Contents of the Summer 2011 Northants News

As George Formby said when he looked at his mother in law, ‘Ah well, I don’t need a licence for that!’ The clump of daffodils growing in the grass at the end of Spring Road are now in full blossom, along with the sweet Magnolias, so spring must almost be here.

A year or two ago I was browsing an expensive German plant catalogue and ordered a few less common grafted items, and for a finale ordered a plant of Discocactus which appeared to be rather cheaper than normal. With Euros and commission costing almost £1 each, I really thought that this was the beginning of the end of this kind of venture. However the plants arrived in due course, but saw no sign of a Discocactus. As time progressed I found a plant rather like a wilted Epiphyllum, and discovered that the small print was not for me as this plant was Disocactus quezaltecus, a native epiphyte of the Central American Republic of Guatemala. I supported it on a frame, and after several years the plant has survived well, and this winter presented me with several beautiful stems of red cleistogamous flowers. So sometimes your mistakes can have happy endings.

I play cassette music for most of the time that I work with plants, the big number being ‘The Desert Song’ usually quickly followed by ‘All Alone’, which is also from the movie ‘The Desert Song’.

Our other member who visits is Len Coombes who occasionally comes from Cranfield on his bus pass. We were discussing seed raising recently and Len has pots of his BCSS seeds up and growing already, whilst my own from the Mesemb Study Group are also doing well. This year the MSG are having a distribution of surplus plants from Members, just for the cost of the postage. Usually when growing Mesembs from seeds, many plants appear, and this is an excellent way of disposing of them.

It is a good idea to grow a few of the smaller Crassula species. Some are rather solitary and slow growing, but others such as Crassula socialis clump up and will soon fill a 5” pot if left to their own devices. But best of all are the little clumps of flowers of these plants which last all through the spring and brighten the place up on dull days.

Apart from Len and ourselves we are painfully short of members in this area, however at the Kempston Show we sell around a hundred plants in 2½“ pots during the afternoon. There are regular people who buy year after year who have an interest in the plants. But I am afraid that the interest stops there, and it is almost impossible to get them to join our Society and meet similar people. But they all enjoy looking around our Show and taking a few plants home.

We did not suffer any losses due to the December 2010 cold spell. I have wooden greenhouses lined with white lining cloth fixed with drawing pins. Although this system precludes a little of the summer light, by and large the plants do not seem to mind. On the downside the sub zero temperatures froze out several New Zealand native trees sown outside from 1998 seeds. Also we had to put on extra heat in the garden insulated tropical fish shed to be able to keep tanks at 78F. We also live in hope that the New Zealand tree ferns will sprout new growth shortly.  

Mid March is also the time to re-pot all carnivorous plants in moss peat. This is a wet and messy job, but plants will respond well in their new situation. Some of the smaller species may be difficult to find amongst the growing moss in their last years pots.

If you are looking for something to do during September and October, you might try small scale propagation of winter growing succulents such as detached Conophytum cones, small stems of Mitrophyllum and Monilaria, Crassula teres, Greenovia aurea, Senecio articulatus, and the Charlie Feetham Tylecodon buchholziana and others such as Tylecodon paniculata, and a few of Bill Morris’ winter growing Pelargoniums. All will root and grow over the winter, but it is best to keep them separate in a box or a separated area from all summer growing plants.

I have grown a few Sempervivum plants for some years and have had mixed fortunes with them. Although the plants are super hardy, they do not like our very wet winters and often become misshapen and lose their roots. Birds will also pull plants out of the ground. I have found the best way to cultivate these plants is to take them inside the greenhouse and leave them under the bench to dry out. When you put the plants back outside in mid March you will find them all looking dry and good and ready for a season’s growth.

For a finale, a couple of disturbing true stories of conservation which did not go very well. When I was in Albuquerque, we visited a site of grassland on Sandia Mountain, and found many small plants of Sclerocactus (or Toumeya) papyracantha, and again we found a site near Los Alamos where these plants grew and did well. On the way home we passed a huge housing estate near to the base of Sandia Peak. Hazel Hicks who was with us, said that this grassy site used to contain a large number of plants of S. papyracantha before the building development took place.

I also went to a site a couple of times near Tucson, and photographed Ferocactus acanthodes var. lecontei which is the brown spined variety of the species, several species of Echinocereus, and Yucca and Dasylirion. But the joy of the place was a five foot high crested Ferocactus for which we had great affection. However, the third visit to the area in later years found the whole area being fenced in to builder’s lots. I often wonder what happened to our old friend.

For a batch of all year round colour, a display of grafted Gymnocalycium cv ‘Orange Ball’ and G. cv ‘Ruby Ball’ will bring a bit of colour into your life. But beware of our winter arctic weather, the Cereus triangularis stocks are not very hardy.

If you enjoy a rarity or two, grafted items such as Blossfeldia liliputana, Sclerocactus mesa-verdae, Mammillaria gracilis v monstrosus, Escobaria robbinsorum and Obregonia denegrii are all easier to grow on more hardy Cereus stocks. You may have to look around a bit for the Escobaria, which is sometimes listed under Cochisea or even Coryphantha.