Perhaps I should claim an allergy to the brightly coloured dye that some garden centres delight in covering their cacti in? Or maybe an injury sustained while removing a fake flower? Or even a problem caused by inhaling the fungus spores from some of the obviously rotting specimens offered for sale?...

Looks like a piece of Pterocactus Kuntzei that has taken root in the pot. I find them all over the greenhouse as they fall off the parent plant and root in other pots. The "cuttings" also seem to flower better than the parents!

True about brand names. One garden centre near us made a point of putting a notice on the shelf with bugclear pointing out that it was no longer systemic. Very honest of them but maybe not of the manufacturers. When you look at what is available "over the counter" in other countries you do...

I didn't mean to start debates on insecticide bans or climate change, however interesting they might be! I'm not sure what insecticide Gardenscape use but I'm sure they'd tell anyone who is interested - they are obviously not not doing anything that contravenes current legislation. I think the issue...

An idea from my wife’s Auricula society. Some members were having trouble with vine weevil and, I think it was the owner of blue leaf plants, told them that she had compost mixed for her by a firm called Gardenscape. Apparently they are able to mix chemicals they can’t sell to the public into the co...

I'm sure that there are good reasons but Euphorbia has always puzzled me. pulcherrima (poinsettia); griffithii ( herbaceous garden plant, hardy in UK) and piscidermis (dwarf succulent) and many more are all Euphorbia. Can you cross them? I'd be interested to see some of those hybrids!

They gave me their details at the SE cactus Mart:

07767 881981
Woodlands Farm
Shire Lane
Farnborough Kent
BR6 7HH
But said to 'phone first as they aren't always on site.
They had a superb collection of plants for sale at the event - as always.

That would have been my guess as well!

There were two numbers on my adddress label. Not sure what the other one was but it was a four figure number. I nearly wrote that in as a membership number before thinking it was far too low and re checking the label.

Echinocereus viereckii v. morricale