Hi Mike, I love the shapes and the colours - small Aloes are great plants to grow and offer lots of variability in leaf shapes, colours and flowers of course. Could you please post a picture of your A. haworthoides v aurantiaca? I have one as well, but it is very different to the pure A. haworthoid...

AllanA wrote: ↑Sat Dec 23, 2023 8:52 am Nice to see someone else using bonsai dishes, a lot of my seedlings are in Bonsai dishes.

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I started holding on to the spiniest cacti (or Euphorbias) by using antiquated cooking tongs used primarily for flipping bacon slices, but I discovered that the newer types of tongs with a lock on the handle such as these https://assets.epicurious.com/photos/55943053b2ae6bb2718cae1b/6:4/w_1600%2Cc_l...

Like a number of species with hard seed coats, such as Delonix, Parkinsonia, Acacia [/i], etc., scarification permits faster water penetration. This results in quicker germination. So it all depends on how soon you want the roots to develop. If you start sowing at the beginning of the growing season...

The booklet arrived last night - what's the consensus around sharing scans of things like this that are hard to come by? More than happy to do it, but I don't want to break any rules. I would be more afraid of breaking the copyright laws, but am happy to help assess the severity of the offense if s...

Although it took nearly a month (ordered 11-4, arrived 11-30), and A. ritteri was sent instead of the A. hintoni that was ordered, at least I received the coveted A. valdezii [/i]: https://vincactus.com/products/aztekium-valdezii-10-seeds?_fid=672fdd06a&_pos=10&_ss=c%3Fvariant%3D46519564271...

Just FYI, As a chemist, (tu) for Ed re. sulfur not sulphur. :wink: IUPAC deemed that sulfur was the preferred spelling many years ago now, see e.g.: https://www.nature.com/articles/nchem.301 Interesting. A few times at local cactus sales, I've seen Opuntia sulphurea labeled as 'Opuntia sulfurea'. I...

Did you see the recent zoom talk by Andrea Cattabriga – Slow Growing succulents, he was growing his aztekiums in gypsum like powdery rocks, I now have horticultural gypsum to add to my plants ( next year), I'm sure it can't make them any slower. Can you possibly provide a link to an archive of that...

Although it took nearly a month (ordered 11-4, arrived 11-30), and A. ritteri was sent instead of the A. hintoni that was ordered, at least I received the coveted A. valdezii [/i]: https://vincactus.com/products/aztekium-valdezii-10-seeds?_fid=672fdd06a&_pos=10&_ss=c%3Fvariant%3D465195642719...

Thanks all for the input, much appreciated. I Googled the book mentioned by Ralph, and as best I recall it is the only time I have ever done such a search and received no results whatsoever! So I think you were lucky to get a copy ianstrutt, well done! I doubt a letter to Santa is going to help me ...