Full of anticipation I took the motorway south to see what Luton Branch had to offer. I don’t know if I am getting old or what but I don’t seem to be able to look at a collection of cacti with the same enthusiasm I did twenty years ago. Luckily the first three collections I visited were very strong on the ‘other’ succulents and indeed Luton’s Branch sec Jean had no cacti at all at first glance. I say that because a lot of growers would not consider her large fish-tail cactus a ‘real’ cactus.
At Norah Arnold’s we looked at a curious Tylecodon with the name wallichii. Now wallichii has knobbly stumps where the leaves fall and this was not that species, we thought. Should be easy to name from the monograph, I promised and another hour was ‘wasted’, it was not as easy as it seemed. The leaves and flowers agreed but the stems were twiggy and spreading, not chunky as I grow it and the book pictured it. Still I have a cutting so perhaps I can give the plant some further thought.
An easy beginner's plant - Mammillaria zeilmanniana 'alba' in bloom in Norah's collection.
