Jardinerong Sunog (the Burnt Gardener)

If it's any gauge, the number of people I see on social media lamenting about their cacti turning into masses of jelly says that even with the more commonly available types, there is still a great deal of misunderstanding regarding the growing of these otherwise easily cultivated plants. And if many hobbyists, particularly the beginners, can't even get past the more standard types, then how can we expect the cactus scene to develop further? In many plant bazaars, I frequently see people huddling over some rather pricey specimens only to overhear them say "I can't even keep most of my cacti alive, so if I buy that, it would just be like throwing away my money." It's not atypical to find stalls still displaying so many of their offerings on the final day of a plant show. And no, it's really not about the price of these plants as even the more expensive ones are still within the range of most collectors. It's about the experience of the vast majority of...

I have been keeping cacti and succulents since 1999. That was since from the last millennium. But the only survivor from that era is a clump of Haworthiopsis limifolia , which has proven almost as indestructible as cockroaches. I remember myself beginning to get enamored at that time by species orchids and pitcher plants too. And then two years later I became acquainted in the tangled world of Hoya , which I repeatedly studied in their natural habitat during my formative years as an amateur botanist. By 2007 I was writing articles about Philippine orchid species, their taxonomy and cultivation, in publications here and abroad. Some years later I found myself working with Nepenthes too, and a few hoyas. And as my interest with these three plant groups flourished, my Amorphophallus and  Begonia  collection increased in size quite steadily, along with quite a few other genera. All that time my interest with cacti and succulents has ebbed and flowed and for the most part has occup...