The garden whispered, "Spring is here!"

The weather has warmed up nicely and all the birds in the garden announced that winter is at an end! The Weavers started building nests and the Red-billed Wood Hoopoos lured their two babies out of their nest in my old Peach tree and took them off to greener pastures. I do hope they'll be back to spend more time in my garden...

Red-billed Wood Hoopoo (Phoeniculus purpureus)

I've been lax checking on my succulents (the few I have left in the garden after giving everything away, thinking that we were moving to the coast), firstly because I was really ill with pneumonia at the end of May and then with Chronic Bronchitis virtually the whole of June and July and secondly because of the cold, but now that I've recovered and with the warmer weather I ventured into the succulent garden to assess the winter damage. 

  
To my surprise I found that everything had survived and, in fact, the succulent area has been over-taken by the Crassula imperialis (or possibly muscosa...?) and are none the worse for wear after the cold. I now have thousands of little plants and could probably fill a thousand pots and still have plenty left! A new business opportunity, perhaps...? lol!

There are a few Echinopsis cacti somewhere under all that Crassula imperialis - need to get them out and transplanted before they make any flowers, which would have trouble showing up through all this!

With such an abundance of Crassula, I took the chance of filling a pot with some of it as well as some (rather leggy) Echeverias to put in a sunny spot on the patio.

Aloe ferox seeds randomly dispersed by birds or the wind ended up growing tightly together next to my garden path, making it impassable! This position is in dappled shade and gets quite a lot of water, I think that aided in the germination process. Need to transplant some of these babies now. And check out all the Crassula also covering the pathway!

Chores for the next couple of days will consist of transplanting some of the "unwanted" aloes to sunny spots and spreading some of that lovely Crassula to other parts of the garden so that I can have my pathway back!

 

I discovered a pot Echinopsis cactus (makes pink flowers) with new pups somewhere under some red Hot Pokers. Want to try and separate the pups today.... The other succulents in the pot (Crassula and Kalanchoe) were put in the pot either by birds or the wind!

For my friends in the Northern Hemisphere now heading into cold weather, I hope your winter is mild and that all your succulents thrive!

Echinopsis - 6am in Winter

6am in my garden one Winter's morning (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa) and still dark outside. My small Cacti (Echinopsis oxygona) were in full flower and they had appeared over-night, seeming to lighten this area with their beautiful lilac/pink flowers, which have a sweet smell. My Barrel cactus in the background, native to the Southwest Desert of North America, is approximately 15 years old.

Echinopsis oxygona is native to South Brazil, Uruguay and northern Argentina. Its features include many robust spines, spherical shape, and a large flower, with sharply pointed lavender petals, and a fine faint scent.

Echinopsis Oxygona grow prosperousely in full sun, or light shade. These cacti can stand through strong heat, and even through temperatures as low as -10°C (14°F). Usually these are outdoor plants. These plants are used to the dry, desert climate, so they do not need to be watered every day.

Camera : FujiFinepix 2800Zoom Digital - flash enabled

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Echinopsis cactus

Family: Cactaceae
Subfamily: Cactoideae
Tribe: Trichocereeae
Genus: Echinopsis

Echinopsis grows pretty much anywhere. Here in South Africa they can tolerate summer temperatures of 30°C or greater, which is hot enough to spur growth of both Echinopsis pups and their amazing flowers. They also tolerate cold temperatures well during winter months. However, I bring my potted ones inside during hard freezes or their water-filled bodies will freeze as well.

Compared to most cacti, Echinopsis bloom fast and furious. They typically begin blooming in spring. Most blooms only last one or two days and they frequently open at night. But it’s common to have several buds on one plant developing at different rates; so a single plant can be in bloom for several weeks.

As a general rule, the smaller the diameter of the blooms a Echinopsis species produces, the more blooms the plant produces. Species that produce monster blooms (some over 6” in diameter) tend to have fewer blooms as so much plant energy goes into producing each one.

Echinopsis generally begin to produce flowers when they are two or three years old.

Echinopsis is a large genus of cacti native to South America, sometimes known as hedgehog cactus, sea-urchin cactus or Easter lily cactus. One small species, E. chamaecereus, is known as the peanut cactus. The 128 species range from large and treelike types to small globose cacti.

Echinopsis are greatly hybridised, but the species I have in my garden do well throughout summer and winter, always bearing huge, beautiful pink blooms in spring.

 Echinopsis flowering next to my Golden Barrel cactus

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Too much rain!

I never thought I would EVER utter those words - too much rain. For a gardener there can never be such a thing as too much rain!

But my garden has been flooded with rain over the past 3 weeks and yesterday I noticed that many of my Echinopsis cacti weren't doing too well because of all the water, some of them turning yellow and rotting from the inside. In a panic I lifted them, only to find that I had no pots to put them into! This calls for drastic action, so I scouted around my store room and found this fan cover from a fan that wasn't working any more (how come we don't throw those things away...?). A piece of plastic in the bottom with some holes punched in and bob's your uncle! I had a temporary place to plant the cacti (which might just become their permanent place!)

They are now under cover until all signs of rain is gone, when I'll move them back into full sun.

However, the rest of the garden is not complaining. In fact, my garden seems a bit confused - autumn was already really showing and the Marigolds are all but dead and on their last legs with seed heads everywhere. And now their are hundreds of new Marigold seedlings coming up everywhere which, of course, will not survive the winter.

The lawn is loving all the water and we can't keep up with mowing it. I actually would like to get rid of all the lawn for two reasons - one, it is an enormous water-sucking monster and in drought times looks really terrible and two, to cut out the hours spent mowing it. But unfortunately this area is part of our entrance and drive-way to the garages so if I took it all out, it would mean having to make a concrete drive-way, which could end up looking terrible.

Below : Thankful for all the rain...

 

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