time to wake up

[keith]

Sedum Multiceps always likes the winter rain

[7george]

First rains arrive here at the end of April, I guess from California. It is still snowing outside but days are longer and my Rebutia feel it and opened first flower today.

[Pushrestart]

Keith your sedum multiceps looks amazing! Wow! Mine seems really limp, leaning over, up, can you please share your soil composition, how often you water and light strength?

I have a few cacti from Argentina and Chile that I havent watered since October, is it safe now? Forecast is mostly sunny and nights are above 50 F, please advise!

[keith]

Hi the sedum multiceps always looks good this time of year but in Summer it looks half dead and branchs break off easy. It has yellow flowers late Spring. I think its in normal cactus compost and a ceramic pot. I rooted a small branch that broke off just to see if I could. I think this climate is the same as Algeria were its from so its easy here. I pretty much ignore it and water off and on during Summer. Fall its pretty dry. Its in morning sunlight and afternoon shade outside all year. I think its like a dudleya or conophytum a winter grower.

I think you should be able to start watering your cactus now. Start watering slowly not too heavy and see how they react they should swell up. The ones I put in the rain are pretty easy to grow and in Clay pots , my harder to grow types I just watered a little.

[keith]

Mammillaria herrerae in flower

[ElieEstephane]

That is just gorgeous!

[MagiCarpus]

Those are some amazing golf balls indeed

[keith]

Echinocereus rubrispinus with a rigidimuss to the left. Its possible the rubrispinus has already been crossed once and what I have here is the seedlings cross plants which are over 10 years old so I can't remember. Parent rubrispinus long gone. They are not very ruby colored.

[hegar]

Hello Keith,
I just looked through your posted images and saw a very beautiful little cactus which I would love to acquire, if it is hardy enough to stay alive in the ground here in El Paso, Texas. That plant I am talking about is the Mammillaria herrerae. I actually did have one one-stemmed plant a couple of years ago. Not only did I love the dense white spines held closely to the body, but also the beautiful pink flower. That plant was a gem and I was eagerly anticipating the next year to see it flower again! However, when I checked my cactus bed in early spring, the cactus was gone! I did not even find the remains of the plant. So I do not know, if this cactus cannot tolerate frost and/or perhaps cold, moist soil during the few days that we do have either snow or rain in winter or if something or someone removed the little white ball.
Our cactus supplier, a nursery in Socorro, NM must not have this plant in his growing program, because I have never seen it being offered for sale.

Harald

[keith]

Hi Harald, probably a mouse or rat ate it. I grew M. herrerea in Phoenix AZ in a cold frame and they had no problem with the intense heat or Winter temperatures plus Winter rain, not much Winter rain but colder than were I live now. Problem is they did get eaten by somthing at night the ones not in the cold frame. Same here in CA. tops get eaten off which is why I have clumps when they normally grow single stemed. I have small ones from seed and when I get around to re-potting them I can send you one if you like. Maybe put a wire screen over it next time ? Or grow it in a pot just like Ariocarpus.

Keith

[hegar]

Hello Keith,
I just may take you up on your offer of a seedling plant of Mammillaria herrerae. I do not have but two plants of that genus, one is of an unknown genus, the other is our native Mammillaria grahamii. Yesterday, when I checked the selection of Miles Anderson (Miles-2-go), I was surprised, that he does not have that species in his plant assortment. Of course, I stumbled across a few other beautiful Mammillaria members, e.g. M. senilis, M. wrightii ssp. wilcoxii, and M. hernandezii. The latter I have tried to grow two times, but was not successful getting it through the winter. I do not know, what cultivation mistake I made, because the nurseryman told me, that this species can be grown further north in Socorro, NM in an unheated greenhouse. Where I live it is considerably warmer, although we have had one bad winter (February 2011), when the temperature dipped to around 10 degrees Fahrenheit and for a full three days the high temperature did not go above the freezing mark of 32 degrees F. However, that was not one of the years I tried to grow M. hernandezii.
I do not know, if rodents were responsible for some of my missing plants. I do not ever see any damage on them during the growing season. They just seem to disappear. I have also had two cacti lately, that looked fine in the fall and by spring only some of the epidermis was what was left of them. I assume, they were frost-bitten, went into a rot and then just "melted away".

Harald

[kevofski]

Lovely cactus, the Mammillaria herrerae

[keith]

Thelocactus hexaedrophorus has decided to bloom. Very slow growing .

[keith]

Flower season for these cactus. They can bloom all Summer if I'm lucky. In Phoenix AZ I had many of these because they were one of the few plants that would survive that intense heat and flower all Summer. Heat wave in CA now so they must be happy.

[keith]

Old Ariocarpus fissuratus I bought in Phoenix AZ many years ago. Grown under 50% shade cloth they are reliable fall bloomers. Some epthilanthas and turbinicapus grow in with them. I had to compress this picture to 20% to get it under 500kb so its kind of blury.