"Fat Plants" : cacti,succulents, caudiciforms, whatever..

[Maggi Young]

Austrian "wallflowers"

 

[cohan]

Hello,

I want to show you Austrian "wallflowers":
Opuntia phaeacantha
Delosperma lineare

Nice wall decorations!

[Darren]

Best keep my wife away from this thread. Susan stumbled whilst weeding last week and landed with her knee in Opuntia phaeacantha 

The bigger spines came out OK but a lot of glochids are still embedded...

Of course the plant has now been renamed "YOUR ****ing cactus".  I must change the label to reflect this.

[ranunculus]

Best keep my wife away from this thread. Susan stumbled whilst weeding last week and landed with her knee in Opuntia phaeacantha 

The bigger spines came out OK but a lot of glochids are still embedded...

Of course the plant has now been renamed "YOUR ****ing cactus".  I must change the label to reflect this.

Susan's grasp of nomenclature appears a little wayward Darren ... !   

[Darren]

Absolutely Cliff - I'm concerned impressionable youngsters might read the label.  Can just see it down the garden centre " Muuuummm, can I have a ****ing cactus like Aunty Susan's please???"

Whilst in this thread I will post some pics of a few cacti in flower in the sunshine this morning (except the 2nd one - taken last week). The first is a Rebutia, the rest are Sulcorebutia. Though Sulcorebutia is sunk into Rebutia depending on which classification you believe. In fact Cliff - this makes me realise that cactus nomenclature is a total mystery to me as well, so Susan's name might well be as correct as any other...

[SusanS]

Best keep my wife away from this thread. Susan stumbled whilst weeding last week and landed with her knee in Opuntia phaeacantha 

The bigger spines came out OK but a lot of glochids are still embedded...

Of course the plant has now been renamed "YOUR ****ing cactus".  I must change the label to reflect this.

Susan's grasp of nomenclature appears a little wayward Darren ... !   

personally I think it was very accurate .... 

what I can't work out is given the size of the garden, how on earth I managed to land on the only cactus in it! 

Glad to report I didn't do any damage to it.

[cohan]

Glad to report I didn't do any damage to it.

Thanks, that's the news I was most anxious to hear!

Darren, lovely Rebutias and Sulcos! I don't subscribe to the lumping, in this case, but then, I can't say I have heard the real arguments pro and con, certainly they seem to be distinct groups....
Even more of a stretch seems to be including Weingartia under Rebutia
Cactus taxonomy as a whole does seem to involve more fashion, pet projects and politics than good sense or science...

[Darren]

Thank you for confirming my views Cohan. I too regard Rebutia and Sulcorebutia as distinct - though if pressed I'd struggle to define the difference! Some Sulcos (e.g. arenacea) look very Rebutia-ish to me...

[krisderaeymaeker]

Though Sulcorebutia is sunk into Rebutia depending on which classification you believe. In fact Cliff - this makes me realise that cactus nomenclature is a total mystery to me as well, so Susan's name might well be as correct as any other...

Despite problems with ID's (those days no matter anymore for the regulary grower )this is a very rewarding genus Darren! Thanks for showing this nice flowering plants.
Sulco's give us a lot of advantages . They could resist cold temperatures ( 0 degrees Celcius is allright and even occasional light frost give no dammage - this are high elevation plants !), they stay very small and needs no place (anyone must find a place for one of them), they are easy and very good flowering and  they produce such lovely and bright  flowers in profusion....
So a very good choice I suppose ...
And nomenclature those days is something very difficult to understand anyway ......DNA and all that other stuff is not easy to measure for us ...

[cohan]

Darren, I guess that's where the matter of opinion or interpretation comes in--deciding whether you have two distinct groups that are closely related, or one large group with variable taxa, and nature never worried much about making clearly distinct groups to satisfy our classification wishes 

[krisderaeymaeker]

Some of the smaller Mammillaria's are flowering here ...

First the very small and recently discovered M.luethyi .

Also M. herrerae .

And last but not least M.haudeana .

This are true miniatures with very huge flowers ! , well worth to grow!

[ruweiss]

Dear friends, thanks for all the beautiful pictures and comments about our prickly
and fat friens. All my hardy cactii flower as profusely like never before, probably
an effect of the hot and dry spring we had till now.
Escobaria leeii and sneedii from the nursery trade grow like mad, but this small
and very slow growing seedling from a friend keeps on flowering with very big
and showy flowers.
Chamaecereus silvestrii spends the winter time in my unheated alpine house,maybe
the low tempratures support flowering.
Pterocactus tuberosus grows all the year in the open ground, but never flowered so
profusely like this spring.

[Darren]

Thanks Kris & Cohan,

 I do like the Sulcos, they are very tough and rewarding and don't take up much space, as you say. The plant which first inspired me to grow cacti was a wonderful plant of S tarabucoensis I saw in flower at a show. It had bicoloured red & yellow flowers and was spectacular.

I don't grow any mammillaria but I do like those you pictured Kris - especially leuthii. I am told this one is difficult to grow from seed?

Like your Pterocactus Rudi - I do like the flowers of opuntoids even if the plants can be evil and spiky!

After seeing your pictures of Ariocarpus last year Kris I now have a few to try so wish me luck..

[krisderaeymaeker]

Thanks Kris & Cohan,

 The plant which first inspired me to grow cacti was a wonderful plant of S tarabucoensis I saw in flower at a show. It had bicoloured red & yellow flowers and was spectacular.
I don't grow any mammillaria but I do like those you pictured Kris - especially leuthii. I am told this one is difficult to grow from seed?
After seeing your pictures of Ariocarpus last year Kris I now have a few to try so wish me luck..

I can understand what you mean Darren. The bicoloured Sulco's are irresistible !

I am not especially a Mammillaria-fanatic but like the smaller ones with the big flowers.I grew a lot of cacti from seed (by the thousands ),also Mammillaria's but not this luethyi. This one I bought in Germany .Now they are reasonable prized but few years ago they where very expansive (and in the beginning only grafted plants !)

How nice to hear that you take your chance with the Ario's ! Offcourse I wish you luck ! They are not that difficult once you understand the rules . The most important rule is not overwatering Ario's ...I only start with watering in the month of june . But with your experiences , I believe in a good end       

[krisderaeymaeker]

Dear friends, thanks for all the beautiful pictures and comments about our prickly
and fat friens. All my hardy cactii flower as profusely like never before, probably
an effect of the hot and dry spring we had till now.
Escobaria leeii and sneedii from the nursery trade grow like mad, but this small
and very slow growing seedling from a friend keeps on flowering with very big
and showy flowers.
Chamaecereus silvestrii spends the winter time in my unheated alpine house,maybe
the low tempratures support flowering.
Pterocactus tuberosus grows all the year in the open ground, but never flowered so
profusely like this spring.

Great cacti Rudi ! Like especially the Pterocactus ! We find some Pterocactus during our trip to Patagonie ! They are not always easy to manage in our homecountries !