March at last!!  I have watered some of the cacti (mainly Mammillaria and Parodia) that are growing in the conservatory where the minimum heat is above 45 degrees.  With all the recent hot sunshine they were looking very thirsty.  I shall wait a couple more weeks before I water the Astrophytum, the Lophophora, and the cacti in the colder greenhouse.  It will be many weeks yet before the Lithops are ready for watering, they have still a lot of fluid to absorb from the old bodies.

I really need to get down to some serious repotting.   I keep putting it off.  My potting shed is at the bottom of the garden and is unheated so has been just a bit too cold to work in comfortably for very long.  My large multiheaded Espostoa really needs a bigger pot.   It will take at least two of us to complete the operation and the pot will have to stand on the floor – it will be too heavy for the table.  It was about eighteen inches tall and over twenty years old, when I inherited it from my father nine years ago, and it and its offsets have grown quite a bit since then.  Dad grew it from seed so it is a bit special to me.  I have warned the plant that it will have to make the most of its next home because it is unlikely that I will be able to move it when it next needs repotting.

The Haworthia seedlings that I bought at the auction in the Autumn have rooted and are growing on well. I have quite a few spares so if anyone would like to increase their Haworthia collection, have a word with me.  I have also ordered a lot of Haworthia seeds from The Haworthia Society.  It will be interesting to compare their growth rate with the Lithops seedlings.