I'm already thinking of my soil mix for next Spring's repotting. Is bone meal still recommended for mixing into the basic soil? If so, how much? Let's say, based on a gallon-sized (4 quarts)container of mix (just to keep it manageable and a quantity I can visualize). Also, how about these additives:...

What a neat, tidy, perfect little cactus! The flowers include my favorite shades of orange. I gotta get me one of those!

Thanks for the Mautucana comment, 'cactuspolecat'! It seems so easy to grow. I like your red flowers very much. Lobivia? I don't have any real deep red ones. What do you recommend for northeastern USA? Obviously, with temps well below freezing much of the winter, I bring them indoors. However, I've ...

Oops! Forgot to give the sizes. #1 is not quite 1.5" tall & is 3" across. #2 is 1" tall & 2.5" across.

Inspired by this site and the unseasonable 70-degree weather, I had to go out to a local nursery to look over their cacti. Most were not worth buying (weeds in pot, overgrown/underpotted, diseased, pests), but these 2 looked good. However, I knew something was wrong when I saw the tag on the first o...

Will do, Ian. I also try to avoid the straw flowered ones, unless the plant itself is a WOW-WOW-WOW. The odd thing about watering in Vermont, though, is several days in a row we have heavy afternoon showers & my cacti were outside unprotected. I thought they would drown or rot. But I didn't lose...

Hi Tom, Thanks very much for the Lobivia/Echinopsis identification!

Hi Harriet (& everyone)...I guess I should tell you my 'secret' for flowers. In the late winter/early spring I scour local nurseries, Home Depot & Lowe's for plants that already have buds. Sometimes, but rarely, they dry up after I get them home. Others proceed to bloom. The only ones that I...

Thanks, guys! Encouraged by the great growing conditions in the Vermont summer, I hope next year will bring even more blooms. Slowly but surely, I'm refining my soil mixtures; I know that has a lot to do with these critters' happiness. I love the Mautucana, too. When I got it, it was much more globu...

Here are some photos of a few cactus flowers I've had in my collection; I have several more, but they were on film--before I got the digital. I know I could probably scan the prints, but I know they wouldn't turn out as well as these. IF I HAVE MISIDENTIFIED ANY OF THEM, PLEASE LET ME KNOW. THANKS! ...

Wow! Thank you both, Daiv and Ian. There's so much more to classification than I realized. No wonder there can be so much confusion among species. Frankly, in looking over photos in the various names, I see very little difference. Then again, it's been only an interest of mine, as opposed to a deep ...

This should satisfy my quest for species/varieties on my columnar cacti until spring. #1 - 8" tall, 1.75" wide; 8 ribs, 1 central sp & 6, 7, or 8 radials; older growth corked, new growth green with that white 'blush'; old spines & areoles are gray, new ones are dark brown, about 3/...

With the Forum's help, I've made progress ID'ing several of my 'mystery' cacti. Many thanks! Here are four more columnar cacti that are a bit perplexing. I believe #1 and 2 are the same--just different sizes. They appear to have the same size & color areoles & spines and about the same numbe...

Great! Thanks for the tips. Now I can't wait for March to repot...

Thank you for such a good, full explanation. I imagine the same thing happened to Notocactus (Parodia).