Rescue mission

[Liz M]

I was contacted a couple of weeks ago to go and rescue some Cacti. It was an interesting experience, as the plants were very old and their owner had died and left them in the care of his wife, who has sadly died, too. She had looked after them well but never repotted them, reputedly for 25 years. I thought you might be interested to see what happened.

This Mammilaria gracilis was the least problem, as it came easily out of the plastic pot and slid into a new one with ease. I lost a minimum of pieces and it looks much better.

This Rebutia (miniscula?) was overflowing its pot, it had flowered recently and had more buds. I had to smash the pot to get it out and you can see what it was like in the next picture.

Unfortunately it was impossible to repot it successfully without it breaking up, I managed to get three pieces potted up and a lot of singles are left.

I'm not sure what this is, cacti are not my strong point, it looks very healthy but again I had to smash the pot to get it out. You can see what it looked like then

A well defined pot shape and a lot of compacted roots
I managed to pot it up almost in one piece just trimming off some of the excess

[Liz M]

This was a beauty, again I had to smash the pot.

Unfortunately it fell apart as I tried to break it up, so in the end I broke it up completely. Here it is in pieces.

As you can see, the original rosette was still there hidden in the middle. I don't suppose it will grow but out of interest I intend to pot it up to see what happens.

I left the best until last

This is a monster Ferocactus and it was in a tiny pot and so unstable I had to place it inside a couple of heavy clay pots. It is over 30 cms above the pot and weighs a ton. I had to smash the pot again (I have loads of crocks, now) but managed to repot it with the aid of my husband, with very little damage to it or myself (I wore some sturdy leather gloves). This is it now.

If anyone can name any of the plants I would be grateful and I have plenty of spares if anyone wants them.

[topsy]

Hi,

How great that the plants have been rescued and whilst they may not have been repotted since....? they are not in bad condition.

Plant 1 is as you say Mammillaria gracilis
Plant 2 again as you say Rebutia minuscula probably
plant 3 is probably Trichocereus huascha, will be more sure when it flowers
plant 4 is Echinopsis sp.
The last plant is probably Ferocactus hystrix

Good growing, Suzanne Mace

[Phil_SK]

4 is E. oxygona; 3 is maybe a bit too chunky for huascha but, as Suzanne says, flowers will tell and I'm sure that with a repot and a greenhouse winter a plant of that size will soon oblige.

[highland.hermit]

ill leave the identifying to the folks who can. but if theres any tiny pups that have fallen off and need new homes i would say yes please.

[Cactus Jack]

Well done love those photos lol

[iann]

They tolerate such abuse!

[CactusFanDan]

Oh wow, now those are some root bound plants! Very well done for rescuing them and repotting them. They should be looking great in no time.

[Tony R]

Indeed, you are a heroine, Liz, well done!

[Liz M]

Thank you for the accolades, I thought you might find it interesting to see what can happen to these plants and how they have survived. It only remains to see if they can survive my treatment of them. I would be very pleased if the Trichocereus were to flower next year, to enable me to identify it. I'm not the worlds expert on Cacti and not all the ones I have, have flowered, so maybe practice will improve things.
Just one last item to show you. A Christmas Cactus that came with the others. It was a bit limp and yellow, when I got it, so I left it outside for the last few nights. As you can see the torrential rain we had did it lots of good, so it can stay out for as long as I have it. This is one plant I am hopeless with, so I need to pass it on.