I am wondering what I should do with this cactus. It was growing in a large clump when I got it, then I repotted it and removed a few smaller ones that were around and almost dug up in the soil. Now they grow in sperate pots.
I kept the few biggest ones that were in the middle together. It looks nice this way, but they do not grow as nice I would like to.
I will not get this kind of display of flowers this year. Those photos are from the previous season. Now I see one flower open and a couple more buds to go and that's about it.
The plants are also a bit shriveled, though I do water them as other cacti. I start to think that maybe the roots rotted inside the pot since it is a big one and the soil stays wet longer. At this point I am tempted to separate them all. Maybe pot them together again, but all flat, not stacked up like they are so they all have equal access to the soil.
For now I will wait for the flowers to finish and the decide.
A bit earlier when the buds just started to form. The cactus has amazing purple-green colours and very pronounced rips. Beautiful plant!
Gymnocalycium mihanovichii it is called by the way :)
Bonus monochrome song for today:
Ben Howard - Small Things
year 2014
"Has the world gone mad
Or is it me?"
🍷
Shot with Nikon D5500 + Sigma 105mm lens
All photos and text are my own.
Beautiful pictures!
In order for the Gymnocalycium to bloom luxuriantly, it needs a cramped pot.
You mean small, tight pot?
Yes, look at my photos.
I often have Gymnocalyciums barely fit in a pot :-)
Okay, thank you :) Will remember that!
👍
Oh, that bonus monochrome song is a cool addition to these photos...
You are also asking this question? 🥃
I know right? Played it on the loop while editing photos :)
Are you asking if I join for a drink? Always! :D
It would come in handy 😅
These cactus do not mind staying in a large group like this. Maybe it is the soil. That is easier to check than taking it further apart.
Love the black and white photographs @ewkaw beautiful.
Could be soil. I will check after they are done blooming and see what to do then.
Thank you :)
Ok, yes best to check after blooming. Enjoy them for a bit longer.
You are welcome 😁👋🏻 Night night 😴
Awesome pictures! Not much more to say than that. They look great!
Thanks a lot :)
hello dear friend @ewkaw good morning
The dedication and the great work you do in the garden is admirable, without a doubt you will make the best decision when the time comes
Beautiful shots, they are so beautiful that even in monochrome their beauty is appreciated
have a beautiful day
I really like that second shot! Those little scales(?) on the stems(?) look really cool; like little tattoos.
They are cool! When the buds are smaller and the petals still don't show they look like dragon eggs :D
I love the monochrome photos!
I have severe difficulties throwing a away any plant that isn't completely dead. The only way to get rid of plants that are not co-operating with me like I want them to, (read: dying because I've done something wrong) is to put them to the balcony for the summer and not taking the plants back inside again when the winter comes. And then next spring I go and clean the dead plants away. I give the plants their last chance to recover and enjoy the light (that the plants obviously do not get enough inside although I have put extra light for them) for the summer before they experience a freezing death.
Thank you!
I usually try to save what I can. They die anyway, but at least I try.
Unless I get annoyed with their lack of cooperation and I just ditch everything in a bin :D
I feel really bad for all the suffering plants. Everywhere where I see them! Just few days ago I "had" to buy a Nepenthes because I thought it looked suffering in the store and I've managed to get my older Nepenthes to thrive. They seem to be different species, I don't know which, but my old one has few really red leaves and traps as this new one has stripes in it's traps. Anyway, had to take it home and it wasn't cheap but... yeah. :D Let's hope I managed to "crack" the code for successful growing of Nepenthes. Lots of light, water and spraying.
Show :)
I never had any of them. I know they will hate it here... hot and dry in the summer. Cacti are my friends (I still kill them occasionally).
I think the conditions here in my apartment aren't also that good for any plants and Finland generally is a very hostile ground for sub- and tropical plants. 😁 But I have extra light, almost every plant near the window that faces west, perhaps a little south-west and I have water bowls under my plants (the ones on the floor are repeatedly emptied by my furry meat eaters because the best water apparently is 1 to 2 week old plant water that has dead flies floating in it) and I mist the Nepenthes often with water that has been in the plant mister at least for two days.
This one is the latest one. It says Nepenthes Alata on the plastic pot. One of the traps has opened today and is looking pretty good. When I got it I immediately had to divide it as I counted three separate plants.
Fortunately I got them separated well and the two other sister plants seem to be well. Although it's only been like 5 days so we'll see.
This is my previous one. I got it as a present couple of years ago and never got any better name for it than Nepenthes. But I'm guessing it's one of those Nepenthes that has red traps and no stripes. I think there still are many options and I'm no plant expert. I'm just calling it Nepenthes Red.
Just yesterday I divided it in to three other pots. I thought it has sister plants but it turned out that they were stems or branches without roots and after searching info from the internet I decided to cut the stems and plant those.
I hope I can keep them moist and that they thrive. I'm misting them every few hours whenever I'm at home.
Wowww the pockets (they are called pitchers? not sure...) are so cool! Especially the fully red ones.
You grow them in bark like orchids?
Thy would have plenty of light here, but I would not be able to provide the humidity they need. Not sure about temperatures either - it gets very hot in the summer. I tried to grow some orchids that like medium temps and they just died within few months :p
Sorry for the late reply.. I am terribly late this week.
Yes, pitchers is the correct name I think.
I use a mixture of ordinary soil, coconut soil and bark. Ordinary soil and coconut soil because when I bought these this was the kind of soil they were in. Orchid soil (bark) because I read in the internet that you should do that. I have these in double pots, the inner one is plastic one and the outer one is glazed clay pot and there's always some water on the bottom of the outer pot where the plastic pot is on top of rocks so that the soil isn't all wet, just moist. The last layer of soil is bark because it's nicer looking than just ordinary soil. I also have separate water pots around the plants for extra humidity.
I saw an YouTube video that said that it's nearly impossible to get the Nepenthes to thrive because mostly the dry air indoors, so one should keep these in terrarium but I don't have enough space for one so I used every brain cell in my brain 😁 to think about ways to keep the air around the Nepenthes humid enough and I think I've succeeded in that. I've even put short macrame cords from the clay pot water to the bark on top (capillary action) for possible extra humidity. (I've cleaned enough times the floor from water after one of my cats dragged it's catch, a woolly sock to her water bowl and the sock gets all wet and the water magically shifts from the water bowl all over the floor to know that capillary action should work for my benefit too, not just to make me clean the floors more often.)
I've never tried to grow orchids though, I hear they are even more demanding. Even reading the instructions on how to take care of orchids makes me exhausted.
Don't worry about the late reply, I usually am a late replier so no worries. :)
My friend, you are an artist... Always good your photos, always lovely to see these images... But your special ability to photograph plants is supreme.... These are excellent.
The rewards earned on this comment will go directly to the people(@jlinaresp) sharing the post on Twitter as long as they are registered with @poshtoken. Sign up at https://hiveposh.com.