Also,by the way, it's not a cactus, it's a succulent.

It's a sempervivum, not sure of the species though.

First one is definitely a red admiral, but I'm not sure about the second, it's a type of "dead-leaf" butterfly though.

Butterflies are pretty things nevertheless

WOW! Nice Color!

WOW! Nice!

None of them are the "prickly pear" varieties, that's for sure, but I think #1,2,and 3 are the "fishhook barrel" and #2 might be a saguaro (Carnegia gigantea) because of how slow it's growing.

I'm planning on sowing Astrophytum caput-medusae this year.

Thanks for your help though!

For those who want to see them, here's one:

er...em......actually, to tell you the truth,when it comes to seeds I FAIL. when I bought 10 Ariocarpus trigonus (now A. retusus ssp trigonus) seeds NONE of them sprouted.(now you're wondering how I have my Ariocarpus, I bought that as a plant)BUT I recently had some success with some Melocactus azu...

Thanks for the info, I've been planning on growing A. caput-medusae from seed.

Does tap-root cutting work for other astrophytums?
just wondering.

I will try to help other people to my best effort, but I'm sometimes wrong, feel free to diasagree with me (or agree if I'm correct)

I actually started with a Mammillaria elegans (which is now something else, but I don't know), but when I saw an ariocarpus in my cactus book I pointed to it and said," I want that cactus." I started growing cacti because I really needed to train my patience, it was successful and growing ...

Sure, I'm interested to add to my small collection. Tell me when (if) it's ripe, and leave some for "John", but I'm wondering if you ship to Massachusetts.

I think they're flowering because their natural habit is SOUTH of the equator and right now it would be spring there, plants sometimes do that.