I've possibly bought a million plants from Ralph now and they're great.

I tried various methods - water, perlite, gritty compost, some in bags and some not - and they all worked, but rooting them in water was a bit faster, so that's probably what I'd use again. Peperomias usually root easily so go with whatever way is most convenient. I just feed it like my other plants...

I reckon it could be Peperomia pecuniifolia. I think this species gets mixed up with Peperomia 'Hope' a lot, which is a hybrid of P. deppeana and P. quadrifolia, according to its patent. There are several plants that get wrongly sold under the name Peperomia rotundifolia but I don't think the actual...

I liked your picture showing all the different Lobivia haematantha varieties. I don't think I will be ordering the ones with the terrifying long hooked spines.

I didn't know you could get pumice at Ikea, I might have to give it a try. My mum tried to buy some online and ended up buying lava dust instead. I'm not sure if that's going to be useful for anything plant-related. My dad reckons it will be good for making wargaming terrain, so maybe it will end up...

You can sometimes buy bags of John Innes compost mixed with grit. If you want something ready-mixed that's probably the thing to look out for. That will be fine if you're not growing anything particularly fussy. At most garden centres or DIY stores the best way to get a half-decent cactus and succul...

I bought a couple of Rebutia plants from you last year that you said were that year's seedlings and I was amazed. I will probably end up buying a lot of these too knowing me. I am trying to zoom in and look at names! I haven't planted my BCSS seeds yet, just my alpine garden society ones. I noticed ...

That's a magnificent plant. I would like to grow more species; I only have good old Titanopsis calcarea currently, although I did get a couple of packets from the seed list this year.

Seeing as everyone else has gone for flowers, how about some seeds?

Writers are unlikely to select the pictures for their articles. I think a lot of the mistakes happen when common names were used in searching for stock photos. I've seen articles about Begonias illustrated with a picture of a Saxifraga stolonifera plant, which has strawberry begonia as one of its co...