On the side of the garage there is a small pot. In that pot there was a little cactus thingy that has never ventured outside of it’s pot in about 10 years or so.

However, this summer it’s done this.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/3bSpQrs.png[/img]

…as such I was wondering what it was? As it’s kind of neat, how, not only has it flowered, but also grew the whole stalky bit that extends from the pot in a few weeks.

I love the ‘That new hasp won’t fit, let’s just hack some brick off until it does’ approach.

no idea on your triffid, though.

[video]http://youtu.be/xlSgkqNZlBM[/video]

No idea either, but I likes it 🙂

I love the ‘That new hasp won’t fit, let’s just hack some brick off until it does’ approach.

Always take the point of most resistance 8)

Some sort of Sempervivum.

The flower and rosette will eventually die, but there will be lots of babies around the bottom that will continue to grow.

I love the ‘That new hasp won’t fit, let’s just hack some brick off until it does’ approach

He does the exact same with his bike stuff 😀

<<<<<<<<<<<<Runs away

You’ve seen my toolkit, then?

Sempervivum tectorum (hens & chicks), spreads well on runners.

Oh, and belated thanks to Ho hum, and Dobbo, as that seems to have nailed it.

“Sempervivum tectorum” or House leek. The flowering rosette will die after flowering but the offsets will continue to grow. If you want more then you should be able to gently lift up one of the off sets (trying not to disturb the roots too much, I use an eating fork), clip the shoot closest to the parent plant and pop it in some gritty, well drained compost. They usually take quite happily if you do this in spring.

[Edit] too slow, typing while eating and talking……………

Weirdly we have a pot full of these at the front of our house that have also never done anything other that multiply in number.
A few weeks ago, about 5 of them shot up and did exactly the same (looked erm, quite phallic before they actually flowered).

As above, apparently they die off once they’ve sprouted but the little ones should keep growing…

That’ll be full of baby tarantulas. Hundreds.

quite phallic before they actually flowered

Sounds about right 🙂

That’ll be full of baby tarantulas. Hundreds.

There is quite a large spider population in there.

Fortunately, it’s a large population of small spiders.

Its whats known as a moncarpic perennial. Some species of plant only reproduce after maybe 10 years and then they day in contrats to say annuals that reproduce and die yearly or perennials the live for a few years and reproduce each year. It evolved as predator satiation or in slow growing speciies. Some species co ordinate there breeding Phylostachys bambasoides is a great example. It all flowers sets seed and dies every 76 years or something similar, does it world wide too. Prevents animals from evolving to exploit the resource. \salmon are an animal equivalent of the mono carpic perennial, they are semmelparous. Obviously if they only did it every 76 years it would properly screw up bears, but animals arent as clever as plants

Been watering it with Viagra ??

Here’s our ones. Bit of a rubbish pic, it’s getting dark…