plumosa

[Joy G]

Hi I just wanted to show off my plumosa that Mal sent me
[attachment 13986 plumosa1.jpg]

just because I can

[Maria J]

Very nice!

[Liz M]

Lovely plant! One of my favourite Mammilaria.

[puffermac]

Lovely plant, one of the few spikeys i do like.

[IanW]

I have a confession regarding this type of plant. I actually bought a bunch of cacti (about 20) in a group for £5 that were quite a decent age, some were horribly poorly looked after, others were fairly decent condition. I sorted out the best, repotted them and put my favourites up with my other cacti and whilst I did repot the remaining ones I just shoved them under the bench as I wasn't too interested.

A week or so after reading your last thread about yours rotting Joy and seeing many others saying how they've found they rot I was in the greenhouse and lo and behold I noticed that one of these, of a decent size was one of the plants I'd just shoved at the back of the greenhouse under the staging months ago!

I felt quite guilty that I'd shoved a plant that is apparently so loved and can be hard to look after out the way and mistreated it so much and I have since moved it to the top shelf and have begun to realise why it's such a favourite. I'm amazed with the difficulty people have had with it and recommendations about watering from the bottom that mine is still fully intact as the only water it had got is that that had dripped down onto it when I watered the main plants on top!

I promise I'll treat it better from now on and give it the care it deserves Knowing my luck though now I know more about it and know how to treat it properly I'll probably end up accidently killing it more so than when I just neglected and ignored it!

[Robert K]

what i love about cacti is that they can take some stick and neglect yet still reward you

[Bill]

Not sure I can agree with that statement Robert, some will, but many wont.

I have the smoother a form of plumosa now filling a 8"pan after I rescued just one head (out of a panfull) from the dreaded rot, it's about the only plant I water from the bottom. I must get one of those golf ball type one of these days.

[Joy G]

I do try not to mistreat my cacti mostly its because I dont know what to do with them and I think that is mostly the problem its ignorance and cacti have got a reputation for being able to copew with most conditions which is simply not true. When I first started I was happy if they survived a couple of years I was only a teenager then In fact its only through patient people like you guys and reading a few books that I have found that they need specific conditions to survive let alone flower.

So maybe we should call it ignorance rather than mistreatment. And to be honest I think the garden centers dont help with this as they know little about the c&s they sell.

We all love cacti here but most people who have one or two dont bother much. My friend has one or two that she has sent up to me as they arent very happy and its the way she is keeping them! But I cant blame her as she doesnt know she uses the same techniques she uses for her houseplants after all they live indoors dont they was her comment after I had rescued a cacti in ordinary compost waterlogged and in a very dark corner. Its much happier now its in a nice warm greenhouse with decent compost and sparing water at the moment and Im very pleased with it no idea what it is but thats half the pleasure finding out.

[saxocactus]

I'm rapidly becoming a cactus hospital for the unloved cacti that have lived in other peoples' house. Once they know that I have a collection they just give me plants saying they don't know why it looks so awful and what can I do with it. since they invariably don't want it back I de-pot it, usually break it up, wash off the roots (often frozen into t really tight ball) and pot into a lovely loose mix. Place in GH, sit back and wait. I love cacti!!

[Liz M]

What a good hearted, patient person you must be to rescue all these cacti. It sounds as if you are put upon by friends who know you could not resist resusitating a moribund plant. We have all taken on these poor things, some of us have a collection of them. They take up so much room, that could be put to better use for our own favourite specimens