Yes, they are two of the many forms of M. elongata.

The central spined form used to be called M. echinaria in the past.

Ray,

I tend to chop the tops off blinded cleistos, rather than wait for a new growth to emerge naturally - this often encourages several new offsets to grow for the edge of the clean cut. I would expect espostoas to behave similarly.

Regards,

Chris,

No longer on Keith's current list, but I agree with Suzanne, an excellent pair of books, well worth hunting down.

Welcome, Eddie to the forum, as a fellow cactophile.

Yes, Phil, Gasteria ellaphieae is one of the nicest of the choice gasterias; relatively slow and forms a nice rosette with offsets with time. There are several clones around, one which stays quite dark green in colour and others which have much more white coloration in the leaves, pale green/white t...

Yes Mike, this is T. weberi. It has distinctive terminal buds, and as you say, it flowers again and again (for me, over several years!), from the same ends, without producing any new arms. There are a number of clones around with different length and colour of spines.

Regards,

Yes - a good flush of flowers on a lovely specimen Mike - I think there may be different clones of this same subspecies. I have two which flower freely but over a long period, with a succession of single flowers opening in turn as the weeks go by.

You are a very lucky young lad! Fantastic plants and photos - enjoy the "working holiday".

Best wishes,

Great plants - The "Gasteria sp." 5th photo down is a very nice form of Gasteria vlokii, undoubtedly a donation from EvJ, looking very fine in its "new habitat"!

Great flowers, Geoff!