Marina Welham's Archive
The Afrikaans common name “kanniedood” (literally “cannot die”) refers to the exceptional ability of all commiphoras to retain their water content and withstand drought for long periods. To my knowledge, very little is written in C&S; literature or on the internet on the succulent commiphoras.
Plants have been flowering away for several weeks in shops and garden centers. You bought one, attracted by the lovely flowers, and soon after you got it home, all the buds and/or flowers fell off. You may wonder why.
If anyone has ever told you that cacti and succulents don’t ever need much water, be assured that they are dead wrong. It is a widely believed myth that cacti and succulents need very little water, if any, and that cacti in particular can go forever without it.
Buying a new plant is exciting. If it is healthy when you buy it, it should give you years of enjoyment. The most critical time in the life of your new plant is going to be the first few weeks in your care.
The intensity of the acid/alkali reaction of soil or compost is commonly expressed in terms of pH units. pH stands for pondus hydrogenii, the concentration of hydrogen ions.
Post-mortem examination of people killed by Euphorbia latex has revealed severe inflammation of the walls of the stomach and intestine and in some cases the wall of the stomach has been perforated. The poison is called euphorbon about which little is known.
Epiphyllums (type Epiphyllum phyllanthus) are epiphytic cacti with flattened leaf-like stems and large white flowers that open at night. Outer petals usually have some color, usually yellow.
This species is occasionally known as Jatropha cathartica and not very common in collections here. It is highly prized as a neat, compact and handsome plant, bearing many small and pretty red flowers in midsummer, being very suitable for the show bench.
Some cacti form fruit with viable seeds by means of self-pollination. Two of the best examples of plants producing seeds themselves are found in the genera Mammillaria or Rebutia.
Cacti and succulents can safely be sent through the mail, but if you are mailing plants from one country to another, you should contact the Plant Protection Division of the Department of Agriculture for that country to find out what the guidelines are about plants you are allowed to mail and where you can mail them.
Adeniums are from Arabia through Kenya to Tanzania and also south-west Africa. They are stem succulents with thickened tuberous stems and thick branches not to mention lovely flowers. The milky sap of adeniums is VERY poisonous.
Is your succulent collection a hospital of plants you play nurse to every day? Are you frequently tossing out plants that just won’t grow for you? Are you tired of seeing flowering plants in books and journals and other collections while your same plants sit there doing nothing from one season to the next?
Ceraria namaquensis belongs to Family Portulacaceae and has a fairly widespread habitat in South Africa and Namibia. I have had plants of this grafted on to stems of Portulacaria afra for many years.
As summer gardening work slows down for all of us, it is the busiest season of all for people who salvage desert trees. These are called ‘devegetation contractors’ who work ahead of the bulldozers to save mature ironwoods, palo verdes and mesquites from the destruction of plant habitats due to new houses being built and road construction.
Senecio rowleyanus has small spherical leaves about 1/4 inch in diameter. These are strung on thin stems like beads of a necklace. The stems also carry adventitious roots which grow down into the soil as the stems lengthen …
I have a big passion for collecting and showing crested plants and I am almost as fond of the monstrose forms. My collection has over 100 crested and monstrose plants of both cacti and the other succulents.
As you can see, this is not a terribly attractive specimen … lumpy, scarred, sparsely covered with small but very sharp spines. Nevertheless once a year it produces one or two very large, pure white flowers. They open in the middle of the night, and last only through the next afternoon.
Marina had two greenhouses, one on the back of the home, the other on the grounds at 8591 Lochside Drive, North Saanich, British Columbia, former headquarters of “The Amateurs Digest”.
Opuntia engelmannii (tardospina ) flower; plant and photo Bill Hendricks, USA. And: Opuntia engelmannii (tardospina ) fruit; plant and photo Bill Hendricks, USA
Cold-hardy cactus: Opuntia basilaris v. aurea and an Opuntia basilaris hybrid. Plants and photos, Bill Hendriks, USA.
Cylindropuntia (Opuntia ) Magenta flower, plant and photo (Bill Hendricks, USA). Photos from his Cold Hardy Cactus Collection.
Cold-hardy cactus: Cylindropuntia (Opuntia) whipplei. Plant and photo by Bill Hendricks, USA.
Cold-hardy cactus: Cylindropuntia (Opuntia) viridiflora, Santa Fe County, New Mexico. Plant and photo by Bill Hendricks, USA.
Cold-hardy cacti. Bill’s cold hardy cactus garden in summer and winter, featuring Cylindropuntia (Opuntia) davisii and Cylindropuntia (Opuntia ) imbri. Plants and photos by Bill Hendricks, USA.
The unplanted tuber showing the flower beginning to emerge. February 19th it was 6 inches high. It grew to 12 inches by March 16th and as you can see in the next photo, it grew to 36 inches tall by March 24th.
These plants grow in the most inhospitable place possible, the dry coastal deserts of Peru and Chile, a desert directly on the coast of the Pacific Ocean, where rain is almost unknown.
The only plants that should be grown in terrariums are those which benefit from the cool, humid, shaded environment these containers create. No succulent plants, including cacti, will get any benefit from being grown under these conditions because these are not the conditions under which these plants thrive.
In the early 1980s, the classification of the monocot families was examined closely, and, in 1985, Dahlgren, Clifford & Yeo published The Families of the Monocotyledons. Structure, Evolution and Taxonomy (Springer-Verlag, Berlin).
In response to numerous questions about this plant, I hope the following how-to-grow information is helpful. Light Three to four hours a day of direct sunlight are essential for healthy growth and flowering.
I have had a winter-hardy bed of mostly cacti for some 15 years on the south side of the front of my white sided house. It is in a protected area from the north-west winter winds due to the living room that juts out on the west side of the bed as far as the front of the bed.
By Doug Rowland, UK (11 April 2001) The common name for this plant is Adam’s Needle. It is perhaps the most cultivated of all the hardy Yucca species in England. It can be seen in gardens just about everywhere you go. There are about 30 species of Yucca around. They belong to the family Agavaceae and thrive principally in North America, the genus
If you are looking for a succulent that takes cold down to -35C (-30F), Orostachys, (Crassula family) are worth considering for your outdoor garden.
By Steve Miles, Colorado (6 April 2001) Foreword: Some people dream of having a year-’round outdoor succulent garden. This nature lover made his dream come true … Steve Miles, Colorado I’m a life-long lover of Mother Earth and anything that roots in Her and an addict of Desert flora starting about 7 years ago … to me a source of nutrition for the soul. Photos:
What a delight to have been “found” by Anthony Murphy, a fellow grower of Marina’s in UK, who had been a subscriber of her paper journal. Anthony was kind enough to exchange emails with me, including the one featured on this page.
Hi Kathleen, Can I introduce myself? My name is Anthony Murphy and I found your website yesterday purely by chance as I used to have a subscription to The Amateurs’ Digest and was wondering whether it was still in existence as I ceased getting it when it moved to digital publishing.