Some other old threads: After reading some older threads, Livin Easy is quite resistance to some strains of Blackspot, but, not to others. So, some areas it will get none to little blackspot and some areas it gets alot of Blackspot. I'm going to give it a try anyhow. http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/roses/msg0918420129829.html http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/txgard/msg0409443532632.html http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/roses/msg0618241024618.html http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/roses/msg0722430622888.html

Hi, Kim, Welcome to the forum. Many of the experienced growers will give information about AV culture that is aimed at growing the best possible plant you can, using optimal growing medium, pots, fertilizer, lights, etc. There is not usually just one way, so you have to gather the information and pick what works for you. However, a lot of the wheel has been invented, and some 'standard' practices have developed over the years. You certainly want to remove the suckers, for they will distort the shape of the mother plant, which is very pretty, by the way. I find it much easier to do this after knocking the plant out of the pot. I use an x-acto knife on larger suckers, and large tweezers on smaller suckers. If there are no roots on the sucker, I remove enough leaves to give me a stub that I can put into my potting mix to root. I do cover them to increase the humidity. I do not use any rooting hormone. If necessary, I will 'stake' it using toothpicks to support it in position. About pots.....plastic is most frequently used for several reasons. They are cheap, come in an infinite variety of sizes, and they don't absorb fertilizer salts. A general rule of thumb for size is to have the diameter of the pot be 1/3 the diameter of the plant. Try not to get caught up in the idea of having the plant grow into the pot. AVs prefer to be rootbound to bloom their best, so if the pot is too big, they spend all their time trying to fill the pot with roots, instead of blooming. Also, since they are a shallow rooted plant, the use of a 'squatty' pot is better than taller pots. In a worst case scenario, the soil may stay too wet in an oversized pot, and the roots may rot. Clay pots can be tricky. They absorb water and fertilizer salts will build up on the rim, burning any leaves touching the rim. They can be hard to clean. As the water evaporates through the pores of the pot, cooling occurs and can affect the roots. Three ounce solo cups with drainage poked in the bottom work well for small plants, leaves, and suckers, and are used by many commercial AV growers too. A word about potting mix....a sdtandard mix consists of peat moss, perlite, and vermiculite, in equal portions. You will see this referred to as a 1-1-1 mix. There is no commercially available mix of these proportions, unless you buy it from an AV vendor such as Cape Cod Violetry. But, if you can find the ingredients, it's very easy to mix yourself. Or, if you have a mix such as Miracle-gro, add perlite and vermiculite to it, treating it as the peat ingredient. If it has fertilizer in it, don't add fertilizer for about 8-10 weeks. Good luck, and thanks for posting the pictures. Barbara

Fun updates, keep them coming. It's so great that it's easy to upload pics now. Love it! Yes, the orchid cactus (contorted form of Epiphyllum guatemalense) is one that folks say should come indoors, but I just leave it out all year, and have for several years now, and it grows and blooms nicely (the blooms are super small and boring and only open for a few hours just after midnight, phooey). Anyway, thanks for commenting and for all of the fun pics. Thanks for the information on how you grow your fatplants, azant. I do feed and water mine heavily during summer, they're just taking a quick break. I'll slog some more on them. These are ones I've had for many years and really enjoy. And thanks for mentioning about the peat based soils, so bad for C&S! You're good! I'm sure others will chime in with local sources for adeniums, but most local nurseries carry them in summer, as do the Big Box hardware stores, so they're not hard at all to find in summer. Happy gardening and pic posting all! Grant

I'll be sure to post it when it flowers. When it comes to swapping, I can't really do it with anybody outside the European Union anymore. We have to put return addresses on all parcels now so I don't want to risk sending something falsely declared and all plants are governed by the CITES regulations now when sending internationally. Even hybrids. I have over 100 Echinopsis hybrids with flowers of all different colours. I'll be posting photos of them when they start blooming. Many of them have buds. I have Los Angeles too but mine is only a smaller plant. Still, you will be able to obtain hybrids over your way easy enough. You can order some schick hybrids from the ISI huntington website. Have a look at their plant catalogue with the photos. Also, miles 2 go do some hybrids and their plants, service and prices are very good. They don't ship outside the U.S but I did have somebody in the U.S order some stuff for me then send them here themselves. Also, try google and look for online cactus nurseries in the U.S who do mail order and then look in their plant lists. I'm sure you'll find quite a few who have echinopsis and trichopsis hybrids in their lists. Thats how I found more sources over here in the UK before finding fellow collectors and getting myself into an echinopsis hybrid swap group where we exchange surplus pups and stuff. Anyway, I hope this helps. Toni-Marie