Where did the summer go…

I dont think I can remember such a lousy summer. ’82 was pretty grim, but maybe that was other personal events as well as gloomy weather. It was the only year that I attended the Glastonbury Festival, it was very wet, with the main stage power going off during a lightening strike… Randy California was on stage at the time, the drummer carried on for a few minutes, until it was realised that power wasn’t going to come back on any time soon. There was the Falklands War and rampant patriotic lunacysweeping the country, and I had the boss from hell. So not a good year.

But I digress, 2012… it was cold in june, I actually had to put the central heating back on after several  days of temps under 10 degrees celcius. Then it just seemed to rain and rain and rain, and our roof started leaking….

Eventually, september has brought with it a few fine sunny days, and I do like september sun, so light and airy, and not too hot, just within my goldilock zone.

My Cacti have been slow to grow this year, just not enough warmth, a few decided to flower though so that provided a little excitement. Must dig out the pictures…

 

Weather Update – Cacti

A sunny day, well, good intervals of sun, a bit cloudy this morning, and clearing as the day goes on. Quite warm this afternoon. Not much rain last night, just 5mm.

Spent a wee while footling in the cacti shed, they are growing well at the moment, seem to be at peak growth. I took a few offsets a few weeks ago, and they seem to have taken well to their new home. Last years offsets have just started flowering, not sure what the cactus is, could be a parodia with a nice deep red flower, must get a picture sometime.

Here’s the weather gen…

Rainfall: 5mm

Pressure: 1014 mbar (risen from 1008 this morning)

Temp: 18 C

Humidity: 50%

 

Summer 2010 – garden cacti

It wasn’t the greatest of summers, but I did manage to pot out some of the cacti.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not really sure which cacti these are, most were grown from seed, except the tall ones which were bought at a local cacti show or various garden centres.

Cacti

Tall columnar cacti

It was a good for growing cacti last year. Most of my collection has been fairly dormant for quite a number of years, a poor situation to blame. But last year and the previous year I moved them out to the garden shed for the summer, and they really seem to like the bright south facing windows. Being not too far from the water butt thaey also benefitted from good twicw weekly watering with fresh rain water.

I also potted up a few in a large terracotta planter and left them outside near our small pond.

Hopefully they have all survived the winter. I brought the majority into the house and they have wintered in the cooler back room, they all seem quite healthy. However, some of the larger cacti had to stay in the shed, and I’m a little worried that they may have been frost damaged in this very cold weather that we have had. I did try to protect them and kept quite dry during the later part of October and november. I also tried protecting them with many layers of bubble wrap interleaved with cardboard, so hopefully they will have made it throught this cold snap.

I’m not sure what these cacti are, I was told that the one in the little pot is a Trichocereus Peruvianus, also known as  the peruvian torch cactus. If grown in ideal conditions, hardly possible in the UK, it should grow to several metres tall, and has large trumpet-like white flowers. I think this little one has quite a few years to go before it reaches that stage.

As for the other pot, well they look similar, but I don’t think they are quite the same type. They have one or less ribs are a little bit more spikey.