Can't think of any shows I had missed out on this year that I didn't cover except the usual ones, Endeavour and The Durrells which is my pick every year. Likewise music which I get to hear less and less commercial stuff each year. Awful Kiss stuff aside, Dua Lipa or Jax Jones Instruction or whatever they call themselves, total bollocks by the way.
No my missed and flipped bit this year is a follow up to the Mail's Cactus article with a bit about Topshop, as they had a stall with some cacti for sale in their Oxford St branch. This was due to me not having a mooch uptown to verify what they were on about then.
It's Barry the Cactus for those who are curious about what it's all in aid of. A small stall halfway in the ground floor of Top Shop, Oxford Street. There is said to be a counterpart in Selfridges, as well but as this comes from their main site its unconfirmed if it's real or not.
So what do you get.
A few basic species in fancy pots for £10, to be fair mind, if you are after some designery pieces for interiors or a modern flat, and you don't mind a pot without a whole in the base, then its not bad. Bear in mind that the site itself uses old names like Vatricana and Notocactus, but this is far from bad.
They also do keychains with tiny, doomed seedlings in and a small bottle of Cactus food for about £5 each, I would steer clear of these and get some tomato fertilizer from your local garden centre which is much cheaper and comes in a bigger bottle,
I got a small Mammilaria with the last of a gift card and some cash. I know how to grow cacti already, but picked up their tip card after all.
Here are my general cactus tips if you wish to grow along with me.
Give em a lot of light, they come from a really sunny areas, so a south facing window sill is best or if you have a greenhouse, conservatory. Bottom line, find the brightest spot and stick them there.
Watering. If its Spring and Summer, water weekly and feed monthly. If its autumn ease off watering at the end of September. If its Winter don't, for further information please re read.
Heat. A good half of the species will tolerate 5 F provided they are kept dry, this increases to 3/4 if you can guarantee 10F.
Substrate. You'll need a gritty soil that is free draining, if you'll be potting on. You want a pot the next size up and a loop of newspaper to fix around the plant to pull it out and generally handle.
Use John Innes compost with extra grit. We sometimes use Cat Litter (the non clumping type) for really water intolerant species.
And that is it.
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