My Oldest, Old Friend

Copiapoa cinerea - My oldest plant from seed.

In late summer of 1979 I purchased a pack of 20 seeds of Copiapoa cinerea from Mesa Gardens in New Mexico, USA.  I planted those seeds in November 1979.  I really don't remember how many of the 20 germinated, but I do know what happened to one that did; it became one of my favorite plants.  I gave it the best locations, most sun, and always remembered to water it, something I didn't do for some other plants.  I repotted it regularly, although that wasn't that often because it grew very slowly.  Beginning in the mid 1980's I entered it in every plant show our C&S society held, but it never won an award because it was still quite small.  

After it passed the 10 year old point it flowered every year.  The flowers are small and bright yellow but I didn't grow Copiapoa cinerea for its flowers, I grew it for the attractive body color and just to have a specimen of this wonderful cactus from the Atacama desert of Chile.  In habitat Copiapoa cinerea develops an almost chalk white body color.  I'm not able to provide enough sun for the white body color, but my plant has developed a very pleasing bluish-grey color and I'm satisfied.   Year after year it grew a little, flowered, and remained my favorite cactus plant.  

In 1998 it was 19 years old and began to develop its first offset, another stem growing off the main stem.  I had seen the photos of old Copiapoas in habitat with hundred of offsets, magnificent great clumps that had to be approaching a 100 years old.   It was exciting to watch it begin to develop the form that Copiapoa cinerea plants are suppose to develop.  It now has 10 offsets.  This November 2014 my old Copiapoa cinerea will celebrate its 35th year.  I'm very proud of my oldest plant.  Copiapoa cinerea is not the easiest cactus to grow, especially when you don't have a greenhouse.   I hope you also have a favorite plant.  It's alright to have a favorite, just don't tell the other plants. ^__^    

First Flower on a Strange Cactus

Astrophytum caput-medusae

In August 2001 a very unusual cactus was discovered in Nuevo Leon, Mexico.  The plant had a very short, squat stem and long, thin tubercles arising from the stem like tentacles.  Below the stem, and buried in the ground, was a thick, fat root.  Interestingly, the long, snake-like tubercles were covered with small white trichomes, very similar to those found on the body of plants in the genus Astrophytum.   Later, when this strange cactus flowered, and produce fruit and seeds, they too, were very similar to those of the astrophytums.  Botanically, it seemed to be a new species of Astrophytum, but the plant body looked nothing like any of the other astrophytums.  

For the past 8 to 10 years, I have been growing a lot of astrophytums.  I have representatives of the species A. asterias, A. capricorne, A. myriostigma, and A. ornatum.  I also have a number of varieties, and hybrids, including the very popular Astrophytum 'Super Kabuto.'  I wanted a plant of the newly described A. caput-medusae.  

Over time seed began to enter the market place and in March 2013 I purchased 10 seeds of Astrophytum caput-medusae from Mesa Garden.  The seeds were planted and 8 of the 10 germinated.  Two of the resulting seedlings were smaller and weaker than the rest and eventually died.  I had six strong, healthy seedlings.  The seedlings were grown under fluorescent lights and grew slowly.  I could tell in the beginning most of the growth took place in the enlarging roots.  Each seedling had 3 to 5 tubercles.  Three weeks ago, in early June 2014, one of the seedlings produced a flower bud at the end of one of the tubercules.  I had read about buds forming on young seedlings, but most  buds aborted before opening.  My first bud didn't abort and I was pleased and surprised that I had my first Astrophytum caput-medusae flower on one of  my 15 month old seedlings. 

Growing SuperKabuto, or Something Like it.

Astrophytum x  'SuperKabuto'  (Maybe)

SuperKabuto is the Japanese name for a hybrid Astrophytum with a heavy covering of white, felt-like dots.  No one knows for sure, what two astrophytum species originally resulted in the SuperKabuto hybrid.   It appears that one of the species was Astrophytum asterias, but the other remains a mystery.  A single plant was found in a U.S. nursery by a Japanese collector, who took the plant to Japan and began breeding it with other astrophytums.  The result has been a vast collection of plants with many different patterns and coverings of white felt patches on a globular astrophytum body.  The original SuperKabuto hybrid has begat many, many other hybrids, most with their own particular beauty.  My collection of SuperKabuto like plants began with several packs of seed, all promised by the sellers to be from SuperKabuto hybrid plants.  Not all the seed produced SuperKabuto like plants, but some did, and those were grown to flowering size and now my cross pollination has begun and hopefully I'll produce something new and different.

Shown below is one of my plants grown from that first batch of purchased seed.  It has started flowering and if I have another astrophytum flowering at the same time, I'll use my small paint brush to transfer pollen from each flower to the other.  If I'm lucky and either or both of the plants produce fruit and seed, I'll have my second generation of SuperKabuto like plants. 

The great fun and excitement of cross pollinating plants and planting the resulting seed is that you never know what is going to show up in the seedling pot.  Yes, most of the time it is nothing special,  but every now and then....Wow.

Lithops - Ready for Another Year

Lithops - Those Wonderful Living Stones

The long in the house winter is over and my lithops are back outside in the sun and fresh air.  I lost three plants over the winter.  All were young plants, 2+ years, and they apparently just didn't have enough water to get through their regeneration cycle.  I took a chance keeping them with the adult plants and I lost.  Nevertheless, the remaining adult plants look fine and are once again receiving a regular watering.    

Shown above is a part of my Lithops collection.  Lithops really are beautiful plants. I've grown almost all of my plants from seed, and I thoroughly enjoy them every day.  



Evaluating Winter's Plant Damage

Agave victoria-reginae

 

When you over winter several hundred cacti and other succulents in three wooden boxes, covered by plastic, and heated with small electric heaters, there is bound to be problems.  The potential "big" problem is a loss of electricity during a severe cold period.  Without the heaters, temperatures in the over wintering boxes would drop below freezing in 4 to 6 hours.  There were no power outages this winter and no heater failures.  Most of the plants came through the winter in good conditions, but there were a few sad exceptions.  Perhaps the most notable, and for me the saddest, was my seed grown, 19 year old, Agave Victoria-reginae. 

 

When I first saw it I wasn't sure what had

happened.  This was not low temperature damage.  Why a band of damaged tissue in the center of the leaves?  It took me a day or two to figure out what had happened. 

Notice how the leaves are all in an upright position. This is due to the plant being very dry.  Because the winter was so consistently cold, I had little opportunity to open the over wintering boxes and give the plants any water.  It reacted to the lack of water by pulling its leaves upright to protect the terminal growth and further reduce water loss.  This is a normal reaction.  But what it did is expose the undersides of the leaves to strong, direct sunlight (remember in winter the sun is low in the sky), and basically, sunburn the leaves.  The undersides of the leaves are not normally exposed to direct sun.  They weren't acclimated to direct sun, and when exposed they were damaged.  As far as the plant is concerned, it is fine.  In nature it would continue growing and eventually flower and set seed, its primary function.  But in terms of a nice show plant, it is ruined.  I probably should have anticipated this, but I didn't.  I was concerned with just keeping the plants warm, forgetting about what the extended lack of water might cause.  You live and learn, but this was a tough lesson. 

 



 

Revisiting the Red Titanopsis

 

Titanopsis  calcarea  -   The Red One

 

My blog of May 21, 2013 was about two titanopsis seedlings I found with red coloration in their leaves.  The seed came from my own plants but the pollination was uncontrolled.  Basically, one of my titanopsis plants formed a fruit with no pollination help from me.  I have no idea what the father plant was, but it was likely another titanopsis.  I collected the fruit and planted the seed.  This resulted in about a group of seedlings, including several that were a reddish color.  I potted them up, placing the two red seedlings in a single pot.  It was my guess that the red color came from stress, because I placed the original pot of seedlings in my over-wintering frames and they were in a lot of sun and didn't get watered regularly. 

 

After I rediscovered them last spring I gave them better care, basically more water, and they grew well over the summer.  They went back into the over-wintering frames for the past winter.  Once again this spring the red color is still there and the plant is quite attractive.  This could still be due to stress as life in the over-wintering frames this past winter was very dry, but with a lot of sun.  It's a pretty Titanopsis calcarea and I thought I would show it off again.  Perhaps I can do some pollinating when it flowers this year and see if I can find something interesting in the resulting seedlings.  

 

 



After a Long Winter Rest

 

Prepodesma  orpenii

 

The former Aloinopsis orpenii, now Prepodesma orpenii, has spent a long, cold winter in my over-wintering heated frames.  The electric heaters did their job and kept the minimum temperature in the 40-43 F. ( 4.5-6.0 C) range, but because of the consistently cold weather, I was unable to open the frames on a regular basis and all the plants received very little water and spent a very dry winter.  Most cacti, and other succulents handle, maybe even prefer, a dry winter, but small plants, and winter flowering plants, need a little water over the winter.  I usually give Prepodesma orpenii some water beginning in mid to late February, but this year that was not possible.  Nevertheless, it has come through the winter ok, and is now budding up and preparing to flower.  These little mesembs are tough indeed.