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Cacti & Succulents



A category of plants that I’ve grown fond of in the last few years is cacti and succulents. It started with picking up an interesting-looking echeveria at Southlands Nursery, and another and another; discovering opuntia, prickly, but with beautiful flowers, and then rediscovering epiphyllum, the “orchid cactus”. I have had epiphyllum for a few years, an Ackermannii that I was given at a meeting of a (different) plant society, and one I grew from seeds I purchased, I believe, from Thompson & Morgan many years ago. Both of these flower prolifically for me, and I never paid much attention to them, sometimes watering them, sometimes fertilizing them, mainly neglecting them, but they kept blooming. I had taken cuttings over the years, and given the resulting plants to friends, but I don’t think I ever realized what variety there was to be had – and on the internet at that! I didn’t even have to leave home to get a collection! There are pictures on this site of my two original plants, and pictures that I have been generously allowed to use to illustrate plants that I now own but have not yet flowered.
