BCSS Macclesfield & East Cheshire Branch

Newsletter March 2006 - January diary

I have been looking around the greenhouse and window sills again and thought you might like to hear what is happening this new year. The biggest plus for me is that I seem to have got rid of the dreaded mealy bug. I acquired it some years ago on some plants that I took over from another collector. As I hate having to use chemicals I have had to get rid of it the hard way, by swabbing it with methylated spirits or picking off the insects and eggs. The best way seems to be to put your plants outside in summer. After inspecting the plants, cleaning them up and repotting them, from May until about September I have put as many plants outside as practical, bringing them in at night if the temperatures are due to go low. I don’t know if it is the weather, birds, other insects or the wind and open air, but the mealy bugs go elsewhere and good riddance, too. I suspect that removing offending plants from close contact with others is extremely beneficial, too. As a result of this, on inspection of my plants the other day I don’t appear to have any obvious infestation.

Some of my plants are in the greenhouse again, it is attached to the house and west-facing. There are mostly Agaves, Aloes, Sedums, Echeverias, Mammillarias, Aeoniums and some of the tougher succulents. They are looking fine, with some of the Echeverias showing buds already. Inside I have some Crassulas in flower, but the flowers are generally not very impressive, so nothing to get excited about. The best things I have at the moment, for interest, are the Haworthias. Haworthia reticulata and H. truncata are in flower, H. argenteo-maculosa and H. venosa are in bud and a few others look as if buds are forming. They are all green and very healthy looking, I keep them in a north facing window, in warmish room and water them sparingly. Come the spring they will go in the greenhouse, some in the shade and some in the sun where they go red and look very attractive.

Most cacti I keep on a window sill, facing north, where it is cool, but stays above 10° C and I don’t water them at all. Once we get to April I can start watering them and move them into the greenhouse when the nights are warmer. The greenhouse is too cold for most cacti and in the past some have been marked by the cold, so I bring all but the hardiest inside for winter. The rest go into a cool porch, which stays above 5°C in winter. Being dormant they are not worried by the low light levels.

At the moment the weather is very mild and it is very tempting to give some of the driest plants a little water. However next month is February and I always think it is the coldest month, so giving way to temptation now will almost certainly result in disaster later. Certainly we have had some bitterly cold weather in February for the last two years, so I will not water anything. I am looking forward to spring and hope that the care I have given the plants, in the past year, has improved with experience, so that they reward me by performing better.

Elizabeth Maddock