What The Heck Is Going On???!!!

The Portulaca molokiniensis on the left has always had a mind of it's own (figuratively speaking), but look what it is doing just days after it's transplant... That is not a small movement. And if I didn't know better, I'd say someone steamed it and bent it into that shape. I'll try to relocate the box to give it more light - that's all I can come up with why it MOVED SO MUCH in so little time... The good news is there are offsets forming on so of the exposed stem.

What Is This? Possibly a Tylecodon wallichii...

Tylecodon wallichii is the thought right now, but even if it is, this plant is real young or it is a cultivar. More research into this is warranted... regardless it seems to be a fast grower. Here is a picture shortly after I initially brought it home (purchased at Once Again on our last trip there a few weeks back).

Uncarina Bloom Number Two

This one is not a surprise as it has been developing just behind the first one. I'm doubtful the true pollinator lives in Hawaii, but what would be a nice surprise is if some other insect did manage to pollinate the one or both of these flowers - we'll see.

My Uncarina in Bloom

This plant is pretty young and it just put out it's first flower (not sure if it flowered before I took ownership, but I think this is the first season it would have been capable of blooming). Yeah - this is the plant I just transplanted and posted about a couple of days ago.

Noe Getting Back into Making Flower Pots

Since Christmas I've been on a pot making hiatus. I didn't exactly burn out, but I did lose some drive as I wanted to do more surfing and fishing (of which I have done neither). I have been playing more music and tending the plants more, oh and I have been doing a lot of home improvements (re-bulbing the whole house with LEDS, a new kitchen sink, more outside carpentry, re-chalking the bathrooms, and other things) - but I've let working with clay move off the front burner. Well, Noe changed all that yesterday evening. Here is her new rectangular pot. She used slabs to form the body. We're planning on using just oxide on the outside to highlight the hieroglyphics, and glaze just the interior and the rim. Now I'm going to have to make some pots and clay fishing lures... :)

Plants at Windward Community College

I took Marlon over to Windward Community College this Saturday to participate in the Regional Science Olympiad. The campus had lots of native Hawaiian plants (of which I have a soft spot for)... And more chickens than people -

Uncarina Moving House

I repotted my Uncarina. I figured I would give it more room to encourage growth. It was the first occupant in the new square cedar plank box pot. And as young as this plant is, it is already pushing out flowers.

New Cactus from Cactuslands.com

I have been scouring my local nurseries for an Ariocarpus fissuratus and a Mammillaria Hahniana to no avail for the past few months. I threw the towel in and decided to go ahead and place another internet order. After looking through the usual sites I've ordered from, I thought I'd try a different vendor. I'm happy with the selection, speed of delivery and quality of specimen from www.cactuslands.com

 






 I ended up ordering a Ariocarpus fissuratus, a Mammillaria Hahniana, a Trichocereus huascha cristata and a Gymnocalycium friedrichii. I got the shipment this past Friday and the box was full of styrofoam peanuts and the plants were individually wrapped in newspaper. There was minimal shipping damage (the Gymnocalycium spines were knocked about). The best thing about these plants is their size and health!!! I took them out of the box, cleaned them up and let them sit overnight and into the next day. It wasn't until yesterday afternoon (Saturday) when I went ahead and potted them (pictures to follow - but in the meantime, here is the Ariocarpus).

 

Swell

It has been raining buckets the past couple of weekends. That is not out of the ordinary for winter in Hawaii - but this is the first time I been in it while trying to grow cacti. I've got all of the cacti (and most of the succulents) in really gritty, fast draining potting mix, so the rain is not necessarily an issue. In fact - it has been timely because I usually water on the weekends anyways. And from the looks of it - I believe I usually don't water enough. This first picture (of a cactus I have not been able to pinpoint identify) is of one cactus after a week of not being watered. And here is the same cactus after the rains this past weekend. The pictures weren't taken from the same exact spot, but you can tell that the cactus has picked up a bunch of water and the spacing between the ridges has filled in. The Gymnocalyciums I have also swelled up (in a good way).

New Gymnocalycium mihanovichii Blooming

Saw this one while inspecting the plants for mealie bugs. There are a couple more buds forming so this one should be in flower for some time. Definitely better than finding mealie bugs!

Repotting the Adeniums

As "winter" is coming to a close (relative term) here, our gardens will quickly turn from dormancy (again a relative term) to growth. Last year we were in the procurement mode (yes - we've slowed down and trimmed back quite a bit) so we didn't pay that much attention to the details on how fast the plants were growing, but as the sun returns to the Northern Hemisphere, we are preparing to make tons of observations. First up are the Adeniums. We knew we would have to repotted these shortly, but we were probably past that line a month ago. Getting them out of their pots was a little tricky and Noe and I ended up using a water hose to accomplish the task. I trimmed the smaller roots from each of my plants, but Noe preferred to just go with nature. I'll upload some more pictures once I get access to La's computer. These pictures are more for future reference to growth rate. I figure if these plants really take of this year, Noe and I will be repotting again in late summer.

Unknown Mammillaria

This one is going to take some research... cool spine arrangement and a really nice flower.

Ferocactus gracilis

Added for future reference.

Stapeliads in a Cedar Box

I got home with enough time to transplant one of the Stapeliads I referenced in the previous post. As far as which Stapeliad this is, I won't know for sure until it flowers, but that won't be likely until late summer. For now, I focus on getting it to fill out the available space in the cedar box. If I standardize the cedar box size, right now they are 24" in length, I can build one last shelf with a section to hold these planter boxes so storage and light exposure are maximized. And for this last shelf, I'll incorporate a built in shade. The only spot I have left is in the far corner of the yard in the narrow corridor on the south side. This corner gets some pretty intense summer sun. After that shelf, to increase available horizontal space, I'll have to modify the three existing shelves that currently only have a waist high level (one already has a second calf high shelf). I can put a head high rack and calf high shelves and then everything will be maxed out (hopefully allowing for better organization, less crowded conditions and options for sunlight exposure). More on that later...

New Potting Method

Around the Christmas time frame, I built La a long and fairly deep planter box made out of redwood planks for her Heliconia. She needed the box so she could keep some plants on the front porch without violating the HOA rules. Building that box and seeing similar ones at the "Once Again" nursery got me thinking that for some of the plants I have, smaller cedar plank boards. Well, this past Sunday I finally had some time to try this out. These were actually pretty easy to put together. I didn't use any glue, just nails, and I didn't use any quarter round trim either. If I make some for other purposes (plant stands, or storage boxes), I think I'll use glue and the quarter round strips, but for now I'll see how these hold up to the exposure and watering. The first plants I potted up are my Portulaca molokiniensis that were going rogue on me. The second one I will use to give some Stapeliads some leg room (hopefully I can leave work at a normal hour and get through traffic in time to do this today). I am also planning on making a square version of this pot, and more long ones to get some of the other fast offsetting plants repotted as we get into spring.

Eriosyce senilis

I got this one just a month ago. The random spine growth reminds me of a mad scientist (and that's why I bought it).

Espostoa nana Update

This was another cactus I placed in that proverbial bowl. I've posted on this one before, so going into the older posts, you can make a comparison of the size (but that was only in November, so say less than three months, and in winter at that). I've also seen this on websites as Espostoa lanata. It's hard to tell sometimes with all the movement in classification these days (and the bad pictures on the web).

Pilosocereus

This was one of the first cactus plants I bought about a year ago. I originally bought it to add some height to a cactus bowl I was putting together. That bowl was the first and last time I tried to put different plants together. La hates the fact that I don't put plants together, but there is just something in my inner fiber that can't do that. Anyhow - this went into it's own pot and has been there ever since. It is hard to tell, but I don't think it has even grown much, if at all. I'll dig out a picture from a year ago when I get home and update this post, just to make the comparison. As far as what species it is, I'm torn between Pilosocereus azureus, or Pilosocereus pachyclaudus.

Xerosicyos danguyi Update

This one has put on some meat since I last posted pictures of it. And I found this one at the Kapolei Home Depot a few weeks back. I'm going to make comparisons to the other plant as time goes on. I'll post my observations once something happens (and that's really the point - the way this plant grows in spurts is quite funny).

Austrocylindropuntia subulata

I started our Austrocylindropuntia subulata or Eve's Needle Cactus from a couple of hitchhiker plugs. It's probably been about ten months - and these have grown from little 1 cm plugs. I'm guessing with the additional surface area this has now, a year's worth of growth will be vastly different than this past year (much bigger).