Growing tips from a master

In my last issue, I featured one of our great friends, succulent grower extraordinaire Ian Hay, who spent 17 years in the Philippines before moving back to Sydney, Australia. He is one of a very select few lifetime members of the Philippine Cactus and Succulent Society and is currently the president (for the last three years) of the Cactus and Succulent Society of New South Wales. Ian now works at Austrade in Sydney. I was planning to send a copy of that last issue to Ian, but it was particularly gratifying to hear from him this morning that he had received copies of that write-up from two different sources already. As you can tell by this, Ian still has a lot of very good friends over here.

While I visited Ian and his collection last April, I was able to ferret out a few growing tips from the Master himself. Ian’s insights into culturing succulents are particularly relevant and useful for us growers over here because he had the benefit of growing plants while he lived here, and is able to compare that with the much more ideal growing climes in Sydney today.

As context, particularly for those who missed my article two weeks ago, I would like to recap a recent feature on notable succulent collectors by Gardening Australia which had this to say about Ian: "Ian Hay has had a passion for succulents since he was about 10 years old, and admits to being obsessive about many things in life, and these are no exception. Collecting them is compulsive. He has lived in a variety of places where he has grown succulents, from cold Canberra to the hot, wet climate of the Philippines, but had to resist growing them while he was there. Now that he is living in Sydney, he feels that it is the best climate that he has ever grown cacti and succulents."

Ian lives in downtown Sydney in a plush condo alongside the Sydney Royal Botanical Gardens. He doesn’t have the space downtown to raise his huge collection, so the plants are housed in a greenhouse at Hamilton’s World of Cacti in Llandilo, a little over an hour’s drive toward the scenic Blue Mountains. Twice each week (on Monday and Friday), Ian makes the drive up to Llandilo to care for his wards, whether it be a watering or repotting mission, or simply to view and admire his plants. I hooked up with Ian on one of his Friday trips.

I only managed to ask Ian a few questions on his growing techniques, but I must admit, I learned a lot. One quick question I had for him right away was about the roofing on his greenhouse and the somewhat extensive extra shading material he had on the ceiling to provide extra protection for his plants. The main roofing is made of normal transparent fiberglass readily available over here. As context, if I simply used this type of roofing in the microenvironment in my house in Makati, most of my cacti would etiolate or produce very weak spination. This type of roofing in my home wouldn’t allow enough sunlight through to my plants. And yet here was Ian, not just using this roofing type but also adding more shade layers such as plastic and mesh netting.

Here’s what I found out: In wet, humid Metro Manila, the high moisture level in our atmosphere acts to diffuse the intensity of the sun’s rays. So even if the sun is shining brightly and we feel hot, the air moisture shields us from a lot of the sun’s full strength. In the dry climate of Sydney and its suburbs – with little to no atmospheric moisture – the sun’s intensity is very much greater; hence, the added protection for the plants. Without the extra shading, many of the cacti and succulents would literally scorch. In Ian’s collection, with the added shade canopy, his cacti were producing the most awesome and colorful spination.

The lack of enough intense sunlight was one of the key reasons why Ian desisted from growing spiny cacti in his home in Valle Verde when he lived here. He just couldn’t get his cacti to produce true, healthy spination in his microenvironment back then. Instead, he grew more African succulents, especially haworthias, euphorbias, and caudiciforms, which thrive better in tropical climates.

In terms of growing mixes, Ian uses whatever is available in Hamilton’s nursery operation. Back when his collection was housed in Arizona Cacti, his growing mix was something he termed "concrete" – very mineral-based, hard and heavy. He still had a few plants growing in his old "concrete" mix and these were doing just fine. But over at Hamilton’s, they use a mushroom compost-based mix, and this has worked just as well (if not better) for Ian’s plants. For example, I always imagined that the Copiapoas from Chile would require a 100-percent mineral mix with no organics added (since these grow in purely mineral substrates in the northern deserts of Chile). However, Ian had his Cops growing in this organic mushroom-compost mix and his plants were clearly thriving. I also noticed this growing mix contained some granules of slow-release fertilizer similar to Osmocote. This, together with the mushroom compost, probably provides all the fertilizing needs of the plants for a year or two.

The key is the medium must be well-draining and shouldn’t stay wet for long periods of time. The dry climate in Sydney helps with the evaporation of excess moisture from the growing medium. But over here in Manila, our wet, humid environment encourages our soil to stay moist a lot longer, so we ought to be more careful when watering.

On watering, it was autumn when I visited Ian. Many of his plants were finishing their growing cycle then (with the exception of his beautiful conophytums which were just beginning to grow and flower) and were getting ready for winter dormancy. Ian still watered his plants, not heavily but not quite a splash either, preferring to water around the plants onto the growing mix. He had two large barrels of water left standing for a few days to allow most of the chemicals contained in the water to evaporate. I didn’t ask him if he watered as well during wintertime, but I would imagine he would, and speculate a once-per-month type watering schedule as is the practice of another great succulent grower from Melbourne, Bert Coppus.

Ian also arranged his plants by genera and temperament in order to facilitate the care of such a huge collection. All the lithops and conophytums were at one end, the haworthias at another, and the same thing for the copiapoas, astrophytums, crassulas, echeverias and caudiciforms. Keeping plants of similar disposition and requirement together really helps when one waters, repots, shades, or fertilizes the plants.

One of the key messages I took from Ian that day was that you have to know the plants, where they are from and what their growing needs are. Then, see what plants would do well in your microenvironment. In effect, you let the plants choose you, and not you choosing the plants, if you know what I mean. For example, you may covet a nice spiny Echinocactus grusonii, the famous Golden Barrel cactus. But if the area you have available in your house only allows for good, strong, direct sunlight an hour or two each day, that is not enough for you to grow the Golden Barrel well, and the plant will ultimately produce weak new growth and disfigure. But such a location may be fine for haworthias and gasterias, so choose these types of plants instead. In the long run, you’ll be a lot happier. Unfortunately, desisting from buying plants you love and covet is a really tough thing, and I find myself succumbing all the time and paying the price at the end. But if you happen to have the ideal microenvironment such as the one Ian has found in Llandilo, well then, you can grow practically any cacti and succulent group you want. Ian has found his cactus heaven back home Down Under. I can’t wait for my greenhouse to be finished in Tagaytay Highlands. That may be my pot of gold.