Malta Cacti

[Diane]

Thanks, Bill, great photos! Loved Francois' big gh! Super plants he had too.

[Bill]

welcome Diane, yes it was a super greenhouse and even better plants, it was like being a kid in sweet factory not knowing where to look next. I honestly don't know how he managed to care for a collection that size, with such a range of plants.

Surprised Julie hasn't commented on the forbies:tweed:

[Julie]

I need to study more closely, Bill! Every time I thought I saw one, I looked again and thought it was an Astro.

[Bill]

Try this one Julie, just one or two small ones.

[img]http://lh3.google.co.uk/bill.hildyard/R ... G_1888.JPG[/img]

[Julie]

Thanks, Bill! Wow... love the huge one on the left, look at those stripes.

Plenty of mellies as well... all those flower stalks staying on. The one I had from a GC had had all it's stalks cut or pulled off.

[B.A.]

Thanks for the pictures Bill , I,m glad you had a good time, you have my great admiration for dareing to drive in Malta it was horrendus twenty years ago i cant imagine what it is like now.I spent alot of time in the St Julians area with friends who live in Paceville it used to be very quiet then but i understand that the island has lost alot of its charm and become very commercial, infact a friend who resently visited said it was too " english " whatever that means, i wonder how you found it.Do you remember which areas the gentlemen you visited lived Bill i would be interested to know.Thanks Bruce

[Bill]

Hi Bruce,

Yes it's very commercial, hotels everywhere. Apart from street signs nearly every other sign particularly businesses are in English, although you hear more Maltese spoken than English. For us as family we go abroad not to sit on beaches but to see other cultures, history etc hence hiring a car and we were not impressed by what Malta has to offer in that respect. It was an odd mix of third world meets Western Europe. They have some fabulous Neolithic remains, some of which are amongst if not the oldest freestanding structures in the world, yet they have allowed buildings to be built right up to them, bit like building next to Stonehenge. Elsewhere they have encroached some 2,000 yr old catacombs so much so that they have had to temporarily fill part of them in as they are in danger of collapse. Even on what you would class as remote roads for Malta, there where signs of fly-tipping. Part of the problem is over population, even without tourists it's one of the most densely populated countries in the World with 3350 people per sq mile, in Britain it's about 650 per sq mile.

Overall we enjoyed our trip but we won't be in hurry to return.

John lives in Mosta, Francios Rabat and Mario in Dingli

[DaveW]

Hi Bill,

I have corresponded off and on with Rene' Zahra in Malta since the 1960's and he told me the plant sales at their annual show are a big thing for them and all members raise countless plants for it, so probably many of the duplicates in your slides are for this purpose. Unlike British shows the profits from their plant sales table run into thousands of pounds over the duration of the show. In fact it pays for them to invite overseas speakers, because he asked me to put him in touch with Roger Ferryman to invite him over so Roger and his wife went over this year expenses paid as their guest and gave a series of talks to them on his S. American habitat trips.

I note in spite of their ideal growing conditions they still get a lot of corking around the base of their older plants, and I noted a couple of burnt brown patches higher up on some.

DaveW

[Bill]

Hi Dave

Unfortunately we arrived Sunday evening and the show had been that weekend so I missed out on the sales plants. Francois had about 8 foot of empty bench where he had stored his sales plants, so disappointingly I didn't bring anything back from Malta.

Many of Mario's plants where not in what one would call show bench condition, he is more interested in propagation than showing and I get the impression he treats his plants quite tough.

[B.A.]

Thats a great shame Bill ,it seems that a lot has changed since my last visit, thanks for your reply
Bruce