r5 turbo). Man are they full of spirit!

Sadly not, I don't have the money to restore it