Hello from Tasmania :)

Just wanted to say hello from Tasmania... I posted this hello (with a few modifications) on the Cactus and Succulent Society of Australia forum and... let's just say the response wasn't over whelming... hoping things are a little more congenial here

I'm Simon, and in my younger days I was an active participant in the Central Coast Cactus and Succulent Society in NSW. I use to mainatin a glasshouse of about 100 species; mainly Mammilaria, Rebutia, Sulcos and Gymnocalycium but also was getting into others... especially Astros and Notocactus sp. (I have a preference for clumping cacti... not a fan of hybrids), and was heavily into growing by seed and normal grafting (nothing fancy... just onto Hylocereus understocks) before I left the Central Coast (I was there in Jeff Barker's day.. haven't heard from him since I visited him when he lived in Moree nearly 15 years ago). Now I live in Tasmania and have been out of the loop for about 20 years (not up on name changes etc) and am starting to want to get back into it again slowly. Would love to make some contacts down here in Tas. It's hard to find things down here (though I've noticed more cacti are coming in) so I'm resorting to online mailorder nurseries with accreditation to send to Tas like Collectors Corner. I haven't got much yet as growing cactis down here seems to have its challenges... am trying to find out how to get some of them to flower . They seem to grow just fine but some I've had for the 3 years I've been here without a hint of a flower. Am hoping the extra heat of the greenhouse will help turn this around. I grow what I have outdoors at the moment during spring and summer and bring them inside during winter when we get the bulk of our rain and keep them pretty dry. Finally got another plant of Sulcorebutia rauschii again and a few other nice little clumping Mams and am thinking of setting up another small glasshouse again for them (have just bought a small one... so going to try leaving them in it over winter to see how they go). Not really into succulents... a few but not many (sorry). I am VERY into roses and have been hybridising roses for years. I own and run a website called Rose Talk Australia (http://www.rosetalkaustralia.com) which is an Australia rose forum with a particular emphasis on hybridising roses for Australian conditions and the science of growing roses (my background is in Science. I'm a senior biology and chemistry high school teacher). I hope to get to know some people here, swap plants every now and then and make some Tas contacts

Cheers,

Simon

Welcome Simon!

I think that you'll find a friendly reception here, and there are at least three Tasmaniacs that I know of, so you're not completely alone!

I've pm'd you with a longer reply.

welcome aboard simon... i look forward to seeing your progress in the climate down there. I am sure you will see that tassie is very capable of producing some amazing plants with beautiful flowers very soon if you go through some of the posts. there are some amazing photos on this forum.

kind regards
Darren

Thanks for the welcomes... some of the mams have flowered already and are doing really nicely. My elongata is the only one I managed to save from my old collection which I gave to my Grandmother when I went overseas. It's a little over 10 years old and flowers reliably and is winter hardy outside here. Unfortunately she had way to many other things to look after and this is the only surviving one. Marksiana flowered well but I left prolifera outside last winter and it went to mush (I really love this common little mam. and if anyone down here has any spare pups I'd love to buy them off you). The rebutia haven't flowered down here though I expect they will once they've been here a few more years and they get into the greenhouse. Mams are my favourite group, however, my favourite cactus is Sulcorebutia rauschii, which I also have growing down here now as a tiny little newbie just starting to pup. My last rauschii was more than 15 years old and filled a 10cm pot with tiny little heads but I could never get it to flower... unfortunately this specimen also died whilst I was overseas. Will see how I go with this one. Thanks again for the welcomes. I look forward to spending some time here

Yeah good one Simon, i have learned heaps here and have done alot of standing back in awe of some of the work members here post...im thinking of moving to Tassie one day absolutely love it there

You should move down here . God's country

Hi Simon, I would love to move to Tassie I hope you're enjoying the forum it's lots of fun here. I started to collect cacti about ten to twelve years ago and after a five or six year break got back into it last year. I didn't have quite as many as you lol, and now I am buying them madly. This forum has been a great help too

Hi Olga, Thanks for the welcome. That magnifica in your avatar is a beautiful specimen (hasn't Notocactus changed to Parodia or something *shrugs*). I miss my old collection and I feel like a newb again with all the name changes and progressions in techniques, research, species availability, etc so am hoping people can help bring me up to speed. It doesn't take long to get your collection up. I only have 13 different species now... with the ease you can get seed these days it could be back to over 100 again in no time at all. In the late 90's we use to get a poorly photocopied booklet from Arizona Cactus and sift through pages of species and make our seed selections as a group (I was mostly into germinating Gymoncalycium back then... they were a good beginners seed to start with and my plants would make loads of seed to play with) and send away a cheque eagerly awaiting the new seeds. We'd have Central Coast Cactus and Succulent Society meetings in the old Uniting Church hall in Wyong and Geoff Barker, the other Geoff (whose name escapes me.. was it Turner???), Iris McIver (sp?? - now she was an interesting person... I learnt most the important stuff from her.. she was a legend), and Neville Perry and his wife Sheila, would bring in tables full of 2-3 year old seedings that we could buy and I was a uni student at the time living on $20 a week... I'd eat real carefully so I could buy at least one new $3 cactus each time and I'd always try to bring along at least one cactus to donate for the raffle... good times... I miss it and the awesome field trips we did like Bevens at Lightning Ridge and the big one in Gilgandra... one year we went to Coffs.. don't remember much about that one... My Grandmother is still, as far as I know, a member.. they made her a life member. So I'm kinda looking for an online equivalent kind of thing here and hope to make lots of friends and see lots of cool cacti... there are a lot of people on here doing some amazing things. I'd never seen seedling grafting before coming on here... it's in some of my old books, but I'd never seen it done or the results of doing it... quite amazing! The addiction is still strong in me... and now my 13 year old daughter is showing an interest as well... I love how things go full circle We bought a new one today (I think it's a subspecies of Mam. rhodantha... possibly pringlei going by it's long thing curved yellow spines and pretty deep pink flowers... a new one for me so we are learning about it together) and we repotted it into terracotta bowl of our homemade mix, chatting as we did about cacti. The topic of conversation was CAM photosynthesis of cacti (we are a family of science nerds), and the greenhouse we want to build... it's all very cool

Thanks again for the welcome. I am enjoying being here so far and hope to learn a lot from you all too

Yeah they're parodia now, I am having a little trouble with identifying stuff because of the new genus names. That is my oldest cactus, it's about 12 years old and my Mum gave it to me.
Your old Society sounds amazing! I never got that far into it when I started, I have a cacti nursery close by and just used to save my pocket money to buy a new one every so often, but I only started off with about 12 of them. I have only lost one of the original ones I had, the rest are going along nicely and have been divided into many plants, my favourites used to be your average old echinopsis, but I still do love those.
At the moment I am not attempting seeds again until I can get a proper propagation unit of some sort going, my last attempt was disastrous, and I am waiting until we move house. I think the next project will be my outside garden in Spring, I have an area to make some nice big garden beds so I am looking forward to it. I am still buying up loads of course, I just got some nice three year old seedlings online and have a bunch of new mamms, which seems to be my main obsession
I'm sure you'll learn loads from everyone here, some people do amazing things and have plants I have never even seen before!

Is Melbourne a winter rainfall area like NW Tas is? I'd like to make an outdoor cactus garden but don't know how to get around a soaking wet winter???

Cactuspolecat lives in Tassie and he has an amazing outdoor garden. Our winter is fairly dry here, but we'll still get days of rain so it's more keeping the bed well raised and choosing hardier plants.

Check this thread out

http://forum.auscactiforum.net/general-cultivation-identification-information-f10/a-few-pix-from-my-garden-t868.htm

I have one unknown Echinopsis that seems to love being outdoors here all year round though it has never flowered. Mam. elongata seems unaffected by being outdoors all year. Mam. marksiana seems unaffected down here as well and flowered really well early in spring this year. The Sulcorebutia, Aylostera, and Rebutia don't like it outside here and get brought inside to dry out over winter as did the astorphytum (and I still lost them... possums love them apparently )... If I could get a whole lot of clumping types growing outdoors here that would be cool... any suggestions?

WOW!!! That is just beautiful!!! Lots of different Mams growing outdoors! My little Notocactus (Parodia.. whatever), scopa likes it outdoors all year as does the Echinocereus pectinatus.

There are some Rebutia in thos photos... I guess its about making microclimates too down here then???

I think there are probably hardier species in some genres. I have a rebutia which I unfortunately can't identify as I've has it for ages, which happily grew in a outside for five or six years. I got a heliosa about two months ago and have lost about four pups off it, first some dried out and I was told I was underwatering, then today one rotted off so it looks like I am overwatering it My other rebtuias seem to be okay but I am not going to put them in the ground for now, I am not sure about them yet.
My old noto was fine in the garden, most parodias seem okay, trichocerues, cereus, echinopsis, opuntia and some mamms grow well in the garden too.

This is my local nursery, the landscaping page has some suggestions. I forgot oreocerues and cleistocactus seem to grow fine outside too

http://www.collectorscorner.com.au/Cacti/LandscapeCactus.htm

I was going to try and start an outdoor gardening thread later when everyone gets going with their gardens, it will be good to trade tips.

Yes... it would be. I've never grown cacti in the ground before and just figured it would be a waste of time and plants down here.. CP's garden down here puts that line of thinking to rest pretty well though there is a difference between cold hardy plants and cold and WET hardy plants.

I think that's where the raised bed and good draining soil is the key, but I have seen a lot of those and had some planted at Mum and Dads house that have survived much wetter conditions than we have now.
I think most of the columnars mentioned can tolerate more water than most, and I think using older established specimens is also a good idea.
CP's garden is a good inspiration for us all
One of our international members has some great pics of columnars topped with snow in his garden, aajoo is doing an outside patch as well.

This might be useful too: http://members.multimania.co.uk/cornishexotics/hardy_cacti_north.html