other cactus

And now, for some really cuddly ones, cylindropuntias all.
First, C. echinocarpa.
Second, the same, with C. imbricata x kleiniae.
Third, C. davisii.
Fourth, C. davisii x leptocaulis.

I like chollas better than tunas, at least in my garden (because they grow up instead of out) but they do get mashed by heavy, wet snow. 

Bob

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Are you able to grow what I always think of as the cuddliest, teddy bear cholla (Cylindropuntia bigelovii), there?

No. I think that's hopeless. But I've never tried it.
Fortunately for me (and unfortunately for my checkbook balance) I live about 20 minutes' drive from Timberline Nursery, whose owner, Kelly, is a cactus fanatic, and there's always something new there.

Bob

I wonder about viridiflora. The plant I got from Mesa Garden ages ago does not have pinkish flowers. They're greenish, not very interesting, more like whipplei than imbricata. It's a tall plant, too.
Other plants I've gotten as viridiflora look like the one pictured. Shorter plants.
Also in the garden here is regular leptocaulis (very susceptible to heavy snow), kleiniae (ditto), spinosior (susceptible to have its tips frozen), etc. You could just drive over to Timberline next summer and pick up half a dozen of Kelly's hybrid chollas. I recommend bringing about five thousand dollars so you won't be disappointed. This year he had Agave havardiana collected from three different locations.
I also have several forms of the white flowered imbricata. (I hear tell of one with a purple center which I've never seen.) These are easily distinguishable from regular imbricata when out of flower.
It was originally discovered near Canon City by Mary Ann Heacock. Maybe about 15 years ago I invited us over to her garden since I knew of her reputation in the cactus world. And I thought she might be lonely. (I know the feeling.) We stayed for a couple of hours.
Aside from some lithops growing by the front door (outside), large clumps of ramondas growing in ordinary garden soil on the north side of the house, and a huge collection of Christmas cactus that were in an add-on greenhouse that her late husband had built for her, there were two small borders on either side of a paved walk that in the old days would have led out to an incinerator. There were crested forms of Pediocactus simpsonii, etc., all sorts of very unusual cacti, including, of course, Opuntia heacockiae.
There was a lathe house at the end of the walk with an enormous Bursera microphylla and other cool tender stuff. Next to, or at the end of, the sidewalk was a short length of rails with an old rusted ore cart, which I wish I could have carried away. 
I'd brought along a seed-raised Pedicocactus knowltonii (the easiest of cactus from seed), and when I handed it to her she said, "We used to call him 'Cresty' Knowlton, because he could spot a crest a mile away." (She also corresponded regularly with Claude Barr.)
I came home with a bunch of treasures (one of which, a white-flowered miniature Opuntia basilaris from Mt. Whitney, eventually died, which was a big disappointment since the pads turned pink in winter); the most spectactular being the white-flowered imbricata. There was a very large plant in her garden and she took a pair of loppers and to our astonishment, cut off half of it, and gave it to me.
It still lives.

Bob

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It may be that the plant you received is one of these other hybrids.   

I've seen that page, which made me wonder what's going on. Why would Standley have named it "viridiflora"? My old Mesa Garden plant definitely has green flowers, and the two others here have pink flowers like the website shows.
I guess some research is in order. Benson doesn't say anything about it. I suspect that my M.G. plant is whipplei x imbricata, where the pictured plants are imbricata x whipplei.

Bob

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That sounds like a way out of a convoluted maze to me!  

It gets worse. It wasn't Standley who described it, it was, apparently, Britton & Rose who described it from Standley's 1911 specimen. Even though it seems like there was an 1847 Fendler specimen.
I don't have Britton & Rose, though it's available as a Dover reprint. I could go to the DBG library, I guess (what a library, too ...), the citation (simply "Cactaceae, 1:55") makes me think it's in volume 1.

More later .....

Bob

Spination on the Mesa Garden viridiflora, then spination on the usual pink flowered one. The latter is in full sun. The M.G. plant is a good 80 cm tall, or would be if snow hadn't flattened it a couple of winters ago, where it fell into a plant of C. davisii, and I don't really feel like pulling them apart ....

Bob

The worst one is Echinocereus fendleri. I wouldn't be surprised if it had a tiny amount of toxin in the spine tips.
Not as bad as gooseberries or New Mexican locust, but still bad.

Bob

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The mystery Opuntia must be the one he lists as Opuntia polyacantha ‘Peter Pan’.   

That could be. I seem to recall it having a name in the nursery this year.
You can even pick the pads up with your fingers.

Bob

I like that acanthocarpa.... Think I tried it once, but it was a cutting, and the woodier the cutting, the harder it is to root.
If I knew then what I know now, I would've cut the spines off about 2cm from the end with a razor blade (what a fun job), let them callus, then dust with sulfur, and laid the joint down to root.
Since cholla joints and tuna pads have this tendency to fall over after I stick them in dirt, or whatever, I use landscaping staples to hold them in place.
Opuntia debreczyi. I think the name fragilis is just fine. FNA doesn't recognize debreczyi (which doesn't mean anything). It's apparently based on observations of a plant grown in Hungary from a collection by Mary Ann Heacock. http://www.tropicos.org/Name/50291306

I prefer lumping to splitting when it comes to the Cactaceae. Otherwise every single cactus would have its own name.

Bob

I was being lazy. As usual. Tuna are the pads, or the fruit, and chollas are the upright ones. The pads are also called nopales.
As to Opuntia debreczyi, the cactus on the upper right on the website is the type specimen. I think I have a plant of that from Mary Ann.
"Behaves like a species" in the wild? What on earth could that possibly mean?

Bob

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Made ya look, didn't I 

Yes, you did.

Bob

Thought I'd post a list of the gymnocalyciums I planted this year (with Mesa Garden numbers), in trays, or dishes, or bowls (whatever) of Mexican pottery. The cactus may be hardier in the ground, but if so, too bad for them.
G. andreae 454.03
G. bruchii 458
G. calochlorum 459.2 and 459.21
G. calochlorum var. proliferum 459.33 and 459.5
Poor 459.5, it's already doomed. Tissue damage (not counting being nibbled by rodents) at temperatures not very far below freezing. Sometimes this happens because of other factors, and the plants recover, but in this case, I think not.

Bob

Echinus is hardy for me too.
Some botanists think the distinction in seeds is not sufficient to warrant two genera, but Anderson (in The Cactus Family) keeps Coryphantha and Escobaria.
I remember being told, years ago, that a lot of botanists were considering seeds as being the determining factor in separating genera.
Maybe one day it will be roots.

Bob

Macromeris has not been hardy for me, but I couldn't swear how many times I've tried it. I should probably keep records.
The fat tubercules seem to be the first thing to turn to mush.

Bob

I had a plant of poeppigii that lived for years, until ants discovered it, and killed it within a year. I've never gotten around to replacing it, though it's one of my favorites. I'd also like to grow patagonica. Got seed, but it never germinated.
Maihuenia is interesting because of its persistent leaves.
I was going to try some pterocactus this year, since most are said to be hardy here, but I decided just to try the gymnocalyciums. Pterocactus would have to go in dishes of sand, and that might attract cats .....

Bob

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Any hints? (Of course, seed pots are always held over for at least one more season.)     

Rod Haenni, maihuenia grower extraordinario, says only older seed will germinate. Older as in ten years off the plant.

I give up, and will go for plants.
The only cactus I'll try seed of (I know that's not English) these days are Pediocactus (sileri, winkleri, despainii) and Sclerocactus, all species.

Bob

P.S. Cold treatment is usually beneficial for seed of cold-hardy species (of practically anything).
Cold, plus patience. Two words I rarely use in the same sentence.

Bob

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  There certainly are a plethora of glochids!  Exactly not my style.

Glochid removal kits are pretty much essential.

Bob