June - July
The late spring and early summer are the times when there are most flowers in the cactophile's greenhouse. It is also the time when there are many shows up and down the country where one can go and see the fantastic range of plants that are available these days. Hopefully there will be plenty of sunshine during the coming month although this brings with it dangers as well as benefits. For example some Copiapoas suffer from sunburn if they are left in the full sun under our greenhouse conditions, This is because in habitat they are protected from the sun during parts of the day by mists that roll in from the Pacific Ocean.
Lithops too can be boiled to death if they are left fully exposed to the sun in our greenhouses. This is because, in habitat, they are partly or totally buried in the soil at the hottest part of the year and also ventilation is much better. The remedies are firstly to partially shade your greenhouse and secondly to provide as much ventilation as possible. Some plants do their best to protect themselves from these extreme conditions by going dormant in very hot weather and this has implications as far as watering is concerned. I tend to cut down on watering for some plants during very warm weather particularly if the night temperature does not fall below about 15 C in the greenhouse during the night. In any case always make sure that pots have dried out before watering. If a plant has become dormant the pot will not dry out so quickly. Never assume that a pot will have dried out simply because the ambient temperature is high.
