Thanks for your comments. Things are looking up - I believe I've found a place selling Dutch-made compost which is mostly peat. A garden centre visited last Tuesday has bags of small-sized lava 'grit' probably imported from the Eifel region of Germany. I picked up two discarded low sided storage box...

Hoodia bainii in flower#2 0036.JPG Mamm. sphacelata#2.JPG Mamm. albilanata.JPG Mammillaria candida.JPG In response to the subject of greenhouse tours, my 'greenhouse' has the sky for a roof although the horizontal directions are limited by the small size of my tiled patio here on the Costa Blanca. ...

I fancy the: "Black UV Acrylic Spiral Taper Ear Plug Stretcher Flesh Tunnel Expander Snail " as I never came across one in my greenhouse.
Stephen

Smugly pleased to announce we have no snow. Today's mid-day temp was 23C & flowers all over various Mamms on our patio. Had to water everything as they are all growing. My newly acquired 8 inch dia Melocactus matanzanus is popping out fruits - takes about 10 minutes from appearance in the cephal...

Ken & Rod Preston-Mafham relocated to Bodmin, Cornwall in the 1990's. They did not have a nursery, but Ken held a very large collection which I used to visit from nearby Lostwithiel. The problems was, Ken was always off on photographic expeditions & I expect he found it difficult to look aft...

I've just joined the Forum. I was a member since NCSS days & in due course was a BCSS Judge but had to sell my entire collection over over 1000 plants in 1998. I kept a few plants indoors, some raised from seed given me personally by Alfred Lau. My last BCSS contact was meeting Tom Jenkins in th...