Desert 'Alpines'

I have grown Escobaria missouriensis for many years. I started in North Dakota as this is one of those bone-hardy cactus from the Northern Great Plains.

My first hardy cacti will be arriving soon for planting in troughs, and I'm unclear about the planting medium. I think I'm OK with the base of 1/3 each loam, coarse sand, and crushed gravel 1/4"-3/4", but John Spain's booklet calls for 1-1/2" of 1/2" gravel as top dressing on all substrates in all situations. He says "Cactus plants that are not seedlings or weak cuttings will send their roots through a layer of this kind that is up to 4 inches deep."

First photo of the little green maggots (seedlings) Rick Rodich told me would grow from the seed he sent me. Most are 1/2"-5/8" tall.

These two pics aren't mine - they're my son's who photographed them in Death Valley and I just thought they were great and knew one of you could put a name to them.

Hmm, I wonder if this is the appropriate forum for alpine succulents?

This Crassula sp., bought labelled as such from Beaver Creek last year, is certainly looking very lifelike (first photo) as the snow melts off here...
Could it be? :o
The second photo shows flowers from last year. Any thoughts as to the species or hybrid? I would assume, simply on the basis of its reported hardiness, that it's likely from the Drakensberg, or a hybrid of those species??

Okey dokey...maybe I only grow three hundred BUT this would be near the top no matter what. Any form of E. reichenbachii is superb, and this is a supremely variable plant worth growing en masse and abundantly. It is unquestionably the toughest and hardiest hedgehog: I have had them live for decades in containers. This is the tiniest and most wonderful form of all: and it may be extinct in its limited range in Oklahoma (where all the best forms occur).

Desert alpines: yeah sure. I guess there are some truly deserty ranges in the Great Basin where cacti are alpines. The White Mountains come to mind, where I recall Opuntia trichophora growing among the Bristlecones. Our poor mountain ball cactus, (Pediocactus: "Plains cactus" is the literal translation: get real, the munchkin ALWAYS grows on mountains), first impugned by its very Latin name, and then supposed to grow in deserts when in fact millions upon millions of these crowd the foothills and montane meadows of the Southern Rockies ONLY in relatively mesic, acid soil regions.