A trip to Victoria - Part 2, private collector + Collectors Corner

So tired and weary (but still excited) we arrived at our first overnight destination. 

Not going to say too much about this place as I don't have permission to say where it was. But it was a treat!  LOVED our say there, would go back in an instance!

First morning I was up at 6am and walking around the gardens and growing areas just oohing and arghing... but it was cut short by the need to get going so that we could move onto our accomodation for the rest of the weekend.  So 10am we were off back on the road again.  Still gobsmacked by what we had already seen in Vic.

Euphorbia pulvinata 'Nana'

These optica rubra's made us look twice - gorgeous aren't they!

had us COMPLETELY fooled. They are actually fake ones from Lithops for sale Australia.  Should have no problems getting a permit for these guys!!

Aeonium in flower - assuming they are native bees of some sort....

I've mentioned before I have a "thing" about variegation, so most of the pics I took were of gorgeous variegated specimens, that I would love to add to my collection.

Agave 'Cubic'

Faucaria 'Super Warty'

 Haven't seen this gold centred agave here in WA, its one I'm going to import I think.  It was stunning!

Aloe arista variegata

 These last two were the show stoppers for me - stunning plants and growing in ground.  Now if only they could hurry up and offset....

Agave 'Snowfall'

Agave 'Fireball'

Agave 'Fireball'

Back in the car and heading off to the "Burvale" for our first night, we of course HAD to go past Collectors Corner...I'd like to say we were "restrained" but we really weren't.  BUT at least these guys sent back to WA, so we didn't have to worry about using up precious space on our permits!

A visit to Victoria - Part 1 - Attila Kapitany's

What can I say.... I got good behaviour bond...

Back in July I managed to survive both my children going in for surgery in the same week - one for 5 wisdom teeth... yes I know 5!!! she can't even do that normally, and the other for bilateral strabismus. Call me a glutton for punishment, or just going "oh hell, it one is going to be miserable they might as well BOTH be".  Having sat there holding hands as they both went under anesthesia I promised myself a trip away.    So the plan was the visit the CSSA show with one of my best friends.

oh shameless plug for her business while I'm at it 😉

Succulent Rose

Funnily enough a lot of my friends are into Succulents.  

So 20th October we were off to Sunny Victoria... (ok make that not quite so sunny - it HAILED while we were there)

Hopping off the plane first stop was a visit to Attila Kapitany's.  We'd heard a lot about this, but never hoped to get there.  We had the phone number, and a "call when you land and we shall see what we can do".  So we called, and we were lucky enough to be invited along!  

So we plugged in the GPS and scheduled our first stop for the day.

Australian Succulents

Here are a few, very poor photographs that were taken on the day.

The "Peephole"

Aeonium tabuliforme growing outside under wire

There was actually soooo much to see that we really didn't know quite what to photograph.  But it was a fantastic start to our "girlie weekend away".

After this we were back in our car and off to stop 2 of the day.  A private collector in Victoria that was putting us up for the night... but you can wait for that! 😃

Echeveria subsessilis variegata - off with her head!

So the time had finally come, had this beauty for about 2 years, and had left it in the shade for a while hoping to get a nice long stem to propagate from.  11th Novemember it was time for 

"off with her head"

11th November

Echeveria subsessilis variegate  - head

17th November

Definitely see some babies forming now!

1st December

Wow those two weeks saw a HUGE increase in growth!

As expected the leaf grown ones are proving incredibly slow to grow, and none have shown any variegation as yet, but fingers are crossed!

21st December

I must admit - I have since removed two of the babies from this and have them sitting rooting.  Final number of babies is still undecided but so far its looking EXCELLENT!

Most of these babies will be going to close friends that have supported me this year.  I might possibly put one up for auction - if so it will go on 

WA AUCTIONS SUCCULENTS,Cacti , Bromeliads and Tillandsias

Oh a good friend has recently started a page for selling for those NoR in Perth - check out 

Oz Succulent Oasis

Sellina imports from over east, as well as growing high quality plants here.  She also sells at the CSSWA shows.

Coring Agaves... attempt 2 (and a summary of 2016)

Results from the last coring experiment.  Not exactly what I was looking for - but still pretty :)

Must post a bit more often - sorry its been a busy year.. and truthfully one I would rather forget.

Being blocked by admin on most of the WA facebook succulent sites is kind of sad. Especially as one of those groups I actually started.  But honestly these days if people want to get THAT petty then so be it.  I'm moving on (shame they can't).

On a good note, I did manage to bring in this year a pile of Agave 'Lime Streaks', Agave 'Dragons Toes' and Crassula 'Buddhas Temples' for the members of my group over the year.    So at least I managed to make a few people happy in the process - I think I annoyed more by not making money on them....

So 2017 ?  I'm going to focus on the positives in my life.  My gorgeous kids (and wonderful partner), my plants, and the fantastic friends I have around me.