BCSS Southampton & District Branch July 2010 Newsletter Branch Secretary Newsletter EditorPage 1 British Cactus & Succulent Society David Neville Vinay Shah 6 Parkville Road 29 Heathlands Road Swaythling Eastleigh Southampton & District Branch Southampton Hampshire Newsletter Hampshire SO53 1GU SO16 2JA [email protected] [email protected] July 2010 (023) 80551173 or (023) 80261989 07974 191354 July, the branch will also be putting on a display at Editorial ...........................................................1 the Solent Fuchsia Show. Announcements ...............................................1 Last Month’s Meeting.....................................1 Plants of Interest ................................................... 1 Last Month’s Meeting What I Saw Last Winter........................................ 2 Plants of Interest Table Show Results .............................................. 8 Next Month’s Meeting ....................................8 Bruce Beckerleg showed some variegated Agaves Forthcoming Events........................................8 which he had got at the National Show. They looked similar but did have slightly different names – Editorial Agave cv. Ohi-kissyoten Nishiki and Agave patonii variegata Ohikitsusyote Nisiki. Both were The dry weather I mentioned last month continued variegated. Someone from audience asked whether throughout June and someone told me that this has those names actually meant something like “don’t been the driest start to the summer for something water in the winter”! like 80 years. Certainly I’ve had to water my outdoor plants almost every day and any that I’ve Next were two plants of Echeveria lilacina. The missed have dried up within a few days. About the first, from Specks was a nicer form than another only advantage is that the grass has stopped growing plant which Bruce had got from Freshacres. In his so hasn’t had to be cut as often. view, the Echinopsis hybrid "Violet Beauty" is one of the hybrids worth growing - many of the other In my conservatory, plants of a few more genera hybrids are no better than the species. There was have flowered during the last month. Although the also Lobivia carmineoflora and a couple of weather outside has been very dry, the temperatures Gymnocalyciums, all in flower. One of the gymnos so far this summer have remained at fairly was G. neuhuberi – this was one of Brian Plunkett’s reasonable levels. plants which he had bought last year, and it was flowering for him for the first time. Rebutia albipilosa is quite pretty and looks quite nice even Announcements when not in flower. It is more difficult than some, The Branch Dinner was held on 25th June at the but not as difficult as R. heliosa. Luzborough. Sixteen members came along, and I think everyone had a good time. Finally was a hybrid of his own making - a Lewisia called “Bex” which has red flowers. Lewisias can be For those of you who do not know, any member is hard to keep alive year after year, but this one had allowed to bring along plants for sale at our lasted several years. It had had lots of flowers this monthly meetings or at shows and displays. It goes year. If grown outside they flower once, but in a without saying that the plants must be healthy and in greenhouse, they can flower multiple times. good condition. Just make sure that each plant has 2 labels in the pot – one with the name of the plant Paul Klaassen pointed to a tray of Fraileas which he and the other with your initials and the price of the had brought along - these are small plants and you plant. The branch charges a 10% commission at can grow the entire genus in a small space. They are branch meetings and 15% at shows. very diverse in appearance. Some of them had started to form buds and they can set seed without Later this month (27-29 July) the Branch will be opening the flowers. The plants are not long lived so putting on a display at the New Forest Show. it is worth starting off new plants from seed every Preparations for that will be finalised at the few years. He had put the plants out in the garden committee meeting later this month. On the 31st of and after receiving some rain, they had plumped up nicely. BCSS Southampton & District Branch July 2010 Newsletter Page 2 What I Saw Last Winter by Frailea gaucha (sp nova) which is due to be described by Marlon - the name being derived from We moved on to Paul’s presentation for the evening. the local name for cowboys. We saw it growing He explained that during the last winter and spring, amongst the resurrection plant. These Fraileas had he went on some trips with Cliff Thompson, large yellow flowers. Paul mentioned the amongst others. Paul mentioned that the first trip temperatures were quite comfortable - around 20°C, were to Brazil: to Rio Grande do Sul, with Marlon sometimes reaching 30°C. They were fortunate to Machado as their guide. Next, he and Cliff went to have Marlon with them, otherwise it would have Minas Gerais. After Christmas, they were joined by been hard to know where the plants were located. Marlon in Bahia. They then went on to Cuba, and Frailea gracillima ssp. horstii was growing amongst proceeded to California, where he gave a talk at a rocks covered in moss, as was Frailea mammifera. cactus meeting. Next, they went with some Japanese enthusiasts to Baja California, and finally to We saw Marlon laying on the ground while taking Monterrey in Mexico before returning to the USA some photographs. Frailea phaedisca “perbella” and flying back home. had attractive tight spination which criss-crossed over the plant bodies. Next was a white/yellow Paul started his presentation with the URL which striped caterpillar followed by F. phaedisca ssp. points to his blog on the Internet. For those who phaedisca which had much shorter spines. Paul have no idea what that sentence means, Paul mentioned that the clumps of several plants in the maintains notes of his trips on a rolling diary which photographs were actually individual plants growing is accessible by anyone on the Internet at: next to each other because the seeds tend to gather http://cid-5965a61fa486aae7.spaces.live.com/ together. We also saw Woody Minich laying on the (you can also view some of the pictures from the talk) ground taking close-up photographs. In Rio Grande do Sul, they travelled around 4000km Frailea pumila had brown spines. The plants of on roads of variable quality. The recession was Frailea pgymaea “aureispina” were taller and had having an impact and many of the roads were in lighter coloured spines. Frailea pygmaea ssp. poor condition and not being maintained. Some of pygmaea was squatter and had white spines. The the best plant populations were in Uruguay, but it’s annual rainfall in this area is greater than the UK. F. very difficult to get rental cars there, so they had to schilinzkyana (perumbilicata) had neat spination. limit their exploration to Brazil. There is lots of diversity with many different genera in each state, Moving on to Gymnocalycium, G. denudatum had and on this occasion they studied Frailea and shiny green bodies and lovely spider-like spines. Parodia in detail. We saw Cereus hildmannianus They seemed happiest growing in grass or in the with some nice healthy plants growing from the shade of a shrub. We also saw G. horstii ssp. carcass of an older dead plant. Echinopsis oxygona bueneckeri. Some of the stems were marked - has nice flowers in shades of white and pink. sometimes the plants get badly beaten up. G. horstii However, there isn’t much to see after the flowers ssp. horstii is named after Leopoldo Horst, who was die. Some of the plants had shorter spines, and to one of the great explorers of this region in the him, these looked more attractive. 1970s. His son Ingo Horst now runs a nursery which they visited later during the trip. G. uruguayensis We saw some shots of the landscape, and Paul had yellowish flowers. Paul mentioned there were commented that Marlon thought it resembled plantations of pine trees and eucalyptus being grown Wiltshire! We saw several examples of the genus here and he wondered on the long term impact of Frailea, starting with Frailea bueneckeri ssp. these foreign introductions. densispina and Frailea castanea. We also saw some shots of Rhea americana, the flightless bird local to Now for some epiphytic cacti. These were growing this area, and which seems to use the herds of on trees or rock faces. We saw Lepismium livestock for protection. Frailea cataphracta had to cruciforme and Lepismium houlettianum, which had be marked out in the picture - they were just small flat multi-lobed leaves - the spray from a waterfall dots in the sand. We saw one of the plants which kept them moist. L. lumbricoides consisted of long had been dug out and the length of the taproot was thin strands rather like rhipsalis, and we saw L. several times the diameter of the plant. This tends to warmingianum growing pendulously. pull the plant into the ground during dry spells, which explains why they are hard to find. Paul showed pictures of some Opuntias, however, Everything was very green, unlike the Atacama he stated that the names that he used (O. Desert in Chile. We saw Frailea fulviseta, followed brunnoegemmia, O. rubrogemmia) are not BCSS Southampton & District Branch July 2010 Newsletter Page 3 recognised by the new Cactus Lexicon. The plants mad. P notocactus gaucha (sp nova) was being had pads a few inches long, with spines up to 2 pointed to by Marlon. P. linkii and P. oxycostata inches long, and some of the pads bore red fruits.