Look at these.....From my brother's property.

P.S. Hi All, this thread is now CLOSED as I have named them. Thank you for all your support!

Hi All,

When up to see my brother and bought these little beauties back.

I am not sure how to look after them to get them back to health.

Any advise appreciated.
I even have a thick root, no plant on it, but it has roots. Would I get a plant from that?

Sunny position or shade or both???

Debi




This message was edited Jun 17, 2008 5:52 PM

This message was edited Jul 16, 2008 4:43 PM

Hi Debi, hope you had gloves, tongs and spade handy, not to mention the tweezers, we now take tweezers everywhere..
I reckon that the variagated is agave angustaflolia. it grows into .
a handsome plant as a specimen . The plant in the middle is a sansiveria, or mother in laws tongue. the ones on the left are too hard to distinguish. The root might grow a leaf . If it is worth a try then why not. thats the fun of gardening. we had variagaed yucca that grew from a root piece and not 8months later is growing into a small plant. we have ours under a gum tree where it getts dappled light and is not too far away from the hose to get forgotten when watering. Lois ps haven't checked the spelling .. do a google search for more info and I'll send you a pic of our agave angustifolia ..privately

The large round thing in the middle is an opuntia, that I can tell you... what species? I dont know. Those little cacti you got in the front may either be a micro version of opuntia or some sort of cereus. If they were mine I'd stick them into a free draining potting mix , not too much nutrient, Just plenty of gritty organic wood and coarse sand. As for being this time of the year, I'm not sure whether sitting them in the sun and rain is a good idea... coz normally I repot all my cacti in the summer for that reason - lots of sun and little water. if you can get them to have some sun without letting the rain get to it, I think they'll sleep well through winter and will grow green to greet you come spring!

I had a couple of cereus and potted them both in the middle of spring last year... One was in the sun with plenty of waterings and the other same water but in the shade. the one in the sun was the one who grew mostly through summer. The other one didn't really grow much. So to me, Cereus is the kind of family that likes to spend most of their time in the sun.

I have a few Opuntias, but not enough to call myself knowledgeable. As far as I know, they are rot-prone like Crassulas so they need to be in a very free draining soil.and if the soil is too rich, it kinda forms fungus then later in the drier season you get "wood" around the base. I haven't really been a gardener that long to know all the garden jargon so sorry about that... it's just been a gradual development for me.

Hello Debi, The Opuntia stricta is the old "prickly pear" that covered large areas of NSW and QLD early last century and almost ruined the grazing industry. It is a declared pest species in both states and anyone found growing it can face a fine. The cactoblastis moth was introduced to controll it and has done so to a great extent.
Sorry about that Debi.
Bob.

yeh mum told me a little story about that... apparently the farmers in queensland were growing a particular crop and the australia animals and pests kept eating it. so they introduced the opuntia around their property to keep the pests out, of course they went wild and rampant so they introduced the moth to eat it. then THOSE became wild and rampant when the opuntia became minimal. So to get rid of the moths they brought in the CANE TOADS and that's when they realised that getting something imported to solve the problem was NEVER a good idea... so now we've been fighting opuntia, moths and cane toads for over a century.

I just didn't know that that opuntia was this pest variety... wow.. thanks for the notice.

Jen,The canetoad was introduced to control various species of cane beetle....no connection at all with the cactoblastis moth.. :0)

owww.... blame it on my memory then...I obviously dont know much about queensland.

Hi you guys,

All of the above information is fantastic and interesting, hey.

The things we try to help our particular circumstances..........sometimes good........sometimes bad.

We do not know if we do not try, thanks to our ancester's.

Thank you all for your help, I love being in this site and meeting so many wonderful people. I consider myself blessed.

I put the prickly pear in a tyre on the side of my yard that is free draining and very hard to grow anything. I will keep it trimmed back if it grows to wild.

Do you think that would help??

Thanks my new friends,

Debi
Zone 10B

Hello Deb. I think it wisest if you got rid of the prickly pear entirely. It is a menace and will grow from any tiny discarded bit. Your local agricultural authority should tell you how to get rid of it properly.
On my travels through parts of Queensland, I was amazed to see it still left growing wild in parts.
There are plenty of very pretty cacti to replace it.
In the right conditions prickly pear will grow well over 7'. I saw a plant once that had grown to cover an area the size of a normal house room.
We have lots of triffids without creating more. Look for the tamer pretty ones. Jean.

Hi Jean,

Good advice, I do not want to add to any problems we already have.

Tomorrow, I will find out how to dispose of it.
What about this growing on my brother's property????

Debi
Zone 10B

Debi, I don't know your bylaws there but you can ask the local council or agriculture dept. .