Hey friends and family!

It's time for me to post some pictures again.

For those who remember my 2020 garden post, I apologise for not keeping the promises i made there

Species in the pics include:
- Trichocereus bridgesii, pachanoi, peruvianus, and werdermannianus
- Lophophora williamsii
- Desmanthus illinoensis
- Acacia confusa and acuminata
- Mimosa tenuiflora
- Psychotria viridis
- Banisteriopsis caapi
- Peganum harmala

Most of the plants are grown from seed, some were bought. Most of the seed grown ones are 1-2 years old, a few are in their 3rd year, and some are from this year (most of the Acacias and the Desmanthus). All pics are from this august.

Nice collection HT! I wish you the best with all of them. I really like that Monstrose Bridgesii in photo #5!

Thanks Grey Fox!

I like that one a lot, too. I got it off ebay last summer for ca 15€.. It was just the main 'penis' with one pup (which i cut off and planted separately, it isn't doing as great but has also made 2 pups in the meantime), all the rest has grown in this one year!

Looks wonderful and is very inspiring. Thank you for sharing.

I've never seen Williamsi look like that before. Beautiful!

One love

A wonderful collection!

Hope you have somewhere to overwinter them.

I've tried grafting a peyote, but it didn't work out. The cut on the pachanoi rootstock callused over and the scion couldn't feed on it and eventually perished.

Lovely pics, thanks for sharing.

I love the look of the thorns on that young mimosa! And I'd like a closer look at that werdermannianus...

Here's wishing you success with all your babies - how did you get such good germination with your Syrian rue?

Hehe, i was surprised as well, this is my first graft that took!

It seems they like to pup a lot and grow really fast when grafted onto pereskiopsis.



I used to overwinter everything in my living room. Now that i have that garden, i want to attach an improvised transparent tent to the little house and make sure it stays around 15°C. Or i can bring them all into the little garden house and install some LED grow lights. They will not freeze, that's for sure.

I did plant 4 acuminatas in the ground though, winters in the region are usually mild and i'm curious if they can make it. A bit risky, but i have to find out. And i have another 20+ of them in pots that will be inside. I never expected so many to make it this far, they kept dying on me in the previous two years.

I had some failed attempts at grafting too, still figuring it out. This one, i smeared both cuts with sap from the removed pereskiopsis 'leaves' and put a baggie on the graft to create a moist atmosphere. Another one i did the same but it still dried out...



The big thorns on the Vachellia cornigera (didn't mention it because it's probably not psychoactive)? So beautiful!

I'll shoot a close up of the werdermannianus tomorrow in daylight.

I simply sprinkled a big handful of rue seeds into a few pots in the sun. For some reason, in this particular pot a lot sprouted - in the others, just one or two.

So, here are some more

The promised werdermannianus close up, as well as some of the others that i didn't have a current pic of when i made the first post.

The older peyotes and the big TBM were bought. The peruvianus and the bridgesii triplet were a gift. The 5 proud little pachanois are actually the first cacti i ever grown from seed along with some peyotes that sadly didn't make it - i bought more seeds this year though. The little bridgesii and the werdermanniani were also from seeds.

Lovely cacti HT! Werdermannianus is one that I don't have yet. But I know some people love it. Its supposed to be in the Terscheckii / Validus clade. I've been told that all 3 are quite potent. How fast does Werdermannianus grow for you compared to Pachanoi or Peru or Bridgesii? Spiny guys full of character. Very nice!

Mmmm, yes...! The werdermannianuses bear more than a passing resemblance to some specimens of mine labelled simply with the identifier 'AWC542' rather than a species name, except yours appear to have much more of a reddish colour to the young spination. Simply gorgeous!

Have you had a flower on that bigger caespitosa yet? It looks almost as though you might find a seed or two in amongst the fuzz in the middle.

I germinated them in one container with bridgesii, and it took me almost a year before i could tell them apart. Next time i think i'll see the difference sooner, this time was the first with both species
Most of them were about average of the field, with the one in the first pic being the exception - it was always among the biggest of that batch. Like now still, not necessarily the tallest, but exceptionally thick. The bridgesii from the first post that has a pup on top (where snails had eaten the growing tip), is from that batch too. And all (but one?) of the other bridgesii in the same picture.
Now at ca. 1.5 years old, the big one is thicker than any of the 5 pachanoi that are a year older, but 'only' about half the height.



It has flowered twice this year, and 2 or 3 times last year. I'll have to look (and hope the rain didn't wash them away)! Is that fuzz a fruit?

Loph fruit is actually a lovely pink before it shrivels up and slowly loses its colour to become a nondescript beige. With any luck, you might be able to find a dried fruit hiding amongst the fluff - although, I gather, not all Lophs are self-fertile. (I tried uploading a pic of some recent Loph fruits but for some reason the technology is not playing at the moment.) With reasonably nimble fingers, it should be possible to dig around gently in the fluff and pull the fruit out intact. They're about 1cm long and 3 to 4 mm in diameter, but don't be fooled by the dried-out flower remnants that you may find.

Eventually, if left to their own devices the seeds will be released into the fluff once the fairly tough skin of the dried out fruit crumbles away. The seeds are virtually black, truncated ovoid spheroids, the truncated part being a white scar. Typical diameter is about 1.2 - 1.5 mm but you'll have seen seeds already with your recent cultivation efforts.

This reminds me, I ought to take a photo of the loose seeds that seem to have crawled out of one of my specimens during recent rains. It is hard to tell whether your specimen has any seeds in amongst the fluff because of the resolution of the picture - it got too pixelated to see clearly when zoomed in.

Hmm, my fingers didn't find anything... So i poked around a bit with a wooden chopstick. I don't think there is/was a fruit, or any seeds. The pic is after the poking:

what a beautiful garden

Yes, on closer inspection it looks like there was nothing there, or nothing left. I'd say it would be pretty obvious if there was something to be found.

Attached are a couple of pictures - peyote fruits, some with dried out flowers still attached [ignore the small brown seeds and the brownish fruit off by itself in one corner; they are from Mamillaria spinosissima]; and some seeds that have escaped from a dried fruit atop one of my specimens.

Lol man, i have no idea how this happened, but i think the caespitosa made a fruit in the few days since i took the pic! Or is it just another flower that's starting?

Also, look how happy the peganum are with the alternatingly rainy/sunny weather rn

With the energy crisis looming, 15C sounds like a lot for plants that don't need as much warmth. The P. viridis and B. caapi would probably appreciate it, but the cacti (including the peyote) should be fine just above freezing, and in fact the Trichocereus can take -10C if kept dry, so an unheated greenhouse or shed (or even a canopy) could work.

The Desmanthus can take -30C and the rue can take -20C, but you may want to keep your rue seedlings in pots and somewhere warmer for their first winter.

The Acacia acuminata is risky indeed, you may want to drape a blanket over it on the coldest nights.

Glad to see that fruit! I love it how peyote plants seem to materialise their fruits or flowers from thin air sometimes.