I grow Schick hybrids, most are not as tall as that one, and darker green, though the spines and ribs seem the same, and the Schick hybrids do have all of the species in them that is mentioned above, including Rebutia. Well not quiet all of them. And they can be figured out by the flower, if you have the flower chart in color to do so. Keep your labels make duplicate copies of them, and put one in the bottom of the pot. Not all of them look alike, some hardly have any spines, and others have long ones, Bob Schick used to tell them apart by looking at them. Sorry for such a long post, Echinopsis are grown just like any other cactus and need the same care, for flowering give them a low 0-20-10 fertilizer approx. The middle number must be higher, the first number very low. No water in the Winter, they must have the chill and dormant periods to flower. They are extremely hardy, will flower 6 mo. at least of the year from the end of April to the end of Sept. depending on you climate, light where you grow them, feeding. May open 4 nights depending on light. Norma

I applaud you for the effort you have gone to, to get your grevillea growing in a pot. When you water the pot, perhaps you could try immersing it in a bucket of water, until all the air bubbles stop coming out of the pot. This really is the best way to water pots. Sometimes potting mixes become "hydrophobic" which means they repel water, and it is difficult to water pots from above when this is the case. Perhaps you could try buying a smaller Grevillea banksii, the one in the picture is large and does look like it should be in a bigger pot. A smaller plant might be easier to handle and would have a greater chance of getting used to its situation, early on. If you buy a plant that is reasonably advanced it has become used to its place in the nursery. Then you take it home and plonk it on your balcony and it could go into shock. A word about the cow manure, make sure it is well rotted. You sound like you are interested in plants, perhaps you could do some research into your "local species", I am sure there are horticulturists in Brazil who must be interested in preserving the local plants. Sounds fascinating. Drainage is important too, so let the pot drain when you have done the immersion in the bucket. It is equally important to make sure the pot does not have too much watering. So make sure there are dry periods between watering. You could stick your finger into the potting mix to get an idea as to how wet the mix is. I have seen this tree growing near me and it is huge. Here is a link that might be useful: Plants of Cerrado region.

I can't blame you for not wanting to deal with our archaic system of measurements. Here's my conversion - Hopefully it's correct: 40f = 4.4c 85f = 29.4c 14 inches = 35.5cm When I was a kid (back in the dark ages), they tried switching the U.S. to the metric system. It made SO much more sense to me...especially easier to calculate distance and volume. But apparently, it was just too confusing for the "average" American so the government abandoned the whole concept of trying to teach us. After all, why should we worry about how the REST of the world does things? (This line of thinking might also explain why America has the worst scholastic test scores in the civilized world....) Measure once, cut twice - That's our motto! Take care, A

Floral-uk, the plant you posted looks lovely but it's not the same pokeweed we have here. Our pokeweed has red stems while yours are green, and our berry clusters hang down like a bunch of grapes, they are not upright like those in your photo. The berries on our plant start out green and turn dark purple, there is no light pink phase as your plant displays. I would plant your version of pokeweed for sure but I stick to my guns that our version is weedy.