Excellent! I very rarely get any Cheiridopsus to flower, and I don't get the leaves to turn that colour either. Maybe I just leave them out over winter ...

Nice. I'm not expecting flowers on mine for another month or two.

Definitely symmetrical.

Good to see Terry again, but a little light on actual growing advice. So ... Now is a good time to start, because they'll just be starting to need attention after winter. Especially with a new plant, check it over to see if it is in the "right" stage of growth and whether it needs repottin...

Roger felt, perhaps, that a large diurnal temperature swing helped his germination of P. umadeave. Anecdotally, this seems to be the case in the UK also. My best germination events coincided with (accidental) temperature swings from possibly near freezing at night to above 30C by day. With just one ...

I was going to say that was an amazing spot! But maybe a bit easier amongst a tray of Lophophoras

Don't know if there are any special techniques for rooting these. Maybe just time. You might try cutting off some of the dried up bits at the very base to expose fresh tissue, but that might do more harm than good. Depends how desperate you get during this year, I supposed.

I leave my handful of Echeverias dry over the winter. They are variously cold or frozen. The only losses in an unheated greenhouse have been from botryitis on E. setosa rather than the cold, which I suspect was too damp going into out usual dull humid autumn. There may be some species that are less ...

Yup, read the journal. It describes, and shows, how the plates expand from green live material deep down between the plates. You might just have a case of that. Perhaps see if you can shine a light down and make sure there is something still in there.

Quite slow. Most of the growth below ground. Otherwise not too difficult. Probably prone to scorch without food ventilation, but I haven't had any problems with them. Watch out for mites.