Got a 9" high Oroya I grew from KK seed years ago. It has come through in an unheated greenhouse for years with only a bit of newspaper over it on cold nights, but only ever flowered once!

DaveW

"I think I'd perhaps interrupted the first blonde chatting the security guard up."

Why didn't you chat her up instead then? LOL

DaveW

The Melocactus looks like one of the blue bodied ones, probably M. azureus ?

DaveW

Looks like one of the M.polythele M. kewensis group.

DaveW

If I remember correctly Phil Backeberg's genus Chilenia was created for plants producing two or more buds per areole and I think both Weingartias and Neoporterias were included in it. However I cannot locate a reference to check at the moment, so somebody will correct me if I have misremembered? DaveW

The main trouble about Anderson's work is though he was up to speed on N. American plants the S. American side was a bit erratic. Also he chose to lump a lot of species using the IOS system, but did not always amend his descriptions to encompass them all. So you might get a description that says whi...

A. agavoides older tubercles do often turn brown fairly quickly, that is perfectly normal.

DaveW

Regarding CITES see:- http://www.kew.org/ksheets/pdfs/k10cites.pdf http://www.rhs.org.uk/research/documents/c_and_e_abroad.pdf The original intentions of CITES were praiseworthy, but they say the road to hell is paved with good intentions and it's implementation and the politics surrounding it since...

Ray, If you are degrafting scions don't cut them off at the graft union where they are usually pretty lignified, but a bit higher up the scion. That way they tend to root easier and also the 3/4" inch or more you leave on the stock will usually throw offsets so you have a "belt and braces&...

I think the case of the BCSS and Yavia shows that if CITES were sensible and insisted all member governments had to either propagate these cleared plants, or allow them or seed to be exported for conservation and propagation in collections and by the trade, or be thrown out of CITES, it would do far...