They're not all boring blobs..

[nick the grief]

...cacti that is. Here are a few flowers that you can get & I'm no expert!

[Alice]

Lovely pics Nick. Yes, they can be made to flower well, as can the succulents.

[poultrychat]

They're lovely NTG, mine has never flowered but then again it doesn't exactly get much tlc.

[nick the grief]

Hi PC,

Yes most folks think that because the live in a desert they need neglecting. They will repay you if you repot them every couple of years & give them a bit of feed ( Tomato food is good). I pot mine in JI3 mixed 50:50 with grit.

I've not got a terrific collection but I'm up to about 200 plus about as many seedlings

Here's a few more foto's if it works.

http://tinyurl.com/fwo99

[pigletwillie]

Nick, cracking photos,

I have several in a large shallow pot and they are indeed neglected. They go into the greenhouse over winter and onto the sunniest part of the garden in the summer. All three have flowered this year so I really must get another couple to fill the pot and make it look at its best.

[FoxHillGardener]

NTG
Tomato feed eh. I shall start doing that. Do you only feed them in the spring/summer? or are you meant to do it all year round? I hardly water them at all in winter so guessing they're not growing so no food either, right?

I managed to get some to grow from seed and they're now about an inch across - they're the round spiky ones. They're in shop-bought cactus compost in inch and a half pots on my very sunny front windowsill. I water them about once a week. WIll I have to wait years for them to flower? I think they must be getting on for 2 years old now, I think, but maybe it's 3??

The only succulent-thing I've ever had flower is an aloe-ey type one that I got as a cutting. Don't know what type it is but it puts up a long shoot with several pinky flowers. It's done it two years running now. I collected last year's seed but it's still sitting ungerminated in the propagator

[nick the grief]

Hi FHG,

If you've repotted them they will be OK that year, the next year you can give them some a couple of times ( I tend to give it slightly more often but weaker - I feed most things like this including me - Little & Often

No water in the winter as thats there time of rest, some of them are quite hardy as well & will survive in an uheated greenhouse so lonag as they aren't wet. then come spring mist them over with some rain water for a few weeks to give them the idea to start growing again & then you can start to water them. As I use a rairly open compost mine are usually done once every 7-10 days smaller post mire frequently bigger ones less so, just make sure they dry out well first.

As to when they flower, a lot depends on variety. Some will flower at about 12 months old some won't flower for a couple of years. Agave's they say take about 100 years mind you the plant dies when it does flower as it expends so much energy.

With your seedlings you can keep them warm & moist thru the winter to keep them growing (or move them into the house) then treat as normal next year.

The Aloe seed may not be viable if you've only got one plant but it will probably pup (offset) in a year or two & you can take these of & root them.

[FoxHillGardener]

Righto. I need to start keeping a cactus notebook to remeber what I did when - and when I should do the next thing!

The aloe-ey thing has indeed got lots of pups (pups! I like that!). That was what I was originally given. Will it mind when I take them off for rooting? The main plant is about 3 inches high and across with the little ones about an inch. They're getting quite snug in their pot, but no roots poking out the bottom yet

[FoxHillGardener]

I've just looked in Dr Hessayon and my aloe-ey thing is not an an aloe. It looks like a Hawarthia attenuata or fasciata.

Why I didn't look it up ages ago I don't know. He does describe it as aloe-like, though so it's not just me that thinks that

[Alice]

Hello Poultrychat, basically what cactus and succulents need to make them flower is a difference betwen daytime and night time temperatues and summer and winter. I put my Christmas cactus etc outside for June, July and August and bring them indoors in September before the weather turns. As soon as they come in they start making buds and burst into flower. They usually flower 2 or 3 times . The same works for cactus. In the winter keep them in a room which is not heated at night, or on a windowsiill where you pull the curtains and they are left on the cold side. Hope that works for you.

[nick the grief]

Have a rootle around carefully & see if they have any roots formed if they have you will have to remove them carefully severing the pup from hte main plant. If they haven't cut them off & allow the cuts to dry foe a few days then pt them up in to cactus mix (either bought or made up) & sit them ontok of some dry sharp sand. You can dust the cut surface with flowers of sulphur or rooting powder - you don't need this to form roots just as an anti-fungicide to stop rot entering.

Leave well alone & don't water till they are rooted then just mist over. You might want to put them somewhere out of the sunlight to save any stress.



This is what i've done for some Sempervivum pups on the right. The cactus on the left is for LJ's benefit to save her googling

[Lesley Jay]

Nick!!!! You really are wicked!!

[nick the grief]

Another couple of mine, bit more colourful though.

[Shortie]

Nick, I thought about you and your cactii this weekend at the 'Big Cheese' in Caerphilly... There was a stall there by the Cactii society... I guess you weren't one of the people there were you?

[nick the grief]

No Shortie. I would have been the good looking one anyway

It would have been done by the South Wales Branch of the BCSS I guess. We (the Coventry Branch) have got a display coming up at Coombe abbey in August but I don't think I'll be able to get there.

I will however be at the National Chrysathemum Early show in September at the County Showground, Stafford on 9th and 10th September. Again, I shall be the good looking one There is also the Midlands District Association NVS show there & the Borough of Stafford Show as well plus the National Gladiolus (?) societies midland show.