There's some good color in the garden right now, so I thought I would share. Today was the day for Mammillaria melanocentra. This plant is growing in the sunburn recovery unit. It seems to have really perked up for spring, which is a relief because it was pretty far gone a few months ago. I should be arrested for plant cruelty. It gets a couple of hours of sun a day right now, which seems to be about right. Surprisingly deep roots on this plant.
Gymnocalycium baldanium here also opened today.
And the Gasterias in the public garden are flowering like crazy, along with various mesembs and aloes. You can't even see the leaves of the Gasterias down in there, but they're clumping quite happily in day-long full sun. That surprised me because there's no way (ever) that I could grow those plants in a container with that kind of exposure.
Both beauties, but I am really partial to that M. melanocentra with those black spines! Would love to find one of those for my garden some day, but apparently it is not a plant destined for strong sun. = (
Some day I will locate some shade in my yard.... ; )
Cheers,
Tristan
Here's one of the same Gasterias growing in a pot. It gets a couple of hours of sun a day, which seems to be sufficient.
Hey, I'm not so sure that Mammillaria won't eventually be able to tolerate more sun. More likely I just jumped the gun on a plant that must have come right out of a greenhouse. Some of these cacti require very gradual adjustments in light. Most of my other Mamms do fine in half-day to full-day sun once they're fully up to speed.
One more shot of the Gasteria showing what the leaves look like. This is a slow-growing plant but it offsets a lot.
I recently repotted this Echeveria nodulosa with four heads. I think that's a 6" pot. Purple stripes!
This Sempervivum ended up in a matching pot. Purple tips with fur! For whatever reason it started sprouting from all sides after I repotted it. Maybe I need to repot my plants more often. Hmmm.
A purple Pachypodium growing in morning sun. I'm very excited to see all this activity (new as of a week or two ago). Two of the three heads on the plant look like they're going to flower. It never lost its leaves this winter and so I kept on watering it weekly all the way through. It seems to be quite thirsty.
Not the best picture but you can see four offsets in the works. The newest one (which I just noticed, second from right) is on the side of the plant pointing directly toward the sun. As are, probably not by accident, the two heads of the plant that have the flower buds.
Love the gymno flower.
Nice Baha. I have a Mamm. getting ready to bloom, too. I have yet to get my G. baldanium to bloom. How much sun does yours get?
Here's a picture of one of my Semps. All of these are growing out of a hole in the bottom of a broken pot. I call it my thunder cloud.
Gary
Love those flowers. Summer is definitely on the way.
I like that name, Gary. It's crazy what these plants can do. The Gymno gets almost no protection from the sun. You can see from the weeds sprouting out of that pot that it's been a relatively wet winter, because I don't water the plant very often. Last year I made the mistake of watering it when the flowers were about to open. Bad idea.
Here's another purplish plant with its first flower buds. Very suspenseful. Echinocereus rigidissimus v rubispinus, growing in full-day sun with infrequent water year-round (full exposure to winter rain).
Jealous!! My E. r.var. rubrispinus looks really nice in my garden...but refuses to flower for me!
Can't wait to see pics of when yours opens!
Thanks, Baja. Mine has been getting indirect light only. I'll try more sun.
I bought this Sempervivum Friday. I'm going to put it my garden to give it a little more color.
Semps come in so many outstanding colors and combinations... the more I see, the more I like. And they're nice and compact, which can be a real plus.
Aloe "Black Beauty" here, another purplish plant, gets half-day (morning) sun. I separated it from its pups a few months ago and there are several new ones emerging under there.
The Dudleya flowers are pretty dramatic right now. The hummingbirds love them.
The actual flower is a pale creamy yellow and doesn't open very much.
Am I hallucinating or is this plant turning greener by the week?
Euphorbia stellispina makes a second wave of regular flowers (center) after the first ones on pedestals are mostly done (spines now turning purple). At the center is a burst of leaves. The plant looks male to me.
This will be the first time I've gotten Aloe juvenna to bloom. This stalk appeared a couple of days ago. Yay!
Hidden in this shade picture of Gasteria flowers is a flowering Aloe aristata (plant lower right, flower upper right).
The aloes in containers seem to flower later than the ones in the ground. Here's Aloe aristata in a container (an offset of the one in the ground), about to do its thing. It's green and relatively open compared to the one in the ground because it gets some shade and more regular water.
Very collection!! Great job re-potting the Echeverias. They look very nice!
Great looking group Baja. Happy for you - juvenna flowering.
Your plants look wonderful. I am also getting my first Pachypodium to flower this year. Very excited.
Thank you all for the kind words. Sally, you know we'll have to compare pictures! It's weird to see the flowers sprout and grow so fast on a plant that is otherwise very slow to do much of anything.
Two different clones of Echeveria agavoides, grown very differently, both in the mood for love. The one on the left gets full-day sun (in a clay pot), the one on the right gets morning sun. I water the first one twice as often, incidentally.
The flowers on this Aeonium noid grow toward the sun.
So do the flowers on this miniature noid (each head is at most 1.5"/4cm).
Oops, the photo.
The aristata flowers just opened. What a weird little abbreviated flower stalk. I guess it does the job.
Aloe dorotheae flowers opened yesterday.
As did Aloe jucunda. This is an indoor plant.
Very delicate flowers on this plant.
This brown beast (name unknown) offsets prolifically. I cured it of a mealy infection last year using Windex treatment, and it remains trouble-free.
Closeup of the flowers.
Three varieties of Mammillaria elongata here are blooming. This one has copper spines and cream flowers. It branches heavily and is growing as a mound in a 10" pot.
The spines match the flowers on this version.
