Kykeion

What is growing in that wheelbarrow? Is it one plant or two? The leafy part looks like spider plants, but I have never seen the stalky/flower plant before.

I like you landscaping style. "Well, ran out of room in the cacti bed, I guess I'll just toss these in the lawn."

Those are awesome upside, but not the non-"mutated" form of Eulychnia castanea.

6 Hell, I'd give it a try even without the prospect of a gift

Glad to hear you are home and on the mends. I hope the rest of your recovery is speedy and without any further complications.

I'd like to see this in some trees. Imagine all the leaves sparkling/glowing at night as the breeze blows through them...

I can't guarantee that crack/split will heal back together, but I had a bridgesii show up in the mail like that too, I am happy to report that it healed up fine, and I believe grew back together. So I'll cross my fingers for yours to be fine too.

Thanks zelly. I thought as much after careful inspection of the grandiflorus picture on you website, where slight variegation is just discernible. Just wanted to ask to be sure. I look forward to sowing this cross this spring, along with the other crosses I got from you!

Hey zelly, are all of your grandiflorus crosses made with the variegated plant you posted above, or do you have a few red grandiflorus that you breed from?

Officially one of my new favorite flowers!

Has anybody who received EG's seeds sown them yet? I guess at only about three months old they really aren't going to display very interesting characteristics yet, but I'm still curious. EG do you have any pics of the hybrids you have produced? Either flowers or the overall plants? Anything interesting going on with these hostilis? Wow, I love those flowers. Has it ever produced open pollinated fruit/seed to your knowledge? I would think that flowering like that something must pollinate it at least every once and a while. I'm really excited to see how this project plays out. I just purchased a T. tulhuayascensis from SS, so maybe some day I can join in on this fun too!

I don't really get this either. I can see where the big box home improvement stores could care less about such things, but I'm dumbfounded when nurserys operate this way to varying degrees. It's kind of like running a video store and organizing the movies by the pictures on their covers rather than genre and having no way to locate a movie by its title. It also seems that nurserys not specifically oriented towards cacti/succulent sales tend to treat the cacti/succulents that they do sell like the big box stores do and consider them all "cactus." My BF was once admiring a huge euphorbia crest at a local nursery. I explained to him that it was not actually a cactus and briefly explained the difference. He later mentioned something to the owner about it not being a cactus and was told that no it was in fact a "cactus" (there was even a plant tag labeling it a euphorbia). Obviously I don't expect that everybody would know the difference between a cactus and a euphorbia, but I find it a bit funny/strange/odd when someone who is "into" plants enough to run a nursery doesn't know what they are selling.

Option 3! just kidding... mostly.

I like them both as well, however there is too much asymmetry in the cactus of the first logo which bugs me. So No. 2 it is.

3. May be Brasiliopuntia brasiliensis. First look-a-like I came across during a quick search.

Keep us updated on what that does. It probably won't go crested, just from my experience of having TBM pups with a similar appearance, but hey you never know.

Turbinicarpus krainzianus

I assume greenhouses #1, 2 and 3?

I have started using aluminum tags to label my plants. I have some fancy premade ones that I am able to get from work, but I have seen them made from strips of soda or beer cans. You write/score them with a ball point pen, the ink eventually washes off but your label is impressed in the aluminum. The ones I use are similar to this. If I didn't get them for free I'd just make my own since they are not very cheap.

I've got a question for folks growing these crosses, particularly those who are growing these on their own roots. Have any of you noticed that the N1 crosses seem to grow with more vigor and are a bit hardier than some of the other crosses? I received four seedlings each of most of the crosses in a trade this past spring, and noticed that the N1 crosses handled the shipping/re-potting better (they may have even been slightly larger seedlings as well, but I don't recall for certain). They have since also grown the most and are several time larger than some of the other crosses. Some of the other crosses seem to have stalled or at least significantly slowed their growth. Last month I finally managed to sow the seed of these crosses that I received during the initial give away. I have had better germination than I expected given the age of the seed, but once again noticed that the N1 crosses have the highest rates of germination (greater than 90% vs. 50-60% with some of the other crosses), and the seedlings are noticeably larger than the other crosses a month after sowing. Just curious if anyone else has had similar observations.

So, AZS How do you tell where the SS02xKimmach end and the PCxPeru begin

There is another forum out there dedicated to cactus cultivars http://www.cactuscultivars.com/forum/ for anybody interested. There is not much there that is lopho specific, mostly astros and arios, but they do have a lot of info on cv. development and breeding.

Shhhh... me too. Right now in fact...

I have no idea about this particular pest, but I have had success getting rid of thrips with a mixture of diatomaceous earth and sulfur applied with a puffer contraption like this: They can be a bit tricky to get just a fine dusting, and not a thick blast of powder, but are pretty simple to operate with a bit of practice. There is not a specific ratio I use, but generally significantly more DE than sulfur. I don't know the optimal length of time to leave the dust, but it is easily rinsed off with water.

Sigh, that guy. Always good for a chuckle. I love it when he calls you pompous, trucha.