I do not collect cacti because of their flowers, but they can be quite spectacular nevertheless (such as those of the echinopsis http://echinopsis.com/ genus). However, it’s a special enough event in my collection – New York weather is not ideal for growing cacti – that I do tend to take photos when that happens. ThisContinue reading “Flowers”
Category Archives: Cactus
Growing cacti from seeds. Part 3
Recently I have been taking photos of my seedlings with a macro lens. Unfortunately I still don’t know how to use in any other conditions than strong light without getting grainy photos. So a lot of summer photos in this post. I haven’t stopped sowing seeds, but my photographing efforts are now focused on theContinue reading “Growing cacti from seeds. Part 3”
Cacti of Zion National Park
I took a week-long trip to Zion National Park around the Memorial Day weekend. While cactus spotting was not the reason I went there, the hikes were (I followed this great guide for that), I was pleasantly surprised to see quite a few cacti in habitat, many of them in bloom. By far the predominantContinue reading “Cacti of Zion National Park”
San Gabriel Valley Winter Cactus Show and Sale 2019
This year I went, for the first time, to one of the cactus show&sales that seem to happen regularly in the LA area. This was a winter one and it was organized by the San Gabriel Valley Cactus and Succulent Society – their website has a list of upcoming events, out of which the CSSA AnnualContinue reading “San Gabriel Valley Winter Cactus Show and Sale 2019”
Growing cacti from seeds. Part 2
It has been over a year since I planted the first cactus seeds and my oldest batch of seedlings is 1 year and 2 month old now. I planted many batches throughout last year, starting January all through the end of September, but overwintering the seedlings has not been easy. The larger seedlings have mostlyContinue reading “Growing cacti from seeds. Part 2”
Huntington Library Desert Garden
I finally made it to the famous Huntington Library garden. As I was sorry to discover, the Conservatory greenhouse, which hosts the more rare cacti and succulents, is only open on Saturdays. Even so, the open-air collection was larger and more exciting than I had expected and definitely impressive way beyond the huge golden barrelsContinue reading “Huntington Library Desert Garden”
Growing cacti from seeds
This winter I planted cactus seeds for the first time in an attempt to keep myself busy during the cactus dormancy period. I started out by planting them in plastic egg cartons. These have both a tray and domes over the separate egg compartments, which seemed perfect. I cut tiny holes into the individual compartmentsContinue reading “Growing cacti from seeds”
Colors
I have to say that for the most part of my cactus collector life, I never really noticed the variations in color. But recently I could not help become completely taken with “the blues”. From what I can tell, most deep blue cacti are of the columnar variety, pilosocereus, cipocereus and of course azureocereus imperatorContinue reading “Colors”
Trip to Singapore and Thailand
Chatuchak market, Bangkok Thailand is a cactus paradise so I was very excited to go there this February.Bangkok has the large Chatuchak Plant Market starting on Tuesdays afternoons and all through Wednesdays (at least when I was there). I went through all of it once and visited some of the booths twice, and had a greatContinue reading “Trip to Singapore and Thailand”