Issue 18:
Also Known As ...
by Sue Haffner
From Cactus Corner News
Epiphyllum Cuttings
By Sue Haffner
From Cactus Corner News
Coddling Your Plants Through an Arctic Winter
by Mike Hellmann
St. Louis C &S
Growing Aztekium from Seed
by Piotr Swiatoniowski
From the San Francisco C&S Society newsletter
Seed Production -- Part 1
By Thomas Schwink Mid-Iowa C&S
Seed Production -- Part 2
Pachypodiums & Adeniums
By Thomas Schwink Mid-Iowa C&S
AGAVES FOR THE HOME
by Jeff Lake
Mid-Iowa C&S
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Also Known As ...
by Sue Haffner
From Cactus Corner News
Oh, those fun-loving taxonomists - no sooner do we get comfortable with some plant's name than they jump in to change it.
GRAPTOPETALUM BELLUM (AKA = TACITUS BELLUS) : This little plant, which has the most spectacular flowers of any others in the Crassulaceae, was discovered by Alfred Lau in 1972. Originally called Tacitus bellus, it has been justifiably popular in the plant trade. It was found in a mountainous area, altitude 4,800', on the border of Chihuahua and Sonora, Mexico. The compact 2-inch rosettes lie almost flat to the ground, and its clusters of magenta-pink flowers appear in May and June.
In 1981, the Huntington offered Tacitus bellus ``Superstar'' as one of that year's ISI plants (no. 1289). This was a selfed seedling that appeared in the Huntington's collection. It has larger rosettes, greener leaves, deeper red flowers which may appear more than once a year, and has prominent bracts on the flowering stems. It may be that this is the form now most found in commerce.
This plant's affinity to Graptopetalum was noticed early on, and it was placed in that genus about 15 years ago. Of course, dealers still sell it under its old name, as that's the one most of us know - and, anyway, the nurserymen are as reluctant as we are to change their labels.
Culture of this plant is fairly straightforward, though it needs more shade than others in the family. It is said to withstand temperatures down to 20. The tightly-packed rosettes are attractive to mealy bugs.
REBUTIA CANIGUERALII (AKA = SULCOREBUTIA RASUCHII) : This is a well-known species in cultivation, in spite of its slow growth rate. It appears in several forms - purple-bodied, green-bodied, gold-spined, etc. Its flowers are bright magenta-purple.
All sulcorebutias are found in Bolivia, at altitudes of 6,000 to 9,000 feet. Plants are usually spherical, have long narrow sunken areoles with curved or flattened spines, and tuberous roots. They tolerate higher temperatures and more sunlight than rebutias, but cannot withstand as much cold. The tuberous roots make them more rot-prone, if watering is careless.
Curt Backeberg set up Sulcorebutia in 1951 to accommodate a group of species that were somewhat different from Rebutia. Controversy erupted almost at once about this new genus, as well as the closely-allied Weingartia, as Backeberg was a notorious ``splitter''. Were these morphological distinctions enough to justify a new genus? Apparently not, as current taxonomists (mostly ``lumpers'') have slam-dunked all the sulcos and weingartias into Rebutia. The true believers can complain all they want, dig in their heels, engage in rear-guard actions, refuse to change their labels, set up a web site, etc., etc. But, when it comes down to it, you should just enjoy your plants. And the plants don't care what we call them (or do they?)
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Epiphyllum Cuttings
By Sue Haffner
From Cactus Corner News
Who hasn't wanted to take cuttings of their favorite ``orchid cactus'', either to propagate or to share? Their flowers are among the most gorgeous of the cactus family. Since you are supposed to cut back your epis every year, anyway, you might as well propagate some of the stems.
All the experts maintain that you must allow the cuttings to harden off thoroughly. Place them on a paper towel or bag and let them dry in a shaded, dry place. A speaker years ago told our club that he let his epi cuttings harden off until they actually started to wrinkle before he planted them. It sounds radical, but he really meant it.
Plant the cuttings in a clean, dry potting mix. The mix should hold moisture but drain quickly. One suggested recipe is 3 parts commercial potting soil with 1 part pumice. If you can't get pumice, you can substitute with perlite or bark chips (even broken-up styrofoam chips can work.) Plastic pots are preferable to clay, as they don't dry out as fast.
The cuttings should be planted upside down - meaning that you should plant the small growing end of the cutting 1-2 inches deep in the soil. No more than two of the leaf ``serrations'' should be below soil level. Any deeper planting then this can encourage rot. Some growers stake the cuttings to keep them upright. Put the pots in a bright, shaded place for at least a month. Do not water the cuttings right away. Mist them for several weeks. Wait a few weeks and water lightly; wait another week, then put the plant on a weekly watering schedule. After another month, you can move the plant to its permanent home. Keep an eye on the cuttings as they get adjusted to their new location. Remember that, after rooting, epiphyllums should not be allowed to dry out. They are rain forest cacti and need moisture. (The exception is in winter, when the plant is at rest.)
If at any time it appears that a cutting is rotting (black rot at the base of the cutting where it meets the soil), gently remove the cutting and inspect it. If it has rotted, take a clean, sharp knife and remove the affected area. Harden this cutting off and begin the cycle again, taking care of water less than the first time.
Watering epiphyllums: The rule in raising epis is to remember not to allow the roots to completely dry out. When you water during the spring, summer, and fall, make sure to water thoroughly so that water drains freely from the pot's drainage holes. Allow the top 1/3d of the soil to dry out before watering again. To determine this, use your finger to see if the top inch or so of soil is dry. If it is, then water them. If not, allow the soil to dry out a little more before watering.
Orchid cacti have natural growth cycles during the spring and fall. During these seasons, their water requirements are greater than at other times of the year. Note that, after flowering, they go through a rest period due to the stress of producing flowers. The plants may appear a bit wilted, but do not become overly concerned and do not increase the amount of water. By the onset of fall, the plants should start regaining their plump, green appearance.
During the winter months, water your plants just enough to keep them moist (top 1/3d of soil somewhat dry). Also during winter, to encourage heavy flowering next year, epiphyllums require at least two to three weeks of cool temperatures. This means placing them in an unheated spare bedroom, garage, or other location. Make certain that they still receive filtered light wherever you place them. The best temperature range for flowering is 40-45 degrees F.
Source for epi varieties: If you are looking for specific epis, hybrids or species, here is a source: Gray/Davis Epiphyllums, 10648 Palm Row Dr., Lakeside CA 92040; send $3.00 for a full-color catalog.
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Coddling Your Plants Through an Arctic Winter
by Mike Hellmann
St. Louis C &S
This is my nineteenth year of overwintering succulent plants. Even though this is my third year with a greenhouse, I still have many plants in the basement and throughout all levels of the house. There are a few key points to remember when preparing to limp your plants through the winter. First is to grow them well and healthy over the summer so they are better able to overcome the long, punishing season indoors. Proper fertilization, light levels and pest control will give your plants a big advantage when moved indoors. Second is remembering the fact that you want your plants dormant (except for winter growers) during their stay indoors. Growth at this time is weak and unnatural. Plants need to rest in order to grow and flower properly during the growing season.
We'll start in the basement where the desert cacti, euphorbias, sansevarias and most other succulents spend the winter. The exceptions here are the tropical plants that need at least 60F to survive. Cacti fare better here along with deciduous plants, agaves, bromeliads and most caudiciforms. Forty watt fluorescent bulbs on timers illuminate the plants. Since the plants shouldn't be growing, broad spectrum bulbs do very little. I've kept some cacti in complete darkness for the entire winter with no ill effects. Watering here depends primarily on temperature. Sixty degrees plus and you'll have to water more. Try to run temperatures as cool as possible as this discourages winter growth and minimizes the need for water. It is beyond the scope of this article to go into much detail on what to water and when. As a general rule, I lightly water most succulents and columnar cacti every two weeks and the globular cacti every four. Below 55 degrees and I don't water at all until things warm up. Cooler temperatures will also reward you with more flowers. Dormancy is a needed rest and the reward is better plant health and flower production. Remember to put lights on timers, run a fan around the clock to circulate air, remove topdressing to better monitor soil moisture and use a vacuum to remove dead leaves, cat hair, dead bugs and spider webs.
I keep all my warm-blooded friends upstairs where the temperatures never see 60 degrees or below. Antplants, melocactus, uebelmanias, ficus, carrallumas and others perch on or next to south/east facing windows where, when unobscured by fall leaves clinging to the trees or evergreen Christmas decorations hanging outside the windows, allow access to lots of light. I water the rhipsalis, antplants and other leafies once per week if sunny. The South American cacti and stapeliads are watered biweekly. Keep watch out for mites, mealy and scale. They go from nothing to complete infestation nearly overnight.
No matter where you overwinter your plants or how, you'll have casualties. Some are inevitable as certain plants available in the hobby are just too demanding, regarding culture, for most of us to maintain. You can only force or compromise with Mother Nature so much. For example, my biggest plant challenge comes with the tropical stapeliads such as the hoodias,trichocaulens, pseudolithos, etc. My peat-based mix is most likely the culprit along with our steamy, amazon-like summers. If you make yourself aware of the origins and habitats of your plants, you'll better understand what makes them tick (or die). You can then categorize them by watering needs, full-sun or shade, growing season and soil mix.
Watering a helter-skelter mix of plants on a bench presents many more challenges than if all the plants on the bench desired a similar level of soil moisture. One last hint to maintaining a healthy collection is to focus on your favorite groups and what you do well with, weeding out those that present an uphill battle or that have worn out their welcome. For the past few years, I've focused on fewer groups to better manage my collection. This evolution never stops and will always change. It is very tough to have a little bit of everything from all over the globe. Focus on what you like the most and what treats you best. From there you can grow forever in a plant hobby that shows no sign of getting boring any time soon.
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Growing Aztekium from Seed
by Piotr Swiatoniowski
From the San Francisco C&S Society newsletter
The genus Aztekium is one of the most famous sort of cactus, and unfortunately also the most difficult to grow. The problems in its cultivation refer principally to extremely slow growth but also to some other special requirements that make these plants laborious to raise even in their native land of Mexico. A few years ago I decided to take up some experiments in growing Aztekium from seeds and grafting it on different stocks. First of all, it is desirable to check all seeds because many of them can be imperfectly developed or crushed. It is reasonable to sow only these grains which are felt with a finger tip as possessing spherical form, and not being just flakes, because these ones won't germinate. There is no danger to damage a seed if you perform this activity delicately. Afterwards the seeds should be protected against the development of any fungus. The best treatment in this case is soaking them for about fifteen minutes in the 0.1 % solution of chinosol, and later when they dry up, additionally in the common seed dressing.
Aztekium grows generally in the habitat on this type of breeding ground but investigations performed by Sociedad Mexicana de Cactologia A.C. proved that in the case of Aztekium ritteri the pH equaled about 5.5. Thus it would be very clever to use, for the seedlings, distilled water that is free of any biological pollution, with the addition of some acid and good fertilizer in the ordinary concentration. The seedlings of Aztekium ritteri are almost always spherical in contrast to these of Aztekium hintonii that can be as well ball shaped, discus shaped or even elongated, regardless to the mother plant. These ones that are the last to germinate, grow worst and at the lowest speed. Unfortunately, it will be very difficult to check if this original shape has any direct relationship with the proportions of the definite specimen. In the habitat there indeed exist this kind of differences, but especially in the case of Aztekium hintonii.
In spite of the large germination power, the seedlings are very sensitive for the first two months and many of them perish because of several factors. There can be mentioned three main agents here: too high concentration of the fertilizer, too high temperature and too strong light. Taking into consideration the proper temperature, my experiences proved that for a few weeks after germination it shouldn't overstep the limit of 28C and it is better to keep it at this level for almost two months. Later the seedlings become stronger and even the temperature of 45C is harmless for them, though this one is probably too high and it can, of course, slow down the growth. Then they become very hard and extremely resistant to the lack of water.
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SEED PRODUCTION -- PART 1
by Thomas Schwink Mid-Iowa C&S
In the past few years I have increased my seed production activities, with emphasis on succulents other than cacti. Seeds of some of these plants are not often offered for sale and some are offered for sale only in small numbers. Besides, I enjoy producing the seeds. I donate some of my surplus seeds to the CSSA seed depot.
Succulents are a very diverse group of plants and different ones are pollinated in nature in many different ways. Most require cross pollination. Natural pollinators include bees and other insects including ants, moths, and flies. Some succulents are pollinated by birds, bats, or wind. Some are self-fertile but require a pollinator to transfer the pollen to the stigma, while others such as fraileas commonly do the job themselves with no outside help and even without the flower buds opening.
My pollination techniques vary with the plants. For wind-pollinated ones such as members of the euphorbia family, I let the wind do the job. Since so many of these will cross with other related species of the same family and I do not want to produce hybrids, I isolate the plants that I want to be the parents. I grow only one species of jatropha and these are outdoors during the summer, where and when the wind does the pollination. This year I am aiming to produce seeds of Euphorbia bupleurifolia and this is the only species of euphorbia that I have in my greenhouse this year.
Like cacti, aloes and gasterias are easily pollinated with a small brush. For haworthias I use a horsehair and have read of other people using small brushes or fishing line. For adeniums and pachypodiums I use horsehair, but the most popular pollination instrument with these plants appears to be fishing line. I suppose that for most people fishing line is the most easily available material for use in plants with narrow throats, but I am able to obtain free horsehair from one of our (Hazel and my) veterinarian daughters.
After reading what Gerald Barad wrote about how he pollinates stapeliads I decided that this was too much trouble for me and I leave pollinating these plants to their ubiquitous abundant natural pollinators, flies and ants. Isolation of the stapeliads that I want to breed is necessary as it is with wind pollination, since many of these plants will cross.
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SEED PRODUCTION -Part 2
Pachypodiums & adeniums
by Thomas Schwink Mid-Iowa C&S
These two genera have become very popular in recent years. Most pachypodium plants are grown from seed. Because many of the adeniums with the best flowers are hybrids that must be propagated vegetatively to maintain flower quality, cuttings and grafting are frequently used to propagate adeniums.
Picture of Pachypodium brevicaule with seed pods
In nature members of both genera are insect pollinated, but in cultivation hand pollination is commonly used to insure that the male parent is the desired one. In addition, under cultivated conditions pollination is more likely to be successful when conducted by a person than when left entirely to natural pollinators.
Flowers of these two genera are very specialized and are basically very similar. I will not try to describe most details of the anatomy of the flowers, since this can best be learned by reading about it and looking at the pictures in Gordon Rowleys 1999 Cactus File Pachypodium and Adenium handbook. The flower anatomy is such that a slender tool is needed for pollination. I am one of those who use horsehair, but others have used other tools such as cat whiskers. Fishing line is very popular.
All parts necessary for pollination are in a small cone-shaped inner chamber at the base of the flower. Adeniums commonly have anther filaments which may serve a purpose in insect pollination but which get in the way when pollinating by hand and are best pulled out because of this. The limited number of pachypodiums which I have pollinated do not have such filaments. With plants having long outer tubes (such as most adeniums), removing all or part of the outer tube makes access easier.
The pollinating instrument is inserted into the inner chamber and moved around to collect pollen and to deposit pollen previously collected from another flower. Access to the inside of the inner chamber can be made easier by gently squeezing the base of the flower to create a temporary opening into which the instrument can be easily inserted.
Most adenium plants are not self-fertile and thus need pollen collected from a compatible plant if they are to produce seed. Some of the best adenium hybrids are very poor parents and only rarely produce seeds or viable pollen even when cross-pollinating is attempted. Individual plants of some pachypodiums are self-fertile but still need to have their pollen transferred to the receptive female parts, using the same technique as when cross-pollinating.
After pollinating and shedding of the outer flower tube, a long wait is often necessary before the degree of success is known. If pollination is successful the seed pods start to grow but this may not be evident for a long time, sometimes as much as a month. If it is unsuccessful the base of the flower follows the outer tube in being shed.
After successful pollination it takes a considerable amount of time, sometimes as long as 6 months, for the seed pods to mature. My experience has been that adenium seed pods usually take longer to mature than do pachypodium seed pods. The mature seed pods split to release the seeds. Seeds are dispersed by wind and have hair-tufts known as comas which facilitate dispersal. If the plants are outdoors where they are exposed to wind, it may be desirable to use some means to prevent the seed pods from opening completely and releasing the seeds before they can be collected. Twist ties, rubber bands, cages made of fiberglass screen, and even tape have been used for this purpose.
The mature seeds are removed from the pods and the comas removed. Removing the comas does not affect viability, but is a convenience when handling and sowing the seeds. With the comas attached the seeds take up much more space and are subject to being blown away even when indoors and subjected only to very gentle air movements.
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AGAVES FOR THE HOME
by Jeff Lake
Mid-Iowa C&S
Agave plants make a fine addition to any cactus and succulent collection, but do have some unique requirements. This diverse and beautiful group of plants provide a variety of shapes, forms, and colors to grab the interest of virtually any collector. Their ease of growth makes them an ideal plant for the beginning collector, and the challenge of growing truly "perfect" specimens makes them a joy for more advanced collectors.
One potential drawback of these plants is the size many of them eventually attain. Agave americana, perhaps the best known species, can easily for a rosette 6-8 feet across and nearly as tall. Fortunately, the growth can be restricted somewhat by keeping the plants more pot bound. A downside to that approach, however, is that a very pot bound environment encourages the plant to produce pups, providing a great opportunity to enhance the size of your collection, and to pass plants along to many friends.
Other species, however, stay a far more manageable size. One of my favorite smaller species is A. verschaefeltii, a small species related to A. potatorum. It maintains a tight rosette form and a deep bluish coat. Agave univittata stays small, and is distinguished by very shiny, bright green leaves with a prominent yellowish center stripe. This species is very prolific with its offsets, sending out long runners with new rosettes on the end.
There are also several variegated cultivars worthy of mention. Varieties of A. americana are perhaps the most prevalent, with at least four distinct patterns of variegation available: v. marginata (yellow margins); v. medio-picta (prominent yellow center); v. medio-picta alba (prominent white center on very blue leaves); and v. striata (with yellowish stripes distributed throughout the leaf). A variegate of A. angustifolia is also commonly available and attractive. Less common variegates of A. ferox, A. tequilana, A. potatorum, and A. desmettiana also add considerable beauty to a collection, but are very difficult to find for sale or trade.
Some of the true miniature cultivars are also worth a look, particularly because of their ease of handling. Perhaps the best known is A. verschaefeltii v. minima Shoji-raijan, a miniature clustering form with blue leaves. Agave pumila is also a beautiful but rare find of quite small stature. Some forms of A. victoriae-reginae stay quite small, as does a unique form of A. striata.
For collectors of cacti and some other succulents who are used to a regular display of flowers, an initial foray into Agaves may prove disappointing. Most of these plants do not bloom for 15 or more years after germination, and is usually the last act of the plant before it perishes. The sheer beauty of that rare flowering, however, makes the wait and the loss of the plant more than worthwhile.
I was fortunate enough to witness the flowering of a specimen of A. parryi in a 24 inch pot at my mothers home. The plant had fully filled the pot, and in about September, shortly after a summer outdoors, a very swollen growth tip began to appear. A shoot, resembling a giant asparagus spear, appeared out of the center of the plant in October and grew at an amazing rate to nearly 6 foot, with considerable branching. The grow lights had to be raised every 2-3 days to keep pace with the growth of the stalk. By Thanksgiving, flowers were beginning to open, with a beautiful display very near the ceiling for Christmas. The flowers were very sweet smelling and produced copious quantities of nectar, which found its way onto the floor beneath the plant since it lacked a pollinator to drink the nectar. However, in spite of the absence of any pollinators, many of the flowers turned into seed pods over the spring, and produced countless seeds, which proved quite viable in subsequent plantings.
Hopefully, you, too, can find the space to enjoy these fascinating, beautiful plants. They are a very rewarding group to grow, and provide a number of opportunities for both seed and vegetative propagation. Happy growing!
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