An Unlikely Find (or not)

[MagiCarpus]

Unless I've been duped, I found a Melocactus azureus in a big box store in downtown Toronto (Canadian Tire). Yes, among all the glued-on straw flowers, no name echinopsis, and dyed opuntioids, a lone M. azureus sits in the tray waiting for me to stumble upon it by chance. Of course it's instantly mine and it now sits on my windowsill.

As far as I understood Melocactus are relatively hard to find just by strolling down the gardening section of Home Depot or supermarkets. Could someone confirm that this is indeed an M.azureus? Is this a common 'houseplants' stores like these sell, and that I'm just being stupid by making a big fuss out of it?

Anyways, just thought I'd share this and I don't mind being ridiculed.

I haven't even repot it to a mineral mix before a snapped a picture. Melocactus azureus

[Aiko]

I think this could well be Melocactus azureus.

[MagiCarpus]

Thanks Aiko, I guess I'll know for sure in 10 years when it starts getting hairy near the top
Turned out that M.azureus is fairly common in cultivation, but that doesn't subtract from how nice of a find this was.

[ElieEstephane]

Lucky find. I found last week a melocactus and bought it immediately. It was very beautiful. When i tried to repot it, it was terribly infested with root mealies and had a hole in the side. I returned it and traded for a beautiful mammillaria haageana

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[esp_imaging]

Nice find!
I guess that it only takes 1 nursery to sow a batch of 5000seed of a species, then all of a sudden it becomes “common” 2 years later, at least for 1 selling season.
This only applies to plants that can be grown on quickly and easily by commercial nurseries, so don’t expect it to happen with ungrafted ariocarpus etc.

[7george]

Melocactus azureus - yes, I have seen some cacti like this in canadian supermarket store 3 - 4 years ago. At proper care it should become mature maybe in less than 10 years.