I was a bit down that the outdoor growing season is over and had to bring them all indoors. This yellow TC has reminded me it's not so bad after all...

Rhipsalis oblonga

Ceropegia, such cute little crown shaped flowers :)

Lithops

Nice plant, nice pot!

Matucana madisoniorum:

Oooh, nice one Dinie! I love spineless cacti!

Nancy, I hear you on that although I am still leaving mines outside on the roof...I will just toss a blanket over the bunch of them tonight and then keep them for days on end again. Beautiful work.

The rest of you, WOW. What amazing flowers up above. Such good work.

Ywong...How do you do it!?? You grow for me what is some of the hardest plants to grow and you are dam good at it. Bravo. How do you know when to water those? I could never keep a Lithop alive, not for the life of me..

Another Lithops flower, NOID.

Mike, beginner's luck? In simple terms, I don't water it and give it a lot of light. I only water after it comes out of it's dormant period in late summer/early fall, and then stop watering after it flowers.

Ariocarpus retusus:)

October 10

October 13

October 16:). Flowers started off more white. As each day goes by the flowers get pinker and pinker:).

This is one of my fav plant's Glottiphyllum pygmaeum. I switched him to a much grittier mix this spring. Normally I will get two flowers a season. Not since I switched his mix:)! Each little clump has given me at least one flower, some clumps bloomed more then once. All this blooming happened about a month or two ago.Now it's blooming again. I've never had him bloom so much, and at the same time:).

Then this guy. Have no clue what he is. So if somebody knows. Blooms only from the top and has pink spines.

Thanks:).

L. Willem...

Ycloh that Lophophora is flawless. Nice and new:) no marks or scars. Perfectly blue with a dainty little flower that looks like it's made out of sugar.

Are you sure that thing is real;)?

Yes another view.

so far flower twice.

Othonna capensis "Ruby necklace"

Euphorbia waringiae flowers

Cheiridopsis Purpurea

Enthusiastic cactus

and I don't know who to take a picture that properly shows this one

Noyade223 - I want that Cheridopsis! Beautiful.

Copiapoa hypogaea

October must be Ariocarpus month!

Ariocarpus retusus

At last success with Fenestraria rhopalophylla: one bloom, two or three more buds, yay:

Pleiospilos simulans:

Baby toes too! and another Faucaria tigrina :)

Ariocarpus agavoides

The last one to bloom. Looks like there is a little offset coming at the lower right hands corner.

Some purple flowered mesembs for Kevin: Delosperma and Trichodiadema. Delosperma are a really easy family to grow, they aren't semi-desert Karoo plants but grow in grasslands to the North so they love water and sun. Delosperma is the shrubby one. Trichodiadema can be grown to look like bonsai with the roots exposed

My Orssichiana..4in Blooms.

Notolover,

if you don't mind, what kind of cactus are those with the huge rainbow flowers? I love them!

Charles Craft,

do you have a name for the one with all those orange flowers on top?

****Question for all of those using stones on top of their mix..****

Why do you use the stones or sand and how do you know when to water when you can't see whether the top of your mix is dry or not? Too me it's a guessing game unless I see what the mix looks like..

Thank you

Ywong your mystery cactus is still on my mind. The flowers looked so Eriosyce, but the cactus doesn't. So it threw me off and bugged me slightly tbh because I knew I've seen it before.

It's such a pretty cactus I needed to know what it was. So I could get one. Selfish reasons of course;).

I think I figured it out I believe it is a Oroya:). Maybe O. peruviana?

Kara, you solved the mystery!! I found this picture of Oroya peruviana online

and this is a picture of mine

The flowers never fully open and stayed the same.

Thanks again,

Yay I'm so glad:). It's too pretty not to know it's name;).

Echeveria runyonii 'Topsy Turvy':

Well done, Kara!

the plant with the orange flowers (Friday 9:43) is Rebutia donaldiana, or so the label says

Gibbaeum heathii, I think...

I cant take credit for these as I bought this yesterday, partly because of all of the flowers and buds! Apparently it’s a Mammillaria gracilis fragilis monstrose

Mamillaria plumosa surprised me with a few blooms this week

You *are* into cacti now :-b. I have a red-headed Dutch Irishman, but he has not bloomed yet. He did not like mealies... His good Irish name is Mammillaria spinosissima f. rubrispina. Nice name for a preschooler to wrap his/her head and tongue around ;-).

Hey I have less than 10 cacti, it's not a collection yet....right? When we came home with this one, my husband said" oh now you are using him to get more plants!"....ha! I have gotten three new ones in past month..

and thanks for the reminder about spinosissima, I was blanking on that one.. Two of the heads bloomed a month or so ago, but this one is blooming now...

Chris, I’ve never seen anything like that! The colours are so neat! Is the rest of the plant the same colour?

Chris, which LED lights do you use? They look like they are working well for you!

odyssey3(7 noVA),

I have 3 of these: LED lights link. The plants seem to like it. It has a weird effect on my aeoniums turning them from green to red. I used it last winter with good results.

Thanks for the link Chris. Do you use these on a typical BBS shelving unit? I am light shopping for my 4 ft. one. How many do you think are optimal per shelf?

You’re welcome.

Two per tier should be ideal. I’m cheap so I maximize my 3 panels. The plants in the top shelf “take turns” being directly under the lights. The middle shelf of turned on longer hours to compensate for the fact that the bottom layer gets minimal light.

As of last year, this set-up worked well for me with none of the plants being etiolated so I’m doing it again. The plant I use as benchmark are the Graptoveria Vera Higgins and California Sunset as these, in my experience, readily stretch and lose their beautiful coloration if light requirements are not met.

I bought this last week with two tiny horns. Those have completely opened and died off. One more is open and 3 more are on their way!

Last week

Yesterday

You can see in this photo where one of the blooms was, on the bottom right between the two coming in. It's only about an inch and a half across, just the cutest little thing.

ETA, just looked and they're all opening today!

☺

Echeveria affinis

Notelover,

please, what is the name of that huge flowering cactus? I would like to buy one once I get the name. I love it.

Charles,

what is the real name of that flowering orange cactus? Please, I would like to try and get one.Thanks.

Chris,

what are those lights called? They would fit perfect on my shelves to. Where did you get them? great idea! OOps, just saw the link Chris, awesome. Just ordered 4 of them. Thanks

Pluto, very nice! Where did you buy them? Don't tell me at a box store. I have never seen such a nice one.

A local nursery was selling off their cactus and succulent stock for 50% off. They close down for the winter and while they do have greenhouses, they don't grow c&s, so they don't overwinter their stock. I went and picked up 6 different tiny cactus. They all were labelled pixie cactus, in spite of being completely different.