Balcony update and winter casualties.

in #hive-1838412 years ago

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Some days ago I started to do the springtime cleaning on the balcony. There is a bunch of dry leaves, old stems to be removed. Some brought by the wind, some from my own plant. This is also the time to select plants need to be repotted this year, or divided. All the fun stuff :)

And of course, with the rising temperature the cacti are slowly starting to wake up. I don't see any buds yet, but I do see they want to grow.

Except this Mammillaria Bombycina - she is always the first one to bloom!


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I try not to move her much, the hooks (thought very pretty) will attach to the skin and clothes and will not let go without ripping something.


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From other plants - one of my black Aeoniums decided to bloom too. But since it only has one stem, it will die soon after its done with the flowers. Silly thing.
It is the second time I have this type, from two difference places an they both behaved the same way. Did not grow any side branches. Just one long stick that bloomed. Other Aeoniums I have grow in more normal way and they stay bushy and nice even after the rosette that blooms dies and I chop it off.
Oh well :(

It got some aphids during the winter an you can probably see the dead bodies still attacked to the leaves and flowers.

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In the largest pot I planted two types of Sedum Spectabile. The leaves and stems died back and they had to be cleaned. But the plant started to grow already and is just waiting for higher temps to speed up. I am hoping it will spread all over the pot eventually. It creates really nice, green bush during the summer and then later it's full of little flowers.


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Below is an old stem from Echeveria Mandala I was showing in this post. The rosette did eventually died and I was going to just throw the whole thing away, but I saw some tiny nubbin on the stem so decided to just cut the dead top off and see what happens.


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Weeks later this happened :)
Two new little plants. Yay!


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At this point Your Highness Suzi showed up. The whole pot was thoroughly inspected and sniffed and the process has been documented by moi :)

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And now for not so good news.
Every spring I find some dead cacti that did not survive the winter. And I still don't know if it's because I keep them too dry for the temps we get, or they get too wet during the rainy days. It is not many this time, but it is still a sad view.

I am especially sad about this first one:


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It was one of my first cacti I ever grew from seed - a 6 year old one with giant spines and I had only one like that. It had gorgeous, huge, yellow flowers. You can see it blooming in this post and it was th only time it bloomed for me.
Shit...


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The remaining ones are either way cuttings that didn't root, or... something I don't even remember what it was :p

One of the tiny square pots was with mammillaria I also grew from seed, but I have mature mother plant with many offshoots, so it's not a biggie.

But the yellow one.. aaaaaa

Time to wash the pots an prepare them for new plants.


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Shot with Nikon D5500 + Sigma 105mm lens
All photos and text are my own.



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Aawwww poor little ones.

Yea... happens. Not a nice thing to find though.

Yep, I know…
Have a nice evening 👋🏻😊

Oops! RIP cacti! I also lost a few

Yea.. ops. It's still not the worst year. I think I had more dead bodies to clean some other time. But still...

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I am guessing you enjoy the view of the dead cacti 😂

No - the first one blooming, and the kitty 😸 The dead succulents not so much 😂

It's sad when the plants die...
A beautiful bloom of Aeonium.

I have my Mammillaria Glassii in bloom right now.
I also started transplanting plants today.
But I haven't checked all the cacti yet.
Suzi beauty!
It is she who controls you, suddenly you do something wrong 🤭

It's sad when the plants die 😔. Love Suzi supervising 😍💜.

Sorry about your loss. Those yellow ones are new to me. They're just lovely. Just like the furry grey nose that sniffs about.😊

Hehe the grey nose is my favourite plant :D

Your cat loves the smell of your plants. He looks like a shadow because it looks dark. I really like it :D

Your photos of the Mammillaria Bombycina are exquisite. I thoroughly enjoyed them. Suzy is beautiful and is just sniffing things out for you. It is great that you saw that nobbin on the plant - I love when they spring back to life. Although not all will as some will leave to make space for new ones.

I am so sorry for your dead cacti. I know how it is to find a fallen sister :( Luckily we have growing seedlings success on the other side, so we can compensate. But the worst thing is, you lose specimen. Right now we got the Vannila plant. It is still in the tube and boy o boy, We are shaking. I will write some posts about it soon.

BTW: Any idea why I don't have a member tag in the black and white community anymore?
Have a great weekend

This one reminds me of a sea urchin!😨

Suzy be like babies, where the babies are!? Lemme see them woman!
Me likey the yellow one, but while you're cleaning up, would you like to stop by?:D
I have a whole rose bush garden ready for cutting, bring Suzy too!
(Suzi, pardon)

At least she didn't try to nibble on them. Sometimes she just wants to eat everything.

would you like to stop by?:D

Yep :p

rose bush garden ready for cutting

Ermm.. nope nope...

Mine ate all of my pots....

Oki, no cookies for you. :P

Come on.. I bring booze...

(Might trim the damn roseweed after a few bottles, but cant guarantee a positive and highly esthetic results)

It will serve to the future generations, as an explanation what abstraction is about. 😝

Or a warning. "Do not drink and garden"

Hmm... ok. I will trim it.

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Nice pics, really like your Aeoniums and Suzy, I want to have a cat but my two kids are still young and dont want them to develop or have allergies at this age but once they are like 15 Im getting a cat for sure

I was raised witch cats and we always had them. No allergies :)
But it's perfectly normal to play safe. Hopefully one day you get a kitty. They are such a joy :D

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Impressive .. I love those plants, I’m a super fan of them and a varied collection.

At first I didn't know much about their care and I poured a lot of water on them, which caused the first ones in my collection to die... I got super sad 😞