Marlothistella uniondalensis - is flowering !

 I had a wonderful surprise this morning when I uncovered the cactus collection of their sheets of newspapers . Little specks of purpley-pink caught my eye .

 My Marlothistella uniondalensis is smothered in buds !  I swear they weren't there yesterday !
 My brother gave me a tiny piece of this years ago and it really is my most  favourite plant in my collection . It has slowly spread and is now a nice sized clump in this shallow terracotta pot .

 It never fails to delight me with its dainty daisy-like flowers with a faint sweet perfume .

 That is a quite rare species Pelagonium next to it...I cant remember it's name ..but it has a flower that smells like nail varnish remover ..so I was told at the Penzance Cactus Show , where I bought it from..it has since flowered ( green ! ) and do you know ...it really does ! Extraordinary !

 Other things growing through the Winter months right now are this Tylecodon wallichii ..... Those green leaves will drop off and it will go dormant through the Summer  just leaving that peculiar stump of a stem . It is leaning towards the light .I daren't put it any closer to the window , where it would be too cold for it .

 ......and this Dioscoria elephantipes ( so called on account of it's caudex looking like an elephant's foot ) .
 I think this is now about to die back and become dormant  ... I have  just noticed that the leaves are a little bit spotted and ..aah..I think it has been dripped on from the leaking roof . I have moved it over and put that old washing up bowl there to catch the water . I'll take a closer look at it tomorrow , if it has become too wet I might bring him indoors and put him on a warm windowsill to dry out .
 Whatd'ya think ?

 Outside , I took the cover off this very young Agave this morning ,otherwise it would get too hot under it's cloche .
 Actually I have just covered it  up again for the night .

 This Agave is not doing very well because I have not been covering it ....tomorrow I will be looking for another cloche for it  , or I will dig him up and bring him under cover for the winter .
  Agaves can take quite a bit of cold , but do not like getting wet . There are slabs of rock around these to drain away the rain and older plants cope much better ..no , I think this one is going to be dug up and given a bit of pampering .

 Look at this pot of Snap-Dragons ! This is very much a typically  English Summer time plant ! 
 Tomorrow I will take a look to see if there are any signs of the Snowdrops coming up  .
 I don't think it will be so cold tonight .
So tomorrow , check the Snowdrops , dig up Agave and hopefully show you the Marlothistella uniondalensis with  fully opened daisy flowers !

Bowiea volubilis

I have been searching for a Bowiea volubilis for a very long time .  I finally found one and snapped it up .

                 The parcel arrived and my first thought was how heavy it was !

                   Beautifully wrapped , my hands trembling with excitement !
                              Not a cactus  , but equally as weird !
          Bowiea volubilis is quite an unusual plant from South and Eastern parts of Africa . Think Zimbabwe ,Tanzania , Angola , Mozambique ,Uganda , Namibia and Swaziland ....wow !
London born James Bowie 1789-1869  appointed botanical collector for The Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew and brave explorer , well I think he was , expeditions and adventures , travelling through the wild lands of Africa and Brazil in those times .
This was one of the plants that he brought back to Kew and in time the genus was named after him  -   Bowiea .... and volubilis  -  meaning twisting /enveloping .
 

            Now commonly known as The Sea Onion , because it looks like an onion  .
         But it isn't an onion and definitely not edible , containing cardiac glycosides , it is very poisonous plant ..all parts of it !
So there it sits , beautifully onion like , dormant all through the Winter . ( UK )

                 
                                              Why called the Sea Onion ?
  In the Spring it puts out a little green shoot, that soon grows into it volubilis , sprawling , sea weedy like vine .

The gentleman that I bought it from tells me that he uses coir for his plants .
 Bowiea volubilis in the wild grows in peat.... I dont want to use peat if I can help it and coir  is a peat substitute .
I couldn't find coir in time ...and had to use these two above products mixed with some horticultural grit . I thought that multi-purpose compost might be too rich for it and so a seed and cutting compost ,which does have a little peat added , some perlite  for air and the grit for drainage might be the best compromise .
 I,ll see how the plant gets on with it and maybe change it later on .

                                              I love the fragrance of the earth !
             I am amazed at the amount of vine all coming from one shoot in the middle .
                  It is going to need some form of support , a trellis or mini wigwam .

  A goodly handful of horticultural grit to surround it . just in case of any rogue snail .
 I am told that in time the onion like caudex will divide .
   Another way that it can be propagated is from seeds ....I look forward to seeing its little green/white flowers .
 I am still on the look out for seeds , just for the fun of seeing them germinate !
          I am so delighted to have this in my collection ..very happy me .

                                      Now to find a trellis for it to climb up .