I have been keeping a daily eye (and nostril) on this one and found the buds opening this morning. I didn't notice any smell though Somerset Phil

It is clumping from the bottom in fact but one of the branches has decided to do this. Another branch has put out two heads but that is clearly due to damage to the tip. It will be interesting to see what happens.

Somerset Phil

My Pygmaeocereus bylesianus is going something strange. One head is dividing into five Somerset Phil

Good to see your M louisae plants flourishing Liz. I think I sent them to you. Mine are still doing well and also flowering away in secret. There's one putting on a display in my living room window for passers by to see. I didn't notice the buds until they were open.

Somerset Phil

You have good taste in plants. Nice haul

Somerset Phil

Conrad - you might have met our other Phil in fact. He grew the strobiliformis and I would have been tempted myself if I hadn't recently bought a similar one. It will be interesting to see what other plants you bought. The prices were very reasonable and of course I ended up buying quite a few, desp...

A rare glimpse of our stand when no one was standing in front of it Somerset Phil

I have had a look at the spines with a hand lens and surprisingly the barbs don't look very prominent, but I expect there are many of them distributed around the point. They certainly hang on tight. I must get a microscope some time. As a child I had a toy one (special offer via Weetabix) which was ...

Whilst helping out on the branch stand at the Taunton Flower Show I was looking through sales plants behind the scenes, with a view to filling gaps on the sales table. Suddenly I was stuck fast to a little Tephrocactus sphaericus. There was no way I could get off it, with 4 or 5 barbed spines embedd...

Here's one putting on a good display at the moment - Mammillaria louisae Somerset Phil