Contents
of the Spring 2008 Northants News
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Euphorbia gymnocalycioides Doug
Roland |
This species is now becoming
available more and more in cultivation. However, plants and seeds are expensive
and some care has to be taken with them. I hope these notes will be useful to
prospective growers.
The smallish plant bodies are
solitary and grow flush to the ground, being similar to small plants of Euphorbia
obesa, but with chin-like protuberances on the short stem, hence the
specific name which means ‘Gymnocalycium-like’.
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The first plant of this species I
ever saw was in a large collection of Euphorbia belonging to Chuck Hanson, in
Arizona in 1995. His plant was grafted, and since then I have believed that it
was of difficult cultivation on its own roots, as is Euphorbia
piscidermis.
In 1985, it is said that
only two plants existed in cultivation, both on their own roots. However, we
have come a long way since then, and seedling plants and seeds are now available
to enthusiasts.
In 2001, Bill Morris gave me a
plant obtained on a continental cactus trip earlier that year. In five years it
has grown steadily from 1cm to 5cm in diameter. A further small plant obtained
in 2004 is also growing well on its own roots.
This Euphorbia is from a warm
desert environment and grows among dry short grasses in a small habitat in
Ethiopia. In cultivation, the plants require a very gritty soil. Water plants at
infrequent intervals, standing pots briefly in a little rain water and they
should do well for you. For success the plants are best kept in autumn, winter
and spring in England on gentle heat on a 70F propagator base.
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Euphorbia gymnocalycioides will
never be common in cultivation, but it is important that we know how to grow
this rare species correctly and successfully.
Doug
Next after Google
I ‘Googled’ Pediocactus paradinei. Did you
mean Pediocactus paradise? Oh, dear.
The F.L. was chatting to my father on the phone.
Apparently my stepmother had brought home a rather nice potted cactus from the
local charity shop. My father was attempting unsuccessfully to describe it over
the phone. “Hang on,” said Christine, “It’s got a name on it… It’s
called ‘Next’.”
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I
only wanted a bird table
Stephanie
Bahja |
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Memoirs of a new member
My ‘new garden’ was
finished, the patio laid, the shed erected and the new lawn fresh and
green. There was a corner though that I wasn’t happy with. Something
needed to go there, just a finishing touch. A bird table was the obvious
answer. It was a warm Sunday afternoon in August…
Off to the local garden
centre then to finish the project that had lasted over two months. My
daughter came with me. She had bought her first cactus some five years
before and it had turned into a monster, much taller than me. I had
watched it, nurtured it, been amazed at its rate of growth, I didn’t
know its real name, it was just ‘the cactus’. We headed towards the
garden ornaments but I was suddenly stopped in my tracks because there
before me was a huge array of cacti, displayed on wooden staging. As I got
nearer I started to gasp, I had never seen cacti like these before. All
shapes, sizes, colours, some with the most beautiful flowers I had ever
seen. I don’t think I even knew at that point that they did flower. I
felt like a child in a sweetie shop. I had been to this garden centre
before and had seen their small cactus sales display. They had obviously
expanded their stock for sale. A man (Jack) asked me if I would like to
buy some raffle tickets, if I won, he said, I would get a cactus. I bought
lots and, to my delight, won two cacti. They had name tags in them, they
had identities. Mmm…I thought, this could be interesting but why was the
garden centre selling raffle tickets? I wandered over to the plant sales.
There was a very big, fine looking cactus for sale. It had the most
beautiful delicate yellow flowers. There was a large ticket in it saying
‘Star Buy’. I had to have it. I paid the asking price and had a grin
on me like a Cheshire cat. The man who had sold me the raffle tickets
wandered over. He told me about the British Cactus Society, would I like
to join? It then started sinking in that these cacti were nothing to do
with the garden centre. How much I asked. £15 for the year I was told. I
would get a magazine and could attend the monthly meetings if I wanted to.
I joined. Not forgetting the reason for the visit to the garden centre I
then purchased a bird table and with a very large trolley wheeled it out
to the car together with my new cacti.
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Stephanie
holds aloft the 'mutant'
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A few days later, what seemed
like vast amounts of literature, started arriving. I think it was then that I
started to realise that this was a subject that I knew nothing of or about but I
wanted to learn more. If I was going to go to the next meeting surely I had to
know something. I started reading the magazine that had arrived. It all seemed a
bit ‘highbrow’ for me but there were obviously people out there that had a
vast knowledge on the subject.
With excitement and trepidation I
arrived for my first meeting. I took my daughter for moral support. We were
greeted warmly and it was explained to me that tonight wasn’t a ‘normal’
meeting. It was a show, and a show judge (Mike Stransbie) was attending. Wow –
this was a bit like Crufts of the plant world! There was a very large amount of
plants. I watched people bringing them in cardboard boxes, bubble wrap, orange
boxes; lovingly handling the plants onto the show tables. Serious stuff! I sat
down and listened to two of the committee members addressing the meeting. It
seemed like double Dutch but I understood that I had to put my hand up if I
wanted tea or coffee in the break. The judge knew everything about every plant
and kept me enthralled for about two hours. Not because I knew what he was
talking about but because he did. After the show was over I briefly spoke
to the judge. I asked him how he had acquired the knowledge – ‘over 30 years’
he replied. Well, it started to sink in that as I had started later in life I
might not have time to acquire it at that level!
That feeling has remained, but
slowly, very slowly I’m picking up a few things, I can identify just a handful
of species. I’ve learnt that cacti and succulents can get pests, what I’m
supposed to do and not do to nurture them, when and how often I water or
fertilise them, light and heat requirements, just the very basics really. I’ve
attended as many meeting as I can and have had the joy of slide shows and talks
from experts which in themselves are travelogues of places across the globe that
it is unlikely I will ever see with my own eyes. I am still in awe of the
commitment of the ‘hard core’ of members of the Northampton and Milton
Keynes Branch that I am now happy to be a member of. I’ve tasted beautiful
homemade fruit cake and a lovely buffet at the AGM. Slowly I’m getting to know
the names of my fellow members. I’ve had the benefit of the branch library and
have tried to read as many books at my level as I can. I’m still known as ‘the
new member’ and suspect I will be for many years to come. I’ve become one of
the ‘pricklys’ (the camera club in the room next door have named us that
apparently so in my mind I think of the them as ‘the flashers’). I’m
looking forward to the spring and summer when more outside activities will take
place and my cacti start growing and flowering again. My collection has expanded
considerably from the single plant back in August. They have overtaken my
conservatory (and in the cold weather my living room). I spray them, brush their
bodies with a paint brush to keeping them looking spruce, clap my hands with
glee when I see a bud, and am still amazed at the growth rate of some of them. I
curse them when they stab me but forgive them readily. Despite my incredible
lack of knowledge, what my plants, and the club, are giving me is a tremendous
amount of pleasure. What more could anyone ask for £15 a year!!!
Stephanie
Ed: Thanks,
Stephanie for adding your ’How I started’ saga to the long list of writers
who have contributed similar articles for our magazine. I can’t remember any
others that made me laugh so much and I will never be able to see the
neighbouring photographers without a giggle. What shall we call the ‘marshal
arts’ crowd? The ‘Grunts’?
As to the ‘mutant’;
I asked for a favourite or unusual plant for the picture and you certainly
produced one. The wise men had difficultly identifying it but eventually deduced
that it was a Rebutia that has been watered in winter and produced thin,
untypical growth. Now you know that our plants are kept dry in winter when light
levels are low. (The mutant is suffering from what is technically called
etiolation.) Rebutias (and many cacti) like a cool (or cold), dry winter rest
and sunshine, fresh air and watering in the warmer months.
Trev
