Thanks Ian, that looks right. John, when I say damp I mean more like cacti sitting directly under drips at this point. There's some large holes in the glass that should be fixed this season, in the meantime the heat would go directly out of the roof. I think the drip trays probably do more harm than...

I've been called a "washer" once here, so now it's two of us! I do, but only because plants are in my living room and being watered on the kitchen top, and I cannot be bothered with washing the pink dust out of everything. They're all calcined clay, so will look like that. :lol: Thanks Ma...

Hi all, hoping for some advice regarding a cacti collection and an old Opuntia that has become my responsibility. I work for the National Trust and one of our satellite properties is Mr Straw's House in Worksop. The Straws donated their house to the NT and it was taken on because it was almost untou...

On the subject of cat litter, I bought some Kittyfriend Pink Cat litter and it's dusty as anything, think I may have picked up the wrong brand! I'm washing it in big batches to use it on my plants and when washed it seems like it's just straight up grit. Do other brands require washing before use or...

It sounds like sooty mould, which usually grows where sap sucking insects have excreted honeydew onto leaves below where they are feeding, so I'd have a good look for aphids or any other sap suckers hanging around.

Beautiful flowers, very much on my wishlist.

It was a brilliant talk and especially interesting to see the plants in their natural habitat. As luck would have it Aldi were selling various cacti and succulents the other day and I picked up a Gymnocalycium baldianum.There are a few more on my wish list now though thanks to Graham!

I bought a Mammillaria polythele 'Toluca' recently that looks fairly similar to your last photo. Appears to be a Mammillaria of some sort anyway. Thanks, Google shows the one you mentioned as "inermis" (today I learned...), but the body shape is a match. I will look around Mammillarias. E...

I bought a Mammillaria polythele 'Toluca' recently that looks fairly similar to your last photo. Appears to be a Mammillaria of some sort anyway.

Your collection is pretty amazing! The idea of extending your window space with the glass shelves is great, I just showed my wife and she rolled her eyes and said 'you're not doing every window', which means I can at least do the ones in my hobby room. Thanks for the inspiration!