Agreed Terry. What is the point of basing it at Kew and then not drawing on their expertise? Anyway it could have been far worse but for me the real let down remains the error in geography...almost worth an email but after last time even I may have lost the will. Sending an email complaining is one...

I thought it was spot on. They had a 5 min slot to talk about plants which most gardeners world viewers know nothing about. They covered both cacti and succulents, went into detail about their water retention, talked about arioles, explained how a euphorbia wasn't a cactus, what soil mix to use and ...

" ......my more delicate cacti in white pots to remind me to bring them in over winter." What an excellent idea - been giving some serious thought to coding for winter. Not long now! Thanks! :D Don't say that! It was snowing here on Sunday so I don't feel like we're even out of winter yet...

44EE352D-62F8-460D-9DD3-AE925948E5B4.jpeg 7B943B7E-6AF4-4A17-ACE1-8771D7B99B8D.jpeg 0567057B-E065-4701-AE19-5279B21A7AE0.jpeg I did start off using only white pots however I have since moved to black primarily due to pot availability. White pots are tricky to come by and expensive. As others have s...

Echinocactus grusonii tends to mark with cold (or cold and damp, but then cold in the Hope Valley will also be damp), as has been mentioned. I don't find Ferocacti quite as prone to this, but it can happen some years in an unheated greenhouse. The others you mentioned will be fine most years withou...

Thank you everyone I'll start moving them out to the GH then. I've got loads of fleece on standby if it goes too cold again.

I have a brand new 6x10 greenhouse with staging in my garden that is currently empty as I'm too scared/confused to put plants in there. So my cactus collection remains scattered around my house. The GH is unheated and OH has hurt his shoulder so I don't think I can get anything wired in this spring....

I've bought a number of square pots from them and they're of a good quality although not BEF standard. The couple that run it are lovely and the pots are always well packaged and delivered promptly. They even sent me a comparison photo between their brown and black pots when I asked. People are so q...

Just been sent an email from Andrew Plastics saying that the Philips BEF Pot Tooling is now owned by Manchester BCSS branch and that they now have authority to sell the pots?

It then goes on to give the contact details for Peter Bint & Ivor Crook to place a pot order?

Can it be true???

Use tweezers, a small paint brush or pressurised air to remove dust and debris from your plants. Gently blow off any water droplets that fall on your succulents leaves (before they mark them). Farina is the dusty, waxy coating on a succulents leaves. Don't touch it or even brush past it as once gone...