When You Have no Greenhouse

The Summer Plant Stand

It's true, I have no greenhouse.  However, I have a yard, and several parts of that yard receive ample amounts of sunlight.   During the frost free part of the year I have access to as much sunlight as any greenhouse would provide.  Unfortunately, there is no roof on my yard and plants placed directly in the yard are subject to all the rain that falls.  While this is natural for most plants, it can be excessive, sometimes deadly, for some types of potted succulents.  The answer to this problem was a plant stand with a transparent roof.  

 

I am no carpenter and the stand is no woodworking piece of art, but it works.  I reserve the stand for those succulents where the amount of water they receive must be under control. The stand is relatively small because all the plants on the stand must find other quarters for the winter and those quarters are limited.  

I have used the stand for more than 15 years and it has worked well.  I usually water the plants on the stand once every 5 to 8 days depending on the plant.  The one group of plants that are not on the stand is the lithops.  They have their own stand which you can see just to the right of the plant stand.  I'll discuss the lithops stand in the next blog entry.    

Fat Plants are In Vogue

Pachycauls, Caudiciforms, aka Fat Plants

There's no doubt, the most popular succulent/xerophtye plant group at present are the Fat Plants.  I've been to several cacti and succulent plant shows over the past several years and the prevailing favorites on the show benches, with judges and public alike, are the plants with swollen stems and roots.  Their popularity began rolling in 1987 when Gordon Rowley wrote his book, Caudiciform & Pachycaul Succulents.  Today, they are THE plants to acquire, grow, and show.  Alas, I have not joined the masses, as I only have two Fat Plants.   However, to become one of the "in crowd" I hereby celebrate and show off one of my two.

Adenium obesum

This plant was a year old seedling sent to me from another C&S grower in a trade for some winter hardy cacti in 2010.  It was listed as Adenium arabicum, but as I understand it, that species has larger, pubescent leaves, and the leaves on my plant are glossy and smooth, no trace of hair or fuzz.  Irregardless of the correct name, it is a nice example of a fat plant, and one of only two I own; so I like it.

My fat adenium has been outside all summer where it receives seven hours of sun daily and whatever rain we receive.  When rainfall is inadequate I water it.  I bring it inside in the winter and it becomes a house plant.  I never force it to go dormant but it does lose some leaves in the winter, however I believe this is more due to adjustment to light levels rather than it asking for a period of dormancy.   I do like the swollen stem and the multiple branches.  It's very picturesque and a nice addition to my collection of succulents.  Will I add more fat plants?  I doubt it.  My space limitations continue to dampen the addition of any new plants, and when space matters you tend to look down on plants that are.......well.... fat.        

Strange New Plants - Learning as you go.

Astrophytum caput-medusae

In late June of this year I discussed planting 10 seeds of the strange cactus, Astrophytum caput-medusae.  This cactus has a very reduced stem, you really can't see it, a thick, swollen root, and long, thin, snake-like tubercles arising from the stem.  My June 23, 2014 blog entry give more background on this strange cactus and chronicles the six seedlings that resulted from a March 2013 sowing.   The seedlings grew well and the June 23, 2014 blog entry shows one of the seedlings with a flower.  At that point the next step was the removal of the six seedlings from their birth pot and transplanting into a larger, or individual pots. However, because this is a relatively newly discovered cactus (2001), there is very little information on cultivation.  Thus, growing Astrophytum caput-medusae will be a Learning As You Go adventure.

Here are the six seedlings showing their thick, enlarged roots and ready for planting.  

    

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.