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

It doesn't look like they have anything even near modern. Plus my RUSSIAN EASTER is way more yellow than that, maybe theirs was really bleached out by the sun. I also have BOLD TIGER, its a nice 'oldie'.

cleo, The 2 'Tainers are just used to "incubate" the seedlings outside, for the next 30 days, or so. Then I put 2 plants per 31 gallon container. The pipe is to send water to the reservoir underneath the plant base. See this link for additional info. Raybo Here is a link that might be useful: EarthTainer II WaterMizer Edition Guide

If you still want to know- it's a Betsy beetle or Rotten log beetle. We kept 3 in a tupperware container and gave them rotten logs and debris. They are really cool because they eat away at the wood. We had them in the classroom and would replace the log as needed. We didn't know much about their life cycle- everyone told us something different. This we know because we witnessed it: they shed their shell or carapace (whatever it was called). They also produced larva. We had 2, reddish in color and cool looking. They didn't survive very long. We eventually let the beetles go but we had them for about 1 year! They kinda hiss when you pick them up but are harmless.