Karl & Nancy Page update 26-11-00 I am going to confess straight out... the minute I walked into Karl & Nancy's "greenhouse" I almost broke out into tears. I put the word greenhouse in quotes simply because it was more than just a greenhouse... it was, well... I'll let the pictures below speak for me! Unfortunately I am not yet well versed in the nomenclature and recognition of plants; I am sure there were rare specimens that I totally missed out on! I've also had to pick and choose from the 60 odd pictures I took, so hopefully the images below adequately represent Karl & Nancy's collection. One important thing I got out of visiting their collection was the ability to look at plants in maturity and to know what yadda yadda plant would look like once full grown. Both Karl & Nancy also imparted some of their wisdom, which I soaked up! Please click on an image to get a larger version of it. Use the Backspace button on your keyboard to return to this page.

There is the main greenhouse which contains Karl & Nancy's collection plants, and a smaller greenhouse where they keep sales plants and do most of their work in (re-potting, seed planting etc.) Outside planted in the ground they have huge specimens of aloes and agaves. I was particularly entranced by the Aloe bainseii!

General view of the tree. I have two specimens in my collection and I am already looking forward to when they grow to this size! Karl did say that the only time that you do plant them into the ground, is when you know you'll never be moving house again! It is possible to move Aloe bainseii of this size, but from how Karl described it, it's a long and rather difficult procedure!

Check out that gorgeous foliage *dreamy sigh*


Karl & Nancy under the Aloe bainseii... hrrmmm what is Nancy doing to Karl?!

Last but definately not least is this picture of Karl just after a session of repotting a particularly large cactus. Another reason for my second visit to Karl & Nancy's place (the first time was when I was "supposedly" helping put together bags of potting mix... I ended up drooling in the greenhouse) was to take a series of shots of Karl re-potting both a large plant and a small plant. Karl will then pick through the images and create a visual guide to re-potting cacti for the resources page.

Many thanks to both Karl and Nancy for allowing me to visit!