Excellent! I just got my first itty bitty sprouts of both of them today - I'm looking forward to seeing them as big and almost grown up as yours! ;)

Congratulations, Chris, on some very nice plants. I caught the Dyckia bug a couple years back courtesy of Chanin's wonderful photos posted here and elsewhere. While I primarily grow species, some of which are planted out in mixed beds (tourniquets & surgical disinfectants, ahoy!), I have to agree that a lot of both these and their hybrids do tend to look extremely similar to this "untrained" eye when grown side-by-side. What complicates the issue here is that they are incredibly plastic with regard to color & contrast when conditions soften up during the rainy season and winter. In this respect, they are akin to many hybrid Neos. The very dark lamina color and contrasting pale spines that are well-illustrated in the first post here are really only evident for about half the year. Flowers are, I admit, a very nice touch that get surprisingly short shrift from growers. All of the material that has flowered here thus far this year has been open-pollinated either by hummers or insects, so it looks like I may have my own 'Brittle Star' and 'Arizona' F4s weeding the yard soon ;^) I grow a fair number of Hechtia species (ironically, only one of which is of the eight or nine natives)and find that they do really exhibit marked summer and winter colors both in captivity and in nature. For example, much of the Oaxacan material from in or around the Tehuácan Valley, thence down towards the Isthmus of Tehuantepec that can sometimes be a vivid canary yellow with bright red spotting along the leaf margins during the dryest, brightest months of the year, fade to a nondescript gray-green towards the end of the rainy season in northern hemisphere Fall. Oddly enough, I have found that some glossy-leafed hechtias reliably burn rather severely every year in late December/early January in spite of remaining in the same location and orientation year-round. Unlike dyckias and orthos, the few Hechtia species that have showy inflorescences, such as matudae, are rather unassuming when not in flower. J

Cleo, That is very nice and you have every right to be proud. Like stated above you can buy the chain and hooks at most lumber or hardware stores. I did for mine. It is nice looking and very functional. I built mine more what I would call industrial but like him used scrap I had from electrical work. I'm one who admires those who use what they have and use their noggin to design it. Very good workmanship. Will be waiting for a picture with it in use. Jay

Amazing! Will there be an appendix added to the Earthtainer PDF on how you pulled this breathtaking garden off this year? I think you've got the magic formula!!- part of that formula might be matching the right plants to the right climate, but regardless this is the most impressive container crop I have ever seen. Out here in Sacramento both of my Bell Pepper plants died this season :( - we recently had 5 days of triple digit weather so that is suspect no1, but I am happy for anyone's feedback since Im new to gardening (my first season). As the picture shows I used a clear plastic bag instead of a black plastic bag. I often see beads of moisture drops under the plastic, could this be breeding harmful mold? And if so how is it any different from using a black trashbag? I used clear because we have a lot of triple digit days here in Sacramento, attached a pic.