There is Hypertufa -made out of cement, sand and peat. Of course you'd might have to swap the peat for something similar. I remember making containers out of this years ago- over time the cement component settles down and does not leach too much. I’ve got a couple of home made troughs made from hyp...

Paul in Essex wrote: ↑Sat Apr 06, 2024 3:34 pm It's been a while since I looked for any but last time it was all but impossible to get tufa anywhere and, secondhand, it was staggeringly expensive.

It doesn’t surprise me, last time I bought a large chunk of tufa to make a tufa garden was around 1980 from Ingwersens nursery…

Tufa is good for growing plants in directly as it allows water to percolate through. It’s used a lot in alpine gardening. There are some nice examples at Kew. If you can find some it would be worth experimenting with Tufa is very soft and alkaline though - not sure some of my plants would like that...

Tufa is good for growing plants in directly as it allows water to percolate through. It’s used a lot in alpine gardening. There are some nice examples at Kew. If you can find some it would be worth experimenting with

A few more things flowering now, plus lots of buds coming IMG_4488.jpeg Mammillaria senilis doing its normal annoying thing of flowering on the sunny side only IMG_4490.jpeg No idea what the correct name is for this now but the seed packet said Neoporteria senilis IMG_4487.jpeg Turbinicarpus valdezi...

ralphrmartin wrote: ↑Wed Mar 27, 2024 2:56 pm

Ali Baba wrote: ↑Sun Mar 24, 2024 2:36 pm The first Rebutia every year for me is this one , which came from Ralph originally, always way ahead of my various marsoneri clones. Can’t check the name at the moment though…

R. violaciflora v. knuthiana - it's one of the ones I mentioned above.

That’s it! Thanks

Looks like a Scots pine cone to me
Check the date

That Euphorbia xantii is very odd in a nice way.
The first Rebutia every year for me is this one , which came from Ralph originally, always way ahead of my various marsoneri clones. Can’t check the name at the moment though…

Thanks Simon, no I haven’t watered it deliberately but it’s probably had a few drops from the orchid in the hanging basket directly above it !

Each year 3 cacti battle it out in a race to be the first flowers of the year. This year the winner is Mammillaria sanchez-mejordae