Spring 2013 - Post your pics !!

I thought I had ANOTHER snake when I heard the leaves rustling among the old pots. Then I found the reason why there had been no snails to deal with this year!
To his right, the round pot is 20cm diameter, so he is a big fella!
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A bit more cactus related, Asterias red flowers best one on the left.


Anatomically confused E. knippleanus flowers.


Nice flowers but a difficult plant to grow, Wilcoxia schmollii

cryptocarpa-what happened to your knippleanus flowers? just a freak mutation

Astrophytum asterias 'Superkabuto' x coahuilense in flower yesterday, bought from cactus show last saturday


SuperKabuto869

Cool little greenhouse friend Crypto way better than a snake ! I like the Asterias flowers, good cour.


Nice plant superkabuto!!

Hello Super K, it seems that stigma, anthers and petals failed to properly differentiate with the ecereus. I think a flower is technically a modified shoot and the petals ect. are actually modified leaves . A complex mechanism of hormonal signals and feedback from cells in the bud meristem initiates the genetic program that results in the process of a flower developing. Somewhere along the way it got a bit muddled up and produced stigma parts on petals and anthers(usually pollen bearing).
Nice flowers on the super k hybrid too.
Hn. Way better than a snake. Last year it was a hot day and I spent all day standing in thongs at the potting bench. After a few hours I decided to do something else and grabbed a bit of timber from under the bench a couple of feet away from where I had been standing all day...underneath was a fat 3foot tiger snake!
Having seen red belly blacks and eastern browns all within a hundred meters of the greenhouses I decided to seal up the perimeter and wear boots even when it's hot. The blue tongue was actually cruising around the backyard of our house in the burbs. We have had tiger snakes at home too cause we live near a creek, bit of a worry with our little kids running around. Several neighbours have lost pets.
Best to be wary as greenhouses attract the cold blooded reptiles.
The red flowers are my best out of many, I selected them to breed seeds with. This cultivar rarely produces good red flowers in my experience ones like those in the picture occur less than one in ten.

Have you heard about those solar snake stoppers ? My mate reckons they work.

By the look of it I think this is probably Mammillaria sheldonii

SneakyCuttlefish wrote:

This is an unknown Mammillaria I picked up a few months ago. The flowers opened up this morning. Haven't tried to I.D. it yet but if anyone has any ideas what it is send me a PM.

Here's a from the outdoors cactus patch that have been in bloom over the last couple of days/nights

Wow. Fantastic quality. What camera did you use??

Thanks
All taken with my old Sony A350, first 4 with a Sony 50mm f1.4 lens and the last using an old Minolta 24-50mm f4 lens.
First 2 in near pitch black conditions at 10:30pm using an old Minolta on-camera flash, unfortunately it doesn't do proper metering with the camera so I have to manually set shutter, aperature and flash strength. Bit of trial and error to get the exposure right but so much more versatile than the built in flash.

I see you want us drooling all over the world.  

LOL, see you stalking me all over the world Maja
I'm still only lurking over at the BCSS forum though, been a member for quite a while but haven't posted yet. This forum, cactiguide and corroboree is enough of posting places for me.

SnowFella wrote:

LOL, see you stalking me all over the world Maja

Well, you discovered my intentions.  

I missed the chance to see the stigma.
I can pollinate with some others if the stigma was normal.
I will wait the next chance which will happen soon.

I must say this is an interesting combination of colours.  

WOW !! that's amazing Hanazono

The scion was well balanced variegation when it was grafted.
Unfortunately it is all yellow now.
I have found several variegated asterias seedlings germinated in this year.
I will graft them.

I have a couple of variegated Asterias which I sowed last year and grafted. I think two show a nice variegation pattern. I will post them up.

Some highlights of the last week or so -

The intense colour of Rebutia krainziana

IMG_3947a (Medium) by Navajoa, on Flickr

Stoked to flower Pelecyphora asselliformis from seed on it's own roots. Near 7 years old -


IMG_3925a (Medium) by Navajoa, on Flickr

And seed grown Strombocactus disciformis delievered as well


IMG_3935a (Medium) by Navajoa, on Flickr

Epithelantha bokei


IMG_3954a (Medium) by Navajoa, on Flickr

One of my favorite groups amongst the Echinocereus. This one E. amoenus


IMG_3952a (Medium) by Navajoa, on Flickr

Same plant different flower -


IMG_3992a (Medium) by Navajoa, on Flickr

A "field" of Mammillaria theresae, my all time favorite Mamm.


IMG_3949a (Medium) by Navajoa, on Flickr

Nice bookei Nav I really like it!
Yesterday i noticed this crested offset on a Fukuryu Banjaku Hakujo. Second pic shows a larger non crested specimen of the same plant. it will be interesting to see how this will develop.




Last but not least is this awesome degrafted L. williamsii v.menchaca, a form known to remain single headed and have distinct ribs. He has been an ornament on my kitchen table for the past few weeks while i am waiting for roots.
Plants like this are so good they should be....no...what am I saying!!!!

Wow that Loph is ridiculous crypto

^^^ I agree it is amazing!

Today Echinocereus rigidissimus rubrispinus flowered. But it was not sunny enough so the flower did not open fully.

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I think that it is flowering because it thinks it will not live much longer, because it lost a lot of roots  when some unknown hairy force knocked it out of its pot.

A super-kauto was in flower today.

Today there was finally some proper sun so E. rigidissimus rubrispinus got to bloom happily. But it was not alone!

My same plant as was posted on 16/11/13.

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Thelocactus Bicolor, how nice of the flowers to share their opening space!

Opuntia Santa-Rita (name as given by the nursery)