I just got the tiny Gymno about a week ago. Wanted to get some soil so I could finally repot stuff, ended up instead with another plant that needs repotting because my mom said I could get something. And I got a sort of scary one just because nearly all the others had messily and tightly glued on strawflowers, while this one's was just barely on.
And now I really want a Parodia leninghausii; would've actually gotten one of those if it wasn't for the strawflowers glued firmly on top of the spines.
lol I never have slowed down. I have plenty of plants I have been given, rescued or stepped on! I got several C. bigelovii and C. fulgida stem segments by stepping on them.
BTW that's a nice Mamm. It should flower for you
Here's to you, all you insidious creatures of green..er I mean cacti.
Nice one.
Funny how they are called "golden balls" though with the way the grow up to look.
And you ain't seen nothing untill you have repotted a E. grusonii (golden barrel). Those spines went straight through my thick workgloves. Even more so when I dusted the gloves off by slapping my hands together...without checking if I had any wayward spines stuck in the gloves first. Required pliers to get that spine out of my hand.
...And a Google image search just now confirmed my suspicion. That bizarre crested thing next to the golden balls (and hilariously incorrectly labeled as one of them) was in fact an Opuntia, which might explain the tiny blood spot when I pinched a spine out.
lol it's always the cactus in the pot next to the one you are picking up that gets you, unless it's an Opuntia. Planting Opuntia is difficult esp if they are big!
So far the only spine that has drawn blood for me was a cholla..
The C. leptocaulis which I walked into when it was hiding in a bush. I call them ankle biters!
BTW I think you are officially hooked!
Here's to you, all you insidious creatures of green..er I mean cacti.
iann wrote:That's a pretty vigorous one, and generous with (real!) flowers too.
Yes the Mammillaria will grow lots of small pink flowers eventually, they will produce a ton of viable seed. I harvested a ton of seeds from a fairly large Mammillaria spinosissima last year, the seeds are growing great this year.
This species of Mammillaria will produce seed by itself, no need to have two plants.