Re-potting Cacti and Preparing the greenhouse for Winter .

 Remember this ? I bought it at a boot fair years ago maybe 15 or twenty years ago .
  Two cacti in a heavy glass vase . .... not really the best way to grow them !
I should have re-potted it straight away .... but as you know time flies..and it seems to have been quite happy and has flowered for me many times .

  Anyway , I finally gave myself the kick up the backside to get on and re-pot the poor old thing .

 After sliding a knife aroun the sides of the vase , they both slid out quite easily and I pulled them apart  . . . I wore a pair of thick gloves for this bit  , but then found them easier to handle without gloves , since the roots were so compacted .

   Nice fresh cactus compost moulded around the sides and bottom of the pot .

                              Making a well to gently drop the cactus into .

I managed to do this without getting prickles in my fingers ...because the roots were so compacted , it was surprisingly easy to handle ....with bare hands  !

                I planted it leaning to one side with the babies uppermost .....

                         .......... to give them space to fill out as they grow .

Sadly I couldn't find a nice pot for the other one ...sigh .....so into a black plastic pot for the time being .

    I cut the top off it with the scissors , the part that was dead and crusty ....maybe I should cut it down lower still  ? Cacti usualy respond by putting out new growth ..in this case from the base of the plant .
  It does look a bit rough doesn't it ? I wont be entering it any shows  . However , let's give it a chance to recover .   Plants aren't always perfect out in the wild either and in my opinion that's what makes them so much more interesting !

They look better already and I topped them off with a nice mulch of horticulteral grit .

         So next I have these two Opuntis to re-pot  ....  not so friendly these !

To make things even more difficult the one one the right has leaned over and put roots down into the pot of the one on the left !  The one on the left has particularly vicious spines and glochids .
   I stood and looked at the pair of them ....this is going to be tricky .
Plant them together in one big trough/pot ?    Seperate them ?  I need to give it more thought .
                                              Aah ! Do it tomorrow !  :)

   And with that , I put everything back and continued tidying and preparing the greenhouse for winter .
        To be continued ..........