Description
MARCH 2016 CONTENTS:
- Editor’s comments by Al Laius
- A month in Mexico – part 2 by Ian Woolnough
- The Alameda by Peter Berresford
- Presidential potted plants – Agave macroacanthaby Colin C Walker
- Photographing your plants by John Ellis
- Going potty by Paul Klaassen
- Islaya divaricatiflora F. Ritter – the red-flowered islaya by Zlatko Janeba
- CactusTalk
- Plants of the quarter
- In my greenhouse by Tony Harcourt
- Flower variability in a single population of Piaranthus geminatus by David Cumming
- Readers’ views by Al Laius
- Literature review
Front cover: When I was young, my dad would take me for occasional visits to cactus nurseries on his way to work. One such visit I remember being given a budget to spend and was torn between two large golden spined cacti, one grafted and labelled Eriosyce aurata, the other, on its own roots, was Echinocactus grusonii. E.aurata had a reputation of’being difficult’, prone to rot, which is why it was grafted, so I opted for the E.grusonii. In the end however, I chose a dozen or so Rebutia and Sulcorebutia, which would take up the, same amount of space as one of the larger plants. In 2001 I saw my first habitat plant of E.aurata on a visit to Bosque Fray Jorge National Park, but was disappointed that there was no sign of the yellow spination that had given the plant its name. Later, I learned that for the yellow spined plants I had to drive to Vicuna in the Elqui Valley, where the plants at Tres Cruces have regularly featured on my itineraries ever since. (Photo: Paul Klaassen)
