It always surprises me that, despite the cold, the lack of sunlight, and after five months without water, so many of the Mammillaria are already well in bud, a few of the braver ones are already in flower.  One more month and we will be looking for a few warm days so that we can start watering again.  Between the Aloes, the Gasteria and the “Christmas cacti” there has been no break in flowering throughout the winter but there is nothing to beat the breathtaking pleasure of the flowering that we can look forward to in a few months time.

So far my large Nolina has survived its first winter planted in its raised bed out of doors.  I have given it a blanket of fleece whenever frost has been forecast and removed the fleece again when it got a little warmer.   A few of the younger leaves have been a little browned by the cold but the rest look quite healthy. If it can get safely through the next couple of months it should put on a good growth spurt in the summer.    I have been concerned about the excessive amounts of rain, but that doesn’t seem to have caused any problems.  We are sometimes told that we don’t give our plants enough water, as far as the Nolina are concerned this is probably very true. 

I have a very large old Euphorbia obesa which was put out of doors three winters ago because it developed a strange mould around the flowering points and I didn’t want it to share this with his friends.  Unprotected from rain or frost it is still quite happy outside.

Having read some articles on growing in Seramis (baked clay granules), and after long discussion with Bob Warwick, I have finally purchased a couple of huge bags of granules with the intention of gradually  introducing most of my Haworthia to this growing medium.  I tried some unrooted Haworthia cuttings on damp granules in the Autumn and to my surprise, when I checked five days later the cuttings had plumped up and had already grown strong little roots.  I have even managed, for the first time, to grow choice Haworthia from leaf cuttings.  I will report progress later on.