Sticky Fingers

What I didn't do all summer

2009-10-26T19:31:00.002-05:00

I have neglected my plants ALL summer and now that summer is over, I am trying to salvage the wreckage. It could be much worse - maybe this was just a test of the strength and resilience of cacti, and to prove to myself that they don't need to be taken care of. True for some, but not for others - I have quite a few that are none the worse, and quite a few that are NO LONGER ALIVE!

Well, such is life, and I have to move on and see how I can juggle work and home and still find time to do the things that I find pleasing and relaxing (like sitting and working with my plants ona Sunday morning).

I'm tempted to get another batch of seeds to sow, as the end of the year draws near, but I wonder if I really should, since I am out of space with what I am working with, and I don;t know where I will put more if I have success with germination and growth. In fact, it was good to have not so much growth this year because of my lack of time, because I don't know where I would put them all!

Frailea grahliana

2009-05-10T21:58:00.002-05:00

Last weekend I watched in eager anticipation because I expected to FINALLY see a flower on this Frailea grahliana that I have had for about two years now. Previously, all that has happened is that it buds then sets seed without opening a flower. I took photos to capture the sequence ...

In the morning, the bud promised to open...

Starting to open...

This is as far as it got...

because it started to rain.

So, I'm a bit disappointed that I didn't get to see the full flower open, and the next day I had to be at work and I have no idea if it opened then, but by this weekend it had finished. The other plant is budding out now so I am waiting to see if it will become a bloom or just a fruit.

I always thought that Frailea was delicate but this one is out in the garden and gets regular rain and sunshine with no ill effects - but it is filled out and has lots of offsets and has produced lots of seeds. I'm now starting out to grow some other Frailea species from seed so I hope to do well with them as I seem to be getting better with keeping young seedlings alive.

My entries in the JHS Flower Show 2009

2009-04-27T22:05:00.002-05:00

This year I was persuaded to take in some plants for entry in the Jamaica Horticultural Society Flower Show 2009, which was this past weekend. I managed to persuade my aunt to enter some plants also.

These were my entries:

Aloe "Pepe" descoingii x haworthioides
- earned a third place award.

Echinopsis calochlora

Second place award for
Euphorbia aeruginosa

.
Surprise for me!
Euphorbia baioensis got a first place ribbon

Euphorbia debilispina

Gymnocalycium damsii

Haworthia attenuata 'variegata'

Third place for the Mammillaria beneckei.
My aunt's two plants took first and second.

No award for this Sansevieria scabrafolia

This Agave got a red ribbon - second place

Not sure if I want to do it again next year but it was a good experience and I haven't ruled it out yet. Still have quite some time to think about it and be more prepared if I decide to go again.

Petunias bloomed!

2009-04-23T21:19:00.002-05:00

Well, all the hard work to try to keep the zinnias and petunias from dying an early death has resulted in some flowers! I'm not sure that any of the zinnias have survived, but two petunias have bloomed this week, so there may be hope yet for me and my not-so-green thumb. I didn't even pot them up from the seed tray so I probably stunted them greatly.

Just to show off the two blooms (no guarantee that there will be more, right?)...

I've entered some plants in the JHS show, which is this weekend, so I will post some photos of my entries and MAYBE others from the show (if I get to doing that).

Blooming this week

2009-04-11T10:13:00.002-05:00

I managed to get some photos taken this week in the garden.

These are the blooms I was able to capture.

Mammillaria vetula ssp gracilis

Mammillaria dixanthocentron

Rebutia sp

Mammillaria nivosa

Notocactus horstii purpureus

I'll try to write a little bit more about each of these later.

My thumb is not very green

2009-04-01T22:00:00.002-05:00

Today I came home in the afternoon to find the young tomato plants keeled over from lack of water. I was almost certain that I had watered them last night but obviously I did not! This may just be too much work for me, but I will continue to try. These plants need to be put into the ground now, and hopefully someone else can take responsibility for watering and keeping them alive.

Although a few of the petunia seedlings died, several are thriving and I try to remember to water them also - the zinnias haven't fared so well. Maybe I should stick to what I have learned to grow so far... plants that thrive on neglect. As I continue to diversify....

Stepping up the pace

2009-03-29T22:37:00.008-05:00

I have realised that using the multi-cell trays with small squares gives me good results - at least for now, so I have been proceeding with some repotting within the space that I have. This weekend I completed another 120-cell tray and also a 156-cell tray. I have now reached my space limit under the verandah awning so I'll have to be creative if I want to continue on this path.

My photo log of the tray that I pinned out last January...

Freshly done in January 26, 2008

This was taken in September 2008

And what it looks like now, in March 2009

These have really grown, and the survival rate is very good - maybe because there is less soil to harbour pests and to rot the roots, I think.

Other trays....

These were pinned out in October 2008

Pinned out in January 2009

And last week's work

I finished today's activity after dark so I don't have photos of my most recent handiwork. Will try to remember to take some shots within the week.

I'm clearly not as impatient as I used to be - when I just started out growing from seed, I would pin out 4-month seedlings into 2" pots so that they would have space to grow. Now I don't have the space to be so generous so they stay in the seed pots (those are now smaller also) for over a year before I pin out - except for the faster growing species. It's all about learning and adapting as I go along.

Keeping them growing

2009-03-22T22:56:00.002-05:00

Despite the fact that I feel as though I've run out of space to safely grow my young seedlings (under some shelter but with enough sun), I need to keep them progressing at a reasonable pace. Today I pinned out some of the yearlings to a 120-cell tray so that each will have its own space to grow, however limited it might be.

I managed to find a space for the tray by moving over a partly hanging Sedum morganianum, which I have treated very badly. It needs repotting desperately, but I can't figure how to do it without doing great damage to all the tails.

Next week I will start the greenhouse if I can get the blocks for the foundation of the sides. I think I must - can't let this season go by and stifle the growth of all these plants. I'm not back to using my regular soil mix but I'm working with a combination of some commercially available soil and so far, it works for the seedlings under shelter. I can't swear what will happen if they have to be out in the rain - so I'm not putting them out - hence the need for the greenhouse where the watering will be controlled - delivered when I say so and not by Mother Nature.

Really need to update

2009-03-08T01:14:00.003-06:00

Tonight I realised just how out of touch I have been with this blog. Many of my links are no longer valid and I haven't even looked in on those sites in so long it's almost shameful to retain them as blogs or links that I know anything about.

They will have to remain so for a while longer because an update is something that I'm NOT going to do now, in the wee hours of the morning. So until another day... it shall remain incorrect.

My daughter has influenced me into trying to grow somethings other than cacti - so now I am struggling to keep baby zinnias and petunias alive, and to add to the problems, we have now put in a batch of tomatoes and bell peppers... it would be great if she would remember to water the tray each day, but that's left up to me. Suffice it to say that more than once I have found the poor things wilted over and about to expire from lack of water. I don't know how this will turn out but I won't give up yet. Maybe I will discover a new passion, who knows??

Still slow (or so it seems)

2009-03-04T21:46:00.002-06:00

I just don't know how to get past this. Maybe I'm down to once a month now, and should just try to work with that until I can figure out how to up the frequency.

What to write about? I hardly have time to keep my plants alive much less to process photos and other such excitement. Not that I don't want to, but all of a sudden it just feels like there is so much else to keep me busy -including spending time just doing NOTHING. That is something I have found I need to do more and more just to keep myself within a realm of sanity.

As usual, though, if nothing else I am trying to keep up with my baby babies, to see that they get to the stage of tolerating neglect. I sowed another batch of seed this past weekend, as though I even know where I'll put all these plants and if I'll have to time or energy to care for them. Trying to keep moving forward, at least.

These are some of my older babies - I guess about a year old or so - most of them. Photos from December... and not the best either but just what I have at hand right now.

Not much happening

2009-02-07T17:43:00.002-06:00

Not much to report except that I still am struggling to maintain my plants - maybe I've reached the point where I now have too many to be able to give them the attention they need so now they are keeling over right under my nose. The biggest problem is root mealy bugs and now I have taken to just unpotting the plants that seem at risk and leaving them bareroot because they are then less susceptible to rot when a shower of rain might pass. If I repot, the bugs migrate into the new soil and the problem continues.

The thought of repotting everything is just overwhelming, so I don't know what will happen - and I have hundreds of babies coming up. I need a management system that works!

Anyway, a few plants have shown up their blooms over the last couple of months - some for the first time - so I'll just play catch up and post them all here (at least the ones I got reasonable photos of).

Mammillaria magnimamma

Mammillaria karwinskiana

Mammillaria perbella

Mammillaria ruestii

Mammillaria schiedeana

Mammillaria plumosa

Mammillaria decipiens ssp albescens

Naughty me

2008-10-29T20:42:00.003-05:00

I feel as though I have abandoned my blog.

I haven't forgotten about it, but I just haven't been able to keep up with my posts. Not even once a week? Shame on me!

The summer was slow in terms of plants and flowers so I guess I haven't been at my most inspired, and then with so many other things to do, this just fell by the wayside and I kept telling myself - next week... next week... next week...

It has been rainy, rainy, rainy, this year and many of my plants have suffered - a mysterious fungus took over a lot of my seedlings (the ones about a year old) - I would wake in the morning to find them wrapped in a furry white coat and that would be that. Like this....

Some older ones have been afflicted with a rust-like condition and have gradually passed on despite my efforts to boost their resistance to whatever the condition was - systemic fungicide, insecticide, aspirin, fertilizer - I guess I just didn't know what to treat. Sick soil leads to sick plants - just when I thought that I had figured out how to manage these plants.

Tonight it is raining again and I can only hope for the best. I'll see what I see in the morning when I rise - I removed the ones at risk out of the rain, so all should be well - I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Astrophytum hybrid

2008-08-17T10:24:00.003-05:00

A whole month! What's gone wrong with me? Let me treat this break as a summer holiday, and try to make it up for the rest of the year.

I couldn't overlook this week though, because one of my Astrophytums grown from seed decided to bloom!

I sowed this set of seed in July 2004 from a packet I ordered from Cactusstore. I thought it started off slow, because it was still so small at 2 years old, but it showed a spurt of growth last year.

March06..................

January 2007 (in a 2" pot).................

August 2007 (in a 3" pot)........

I potted up to a 4" pot early in 2008, and now I am rewarded with this!

Astrophytum hybrid

The flower opened yesterday for the first time, and because of the heavy rains dropped by Tropical Storm Fay, I doubt that the flower will be able to open again today - it has been SMASHED!

Smashed like the Men's 100 m record by Jamaica's Usain Bolt yesterday, and then on top of it, the Jamaicans took the gold and two silvers in the Women's 100 m today. So call me negligent, but I was too busy paying attention to the Olympic sprints to realise that I should have taken the plant out of the rain to save the bloom.

Notocactus horstii purpureus - July 15, 2008

2008-07-19T15:09:00.002-05:00

The last post for today, to bring me "up to date" is the flower that was opened this week on my Notocactus horstii purpureus. I consider this to be one of my greatest successes, having grown this from seed, and it is the ONLY Notocactus in my collection that blooms. It has been blooming steadily since April, one or two flowers at a time, but most of the time the flowers don't open fully, or they open while I'm at work!

Notocactus horstii purpureus

Earlier this year, after the flower opened

This week's flower, up close.

Lobivia - July 15, 2008

2008-07-19T14:53:00.004-05:00

This week, I had the pleasure of seeing the bloom on this small Lobivia open - although it failed to open fully on either of the two days I was around. There are a couple more buds coming up on this plant, but the other offsets haven't started budding yet. I've had such a struggle to keep this plant going but now I'm seeing the rewards.

Lobivia

Opened more the next day...

Echinopsis calochlora - July 10, 2008

2008-07-19T14:29:00.002-05:00

I looked and looked but there are NO PHOTOS at the end of June - looks like there was either nothing happening in the garden or I just failed to take any pictures. No way to catch up on that week, so I'll just move on to the week after...

July 10, 2008

The first of my Echinopsis to bloom this season - Echinopsis calochlora. I nearly missed it, because I was watching the bud grow but didn't expect it to open when it did. Good thing it lasted till late enough in the morning for me to take the photo when I got out into the garden.

Echinopsis calochlora

I don't see much action in terms of buds on any of the others but I hope they will make some movement before the summer ends. Maybe I need to start dosing them with Bloom Booster to encourage them.

Bromeliad - June 23, 2008

2008-07-19T13:28:00.003-05:00

Still working on updating with all that has happened in the last month.

This bromeliad has been sending out offsets (three so far) and I was wondering whether I would see it bloom. I think that after this blooms, the plant dies but the offsets live on. The spike here looks nothing like what was on the plant when I first got it , so now I am wondering if I have confused myself, but I don't have so many of these to mix them up. I will continue to watch it and see whether it changes as it matures.

June 23, 2008

Bromeliad

EDIT: The flower spike today, July 19, 2008

Catching up: Caralluma schweinfurthii - June 15, 2008

2008-07-19T12:54:00.004-05:00

How far behind have I fallen? So far I can't count!

Today I will try to catch up, because I did take some photos and I SHOULD have been posting but just didn't seem to be able to get them uploaded and posted because there was so much else going on.

Sunday, June 15 - Going back to what I would have posted as my plant of the week.

One of the stapeliads that I got at the JHS Flower Show in April decided to bloom. I must confess that I have not been taking the best care of my stapeliads, but I still like them a lot.

Caralluma schweinfurthii

Edited on March 20, 2009 - was advised of a correction to the name I havd assigned to this plant so I've now changed it - not Caralluma hesperidum but Caralluma schweinfurthii. Comments welcome.

Adenium obesum

2008-06-08T20:57:00.002-05:00

I missed making last week's post! Not that I didn't try, but I was doing so many other things that I just didn't get to upload any photos - and there weren't any plants really screaming at me to post them either. Really a quiet week - no blooms to speak of out of the ordinary.

Then in the middle of the week I happened to take a look around the side (very neglected area) and realised that my Adenium obesum was in bloom! I'm ashamed to post the plant so you'll only see the flowers - it's not even in a real pot but just a shallow tray in which a branch managed to root and grow.

Adenium obesum

It's jumbled up with Euphorbia tirucalli, Sanseviera cylindrica, Kalanchoe daigremontiana, and assorted cacti all sort of growing wild - some now in the earth and others not, in a narrow strip of earth alongside the house.

Euphorbia stenoclada

2008-05-27T22:33:00.002-05:00

I had a hard time this week trying to choose something to post. Nothing in bloom, and my garden needs to be cut and weeded, so many of my plants are not in photo-ready condition. I didn't want to resort to tiny plants grown from seed, but I may just have to feature one of those next week if this continues.

I have a relatively large Euphorbia stenoclada that is about three feet tall, but this is a smaller one that has rooted into the ground - only about a foot tall now. I expect it to grow more quickly now, and already the change in the type of growth is evident. The original weaker growth can be seen in the lower right corner of the photo, and the difference is clear.

Euphorbia stenoclada

Gymnocalycium damsii

2008-05-19T07:27:00.002-05:00

Gymnocalycium damsii was one of my earliest cacti acquisitions. I bought one that was bursting out of a 4 1/2" pot with babies all around, and the first thing I did was to strip the plant of all the babies and repot it. Turns out that it didn't mind the treatment, and kept growing to a grand size of about 7" or 8" diameter, which is far bigger than is typical for a G. damsii. Every so often I would have to strip off a whole lot of babies as well to make room for the mother plant to continue growing. As a result, I always have these to give away if anyone asks.

It also turned out to be quite a reliable bloomer, producing its white flowers each summer without any fuss - and it was probably the first cactus bloom produced in my collection that I was able to get really excited about. That was about 4 years ago, and unfortunately, the mother plant succumbed to rot after a heavy rainy period last year, but her legacy lives on.

This plant shown is one of the first batch of offsets that I stripped off in December 2002, now about the size of the one I originally got. It is recovering from a bad scale infestation, but seems to be showing me that it is now okay and ready to produce flowers and get on with its life.

The only earlier Gymnocalycium bloom this year was about two weeks ago - Gymnocalycium damsii rotundulum, so I'll just include it here for good measure. I guess I should note that both plants have been lumped into Gymnocalycium anisitsii, but I tend to keep the old names to distinguish the different plants.

I have posted this plant before, as it is one that I "rescued" from a plant store in Cambridge in early 2006, as it had fake flowers glued to it and the real blooms were deformed as a result. I paid more for it than I would normally, but I think it was worth it, as the shade of pink is marvellous and it just keeps on blooming through the summer. While it does not pup very readily, I have been able to share a few plants with others.

I also now have some seedlings produced from seed I got off the second plant, but I don't know if it was cross-pollinated or self-pollinated but I will see when they grow up in another five years or so.

Edithcolea grandis

2008-05-12T21:28:00.002-05:00

This was the other contender for last week's post, but the flower didn't open until about Wednesday so I saved it for this week. Rightly, I should have been posting one of my Gymnos that has started to bloom, but it will have to wait. Maybe next week.

Otherwise known as the Persian Carpet flower, Edithcolea grandis is sometimes said to be a difficult plant to keep alive. That hasn't been my experience, as it is quite tolerant and easy to grow, and it blooms without any problem.

Edithcolea grandis

Quite a nice flower, I think, and not as stinky as some of its fellow Asclepiads. It fades fairly quickly, though. I caught this picture early in the morning before the sun took its toll,and for a change my camera didn't blur the photo when I got close up to the mesmerising whorls.

Mammillaria beneckei

2008-05-07T13:33:00.002-05:00

I had two prospects for the plant of the week, and both of them held out on me by NOT blooming on the weekend. However, the Mammillaria beneckei finally opened up two flowers on Monday morning and has opened one more each day since. Seems as though the bloom lasts only ONE day - opens at the crack of dawn and closes before the afternoon ends.

Mammillaria beneckei

There are more buds coming, so I think I will need to water more with Bloom Booster to get the greatest effect. Mine has never done it, but I know it can, even in this climate.

My new acquisitions

2008-05-03T20:35:00.002-05:00

So they are just about a week old now (as MY plants), but the photo is from last week when I brought them home from the Jamaica Horticultural Society Flower Show. No cacti, but I got quite a few succulents that I either needed to replace or wanted to add to my collection.

I hope they all do well.

I have some individual photos but will have to post those at another time. Other pressing and urgent matters require my time right now.

Kalanchoe orygalis

2008-04-29T00:10:00.002-05:00

It seems so easy to grow this plant - because it is undemanding and thrives on little attention. I find its colour particularly attractive, and unlike other Kalanchoes, it does not make itself into a pest but just steadily grows as a single plant without spreading itself all around where it may not be wanted. I haven't checked, but I suspect that it has grown through its pot and is now embedded in the ground. I have this one and a small one, and I think I will try to propagate a couple more for good measure.

Kalanchoe orygalis