Hi from Upper Franconia, Germany

Hi,

I got a Mammillaria two years ago and was checking for informations. I found several sites and among them this forum. I have followed as a guest for quite a time. Meanwhile my Mammillaria collection has grown to over 100 plants. I have brought them outside today and took some pictures. I thought it might be a good introduction to show at least some of them. I was lucky last summer and got a lot of old plants and was afraid all winter long that I might kill them...but they are ok so far. It has been a very warm winter here and the temperatures in my plant room never fell below 15°C.

But lets start with the pictures.



At the moment I have all plants on shelves that can be covered with shade cloth or bubble foil to protect them from too much sun or late frost. Later I plan to put them in the garden to bring life to my sunny spots.



























I think this is enough for a first hello :-) Please let me know if you see something wrong or if you think that I'm mistreading the plants. First of all I want ot enjoy them as long as possible and so it is best to rely on advice of people like you.

Kind regards

Karin

Hello, Karin!
Mammillaria is exciting.

I think that all labels are correct.
I hope that you will eventually build a large greenhouse on a half-yard.
The vicinity of large trees and shrubs are not desirable near the collection.
There is usually settled in many insects. Aphids, mites. Pay attention to the young shoots of the bushes.
Watch the quarantine when buying new cacti. Delete old ground, inspect the roots and body.
All the best.
V.

Hi V.,

Thank you for mentioning the dangers of trees and shrubs. I will keep this in mind when bringing them to the garden. Unfortunately I can not have a greenhouse, my property is rented and my landlord is very patient with my plantmania, but he will not allow a greenhouse :-)So the best I can do is wrap some shelves in bubble foil in spring. I had a lot of plants outside when the temperature dropped to -7°C (at nicht)for a few days and they did well in the covered shelves.

best regards
Karin

Welcome indeed. Always good to see another's collection.

Small addition: The plant labelled sp. San Marcos de Colon is probably a M. columbiana.

Wolter.

Question to others: the plant labelled as M. pringlei seems to have 5-6 curving spines. M. pringlei is supposed to have 20 or so radial spines and 6 - 8 central spines. It looks a bit more like obconella, but that's supposed only to have 4 spines. Hmmm......
I know spine counting isn't an infallible guide.

I agree with you, Chris. It cannot belong to the rhodantha-complex (where pringlei is), because there are no thin radial spines. It should belong to the polythele-complex, because the thin radials are lacking there. And then M. obconella looks the best fit.

Wolter.

Hi everyone,

willkommen im Forum Karin.
The species from San Marcos de Colon (Honduras) is the columbiana form ruestii. And I also agree with Chris and Wolter that your Mam. pringlei is Mammillaria obconella.

Viele Grüße

Jonathan Mohl

I had a look at my M. obconella fa. TL 581 from Ocotlán: there are 6 radial spines (somewhat curved upward).

Wolter.

Thank you! I will have a close look at 'pringlei' and count the spines and add Mammillaria colombiana/ruestii to my label of the Mammillaria from Honduras. It is so confusing for me at the moment, but I'm sure with some help I can learn a few things about my plants. Kind regards,Karin