In the beginning of the year I asked Russian mail-list readers the questions you can see below. I express my deepest gratitude to everybody who answered and hope that English readers will express their opinions too.

I am also asking everybody to participate in the preparation of the articles on topics being discussed (and not only on them). Write what you can don't be shy. We are all amateurs not the professional journalists. Also don't forget that we would be glad to publish articles from your national or local journals which are close to our subject-matter. Please send them to us. It will help not only us but all readers.

The matter is that I am the only compiler, or as my colleagues call me - an editor, who collects and prepares information for the magazine. But I consider myself a compiler. Could I really cover the whole range of topics alone? It should be remembered that the magazine is made in my spare time mostly during the nighttime. And I'm over 60 years old!

So let's make the magazine together!

1. What kind of articles you'd like to read in our magazine?

• On the wide range of topics. The more diverse the better.
• Articles about collectors and their collections.
• For example, about cacti having reached 50 years and more in right cultivation.
• About Japanese cultivars such as SuperKabuto, Onzuka etc. There is a lot of beautiful and different ones.
• Keeping in mind the magazine's title I'd like to read about species variability. For example, the review of all varieties of Mamm. lasiacantha with field numbers from Mesa Garden catalog and description of differences. So that a cactophyle would know about the range of the species variability. Another example: what is the difference between plants of Turb. loph from different environments? (Piltz catalog offers seeds from 6 different locations). More examples: Aztekium ritteri with pink and deep-red flowers, Mamm. pectinifera with pink and yellow flowers, recent introduction – Mamm. theresae – with pure white and common colored flowers etc. The articles about cacti hybridization (one might recall Fric: he made true miracles with cacti in his late years).
• Continuation of the topics started in previous issues: flowering of colored cacti, flowering of crested forms of cacti, description of colored cacti and other succulents, unusual in common.

  2. Are you interested in articles about common forms of cacti and other succulents?

• Yes, I'd like that. I'm not a fan of crested neither the colored forms although I would be interested to read articles about them.
• I think the magazine would loose the spirit. There are still so many unusual things around. Although you never know.
• I'd like to read more about collectors and collections. Please publish this section in every issue.
• Considering that the most of collectors' cacti are cultivars the current division according to subject headings shouldn't be reduced but rather widened by adding other materials about amateur cactology.
• I think if you publish articles about common forms the circle of readers will grow.
• Yes, I am. The spirit will not be lost if only 1 or 2 articles are included but magazine will gain by it.

Valery Kalishev, Editor in Chief