Wow Stephania! Incredible growth. Looks like the horticultural equivilent of our baseball player Barry Bonds. ;-)

Yes, what is in those 2 spray bottles back there in the photo...th eblue and yellow ones, is that steroid spray????
Just kidding, very good growing!

Haa..Haa...!! Bihai, are you a detective ?

Yes I've to confess that I feed my Dyck with.."something"!!
Beyond the normal fertilizer-spraying once a month, I also feed "Senergon" it is labelled as a kind of aminoacid complex with a seaweed substance and etc.
Yet I mixed with a "Crop Giant", this is a kind of sugar which is absorbed directly into the plant.
The result is as you saw...may be it is a plant's steroid..as you mentioned!

Stephania, I think the reason of your Dyckia estevesii can be growing fast as the species as a very big species, once i had saw it be growing at a collector's house at Java, the plants can be nealy 1 meter and tall around 2 feet(I guess the plants look like wild collect.So , i guess your plants still not yet be mature, and that's why it growing so fast.Once i saw the species front of my eyes, i was really can not belive my eyes that also as Dyckia
include photo of a coner of my Dry bromeliads
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You're welcome Charlot!!! ( Are you Chuyos's friend!? )
I noted that you just registed to this forum today!
Well...your xeric bromeliads are really cool, I love those spinies!! Are they Hechtia, which species they are?

I've to say that beyond the caudiciforms, now, I'm really crazy with xeric broms. I've recently counted that I have at least 75 different kinds of xeric broms, half of them are Dyckia.

I'm also have a dozen of Orthophytum, I received some nice Orthophytums from my friend, Mr. Chuyos, that may be he received from your collection, they are Orth.'Iron Ore', Orth.'Starlights', Orth. disjunctum and Orth. magalhaesii.

I have another ten Orthopytums in my collection. Some are really fast growing broms. Here some of them that came from Dutch Vandervort Exotic Plants nursery in CA.

Orthophytum lemei
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Orthophytum rubrum
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Orthophytum saxicola var. saxicola (the silver one)
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Thank you Charlot and Stephania for sharing some excellent pictures. We all enjoy them,and look forward to seeing some future postings....Stephania,is that an Orthophytum Vagans albomarginated that I saw among your other Orthos ? Regards,Bob

Yes Bob, That is also my favorite Ortho. Last year it had a crimson leaves blooming on the tip, really nice! The plant in my picture shows its pups which occured after blooming.

Infact, I have another one that I've wait for its blooming time for years...X Neophytum 'Galactic Warrior' , I don't know how long the plant will flower and , certainly, the pups!! because there are a long list of people who want my warrior!!

Stephania,what is that other ortho in the saxicola pic ? Its the coral color one with the two small pups. That Galactic Warrior you have is one beauty,for sure. I have something similar to it,named Neophytum 'Burgandy Hill'.Had it since 2000,and it's a yard wide and tall,but no bloom yet.Nice dark burgandy color.I've not yet mastered how to attach a photo to a GW posting,but I would send you some pics direct to your web address if you want to send it to me at b740c@msn.com. Regards,Bob

Hi Bob, the coral color Orthos in my pic is Orthophytum saxicola var. rubra.
Long time ago I also have x Orthotanthus 'What' which I think
it should be just a variegated form of Orth. saxicola var. rubra,
as they identical in every manner except for variegated leaves.
It was eaten by my dog!
But I think I could find some new one around here,
as this 'What' is quite poppular for tray garden here.

Here is my Orthophytum collection, you can see my lonesome 'Galactic Warrior'
located at the middle top. I've grown this 50 us$ brom! for 3 years
and waited for the blooming time.

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And this is Orth.'Iron Ore' in bloom,
I think the plant came from our new friend, Charlot...Thanks!!
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To post the pics to GW, for me, I just registed (free) and up loaded photos
to my created albums at http://photobucket.com/
then just copy the 'tag' url and directly paste to my post text,
so easy you can try, Bob

Here is a link that might be useful: photobucket

555,Chanin,you are right,infact I had ever be registed for a long time(must be over 2 years), but I had forgot the user name.So I registed a new one again.
You are so cleaver,most of Xero bromeliads in the photo as Hectia, but sorry, i had no name about them, because I keep tham over 4 or 5 years ago, and when I bought it from Tropiflora, they said all as wild collected,they just give me number, tham I can not know any detail,I just feel all of them as nice color(silver or orange red)also nice spine shape.But I feel Hectia were more slow growing pups tham Dyckia,So still had to propogat.Regarding Ortho,in my feeling, it look like weed, and easy running once after blooming, the spike often be many young plants on it, so I deside growing in my rice field(sure, i don't let water into the rice field, keep it dry).So it become as nice looking "Weed".
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But for Neophytum,the hybrid Genus, I feel it was slow grower,also not easy propogat.
Your collection always be nice looking, unlike mine still be growing with other weed.

WOW...Look like you took your Ortho photos from Brazil!!!
I guess the top one is Orth. gurkenii with a nice coral-colored.
But what is the second one...Orth. disjunctum or Orth. maracasense
or another one I don't have? It look nice.
Hey, don't say that.."like a weed" you may change your mind
if you have Orthor. burle-marxii, a really nice and one of the most sought-after Brom...
I'm looking for this one too.

In my collection, I have at least 10 kinds of Hechtia, as yours,
half of them were unknown, just "sp. from Mexico"!!
But I think, in hot city Bangkok, most of my Hechtias
can not be enhanced their coloration like yours.
So I rather keep the silver-colored Hechtias.

Today morning, I just sowed xeric brom seeds that I got from Koehres-Kakteen,
a well known cactus & succulent seed supplier in Germany.
This year, his list has about 20 items of xeric broms,
but unfortunately, I could not get Deuterocohnia lotteae seed,
as it's out of stock before placing an order.
Sure..10 in the list are Hechtia sp....from somewhere else in Mexico!!!

Enjoy your spines!!

Stephania, you are shaming me! I have been neglecting my Orthophytums and I need to start taking care of them again. When I do, I'll post some pictures-- I have a couple of hybrids you would probably like.

I agree with you that the plant called xOrthotanthus 'What' is not really a bigeneric hybrid, it's just a variegated Orth. saxicola. It is identical in all respects, except for the variegation, and if you grow it hard in the full sun even that disappears and it looks just the same as the species. Probably the hybridizer pollinated it with a Cryptanthus but the pollen didn't really take, it just triggered a mutation. That sometimes happens.

G'day Stephania...I really enjoyed reading everyones postings,so informative.And as you are interested in xeric seed planting,perhaps you might want to contact your 'neighbor' in Australia,Rudolf Shultz.(tarrex@ozemail.com.au).His homepage is at Tarrington Exotics. He sells plants and seeds,and is retiring from the business next year.He has some desirable Encholirium,especially 'Vau',as neat a xeric brom as you could want.(see his photo) Its on the list under the 'other succulents' heading,plants and seeds both available. Unfortunatly,he does not suppy the import paperwork anymore,so you might be on your own if interested. Bob

Hey All, especially Bob...Thanks for your last post!

It's done!!! I got a small parcel post from Rudolf of 'Tarrington Exotics' last week. There are seven kind of Encholiriums, two of Puyas, three of Deuterocohnias and a Dyckia. The most exciting is I got a bunch, 200 seeds of Encholirium sp. 'Vau' that I 've already sowed. I do hope they could germinate well.

Beyond those rare to find in cultivation, Encholirium, another interesting xeric broms from him are Deuterocohnia chrysantha and Puya boliviana, both species have nice yellow flower.

In the mean time, our friend Charlot, he is now in Bangkok city. He brought me some interesting xeric broms from his collection in Taiwan. ...Thank you again Charlot!!

And it seem to be my xeric brom's year!! At the end of this month, a shipment from Michael Bromeliad should arrive here with my most want list, that include Cryptanthus warasii, Dyckia dawsonii and Orthophytum burl-marxii.

Yet, one of my friend are also in Florida,right now, to find some broms from Tropiflora for me. If all done..I'll tell you about my new plants.

Congratulations Stephania !! you sure acted fast,and acquired some very nice plants/seeds. I was going to try getting some sent to me without the import paperwork,but Rudolph thought they would likely not make it thru US customs. Did you supply any import documents,or did you just take a chance ? If you took a chance,and they made it ok,maybe I should give it a try. I really want the Ench.sp.'Vau' plant. Let me know how your new arrivals do,and you know my e-mail address,if you want to contact me that way. Keep us informed and I look forward to some photos soon. Bob C.

Dear Bob,

Rudolf just replied my friend an e-mail for our next shipment that he is now in vacation somewhere out of AUS and will be back after Sep. 15.

About the shipment, yes I got a chance without any papers, our custom at the central post office is not so strictly. Sometime a big parcel from abroad could arrive directly to my house. But in my case, the label on the parcel was declared as a gift an none commercial value. And in case it would be required, I will use a shipping agent to deal with the custom for clearing off. But I noted that an amount of seeds would not be any problem, anyway, I'm not sure if this would be different in US.