My flowering Cacti 2020

[hegar]

Hello Keith,

I had not heard about the book written by Dr. Ed Maddox, DVM. I did check up on it and found out, that it was self-published by Dr. Maddox in 1984.
There was an offer by the now-defunct? RainbowGardensBookstore.org, which did sell it for $12.95. However, that offer was from a catalog published in March 2009. That business did sell some rare and unusual books and I did order at least one book for use as a reference book of my work library.
I do have a beautiful, coffee-table sized, illustrated book by Ad Konings, PhD, who is a member of my local cactus and rock club, with the title "Cacti of Texas in their natural Habitat" (2009), that I do use for consultation at my work site, when examining Cacti arriving from Mexico.

Today a cactus flowered in its pot. It is the result of a minor accident, i.e. I broke off a stem piece by not being careful enough around the only plant I do have. Fortunately, the piece grew roots when placed in desert soil. Now I do have two plants and can plant the "cutting" in another location, where it is less likely to be harmed. The cactus is one of my favorites out of the Echinocereus genus. Its name is Echinocereus poselgeri and the old name was Wilcoxia poselgeri.

Harald

E_poselgeri1.JPG (126.09 KiB) Viewed 2780 times

E_poselgeri2.JPG (78.69 KiB) Viewed 2780 times

E_poselgeri3.JPG (74.38 KiB) Viewed 2780 times

[hegar]

Hello Cactus Friends,

there were several cacti in bloom today when I returned from work. Except for one, a Thelocactus rinconensis var. freudenbergii, all flowers were still open. That cactus did flower three times last year, in April, June, and at the end of August. So I have a good feeling about still being able to take a picture with an open flower. The plant in the more sunny location did bloom today, the other one - which is growing in filtered light - does not yet show a flower bud.
Of the claret cup and hybrids between Echinocereus coccineus ssp. rosei and Echinocereus dasyacanthus only the salmon-colored blossoms of that one clump are loaded with flowers, I counted about 30 blossoms There are at least eight left that have yet to open. The odd thing is, that the pink-flowering hybrid only has a few flower buds, as do the pure-bred specimens. They all received the same care and are sometimes only spaced a foot or so apart! Also, my Echinocereus dasyacanthus plants are somewhat stingy with flower production.
At least two of my three Echinocereus bonkerae plants are blooming, producing two flowers each. I do love that deep pink color of their tepals.
The clump of Echinocereus viridiflorus ssp. chloranthus is also still blooming and will continue to do so a little while longer.
The last of today's flowering cacti is one of the miniature Turbinicarpus pseudopectinatus plants. I had purchased four of them from Miles2Go.
Mr. MIles told me, that he was selling T. pseudopectinatus ssp. pseudopectinatus (a white-flowering cactus) and also T. pseudopectinatus ssp. jarmilae, which produces pink flowers. My plant flowering today does have a blossom with a pink center and off-white petals with a pink mid stripe. So I am not sure, if that one is a hybrid between the two subspecies. Another plant also does have two flower buds and should be blooming in a week or so. Perhaps that one will have a flower where white is more dominant.

Harald

T_rinconensis var freudenbergii1.JPG (121.66 KiB) Viewed 2736 times

E_bonkerae2.JPG (91.98 KiB) Viewed 2736 times

E_bonkerae4.JPG (97.08 KiB) Viewed 2736 times

E_viridiflorus ssp chloranthus5.JPG (140.2 KiB) Viewed 2736 times

T_pseudopectinatus1.JPG (73.75 KiB) Viewed 2736 times

T_pseudopectinatus5.JPG (60.56 KiB) Viewed 2736 times

[Newton]

Wow..... E_Bonkarae has a stunning shocking pink luminous glow to its flowers. It always amazes me how some plants are able to utilise the black pigments to reflect and deflect light at different angles creating that depth of colour

Regards
Chas

[keith]

T. pseudopectinatus ssp. jarmilae in my opinion. I have both from Miles and the white one is pretty pale compared to what you have.

Or maybe a cross ?

[hegar]

Thank you for your compliment, Chas and thank you for helping me figure out what kind of Turbinicarpus the latest flowering one is.

@ Keith: I still have two more to go, and hopefully, there will be one T. pseudopectinatus ssp. pseudopectinatus present in my small group. The largest plant does not seem to intend to bloom as of yet though. The other one should be showing its flower color, unless it decides to drop the two flower buds. I shall go ahead and water the plants with a little fertilizer added tomorrow morning. Perhaps that will speed things up a bit. Most likely, that plant is a hybrid. The ssp. jarmilae, which flowered last year was a solid medium pink color.

@ Chas: The color rendition of digital imagery on my camera setting is different than it is on my wife's smart phone. My son did set my Canon PowerShot SX10IS to a setting, which does result in a bit more vibrant color, while my wife's phone uses the factory programmed setting. Yesterday, my wife took a few photos of the Echinocereus bonkerae in the afternoon, while I took one upon coming back from work at 6:30 p.m. Her picture shows a darker, but drab flower. Looking at the plant this evening, her color is the truer one. My flower images show a lighter than true color.

Harald

E_bonkerae9.JPG (99.9 KiB) Viewed 2664 times

E_bonkerae5.JPG (130.68 KiB) Viewed 2664 times

[Newton]

Harald the colours look the same to me despite the differences in lens renditions

I breed oriental game birds specifically the old fighting cocks strain of Asil.... Note... I dont use them for fighting at all. They are hard feathered and the pure black ones have a metallic sheen to them that in the sunlight appears green or blue. The way the cells arrange themselves leads to this luminosity. A little bit like petrol on water or a rainbow

Some colours in plants like yours also employ this trick

[hegar]

Hello Chas,

I understand what you are talking about. I do see the same effect with the hummingbird males, which do show up in my yard during the warmer time of the year. What does look like a grey splotch becomes vividly colorful with a metallic sheen, when the angle of illumination is changed. Perhaps there are similarities with the luminescence of flower petal pigments in cacti and other plants. Some of the Turbinicarpus blossoms also seem to have a metallic satiny sheen to them.

Today I went out and took a few more digital images of blooming cacti. As seen on my April 1st post, the first Echinocereus cactus, a hybrid between an E. coccineus and E. dasyacanthus, produced its first flower. Now, on April 10th, that cactus is still the only one of that genus still in flower. Some of the blossoms have closed for good, while some others are yet to open. The only other Echinocereus cactus I do have, which has an equally long blooming period is the Echinocereus viridiflorus ssp. chloranthus. I am attaching today's photo of the hybrid. By Easter I should be able to photograph other species of Echinocereus.
Another cactus, which produced a few blossoms is the miniature Escobaria sneedii ssp. sneedii. Usually, this plant produces a "large stem", surrounded by smaller stems and the large one will flower. Thus far, it has not done so, but the intermediate sized ones are blooming.

Harald

E_xroetteri8.JPG (147.91 KiB) Viewed 2627 times

Esc_sneedii ssp sneedii1.JPG (111.24 KiB) Viewed 2627 times

Esc_sneedii ssp sneedii2.JPG (109.75 KiB) Viewed 2627 times

[Shane]

I've also struggled to get good pictures of flowers, in particular dark pink. It always looks washed out relative to the true color

[hegar]

I have several more cacti to show, which started to bloom within the last 24 hours. The first one is yet another Turbinicarpus pseudopectinatus. Our blog member DaveW convinced me, that it is almost futile to assign a subspecies or variety to this plant, which may have a flower color ranging from whitish pink to almost purple. So I am going to call my plants just T. pseudopectinatus. Now I have seen three out of four in bloom, with the last one holding out. Maybe that one will be the hoped-for light-colored version.
The second plant in flower was the first Opuntia sp.. I am not sure, if that one is a O. macrocentra or something similar. I did dig and cut up most of my prickly pear cacti last year, but left a few smaller ones in place. Now I am thinking about also getting rid of these, except for perhaps the O. aciculata. But that too is growing out of bounds. The flowers of these prickly pear cacti, however, are pretty large and quite showy. A plant of that genus may also produce many blossoms and some also decent tasting fruit.
The last cactus for today came into bloom around noon. It is yet another Turbinicarpus member, possibly T. pseudomacrochele. I tried to locate one with a similar blossom and spination and that one was the closest. It could also be a plant that has not flowered before. So if anyone reading this knows what the species is, please let me know. I have purchased several plants of this genus over the last few years and have become a bit disoriented as to where I planted them.

Harald

T_pseudopectinatus ssp jarmilae6.JPG (89.36 KiB) Viewed 2585 times

T_pseudopectinatus ssp jarmilae7.JPG (71.86 KiB) Viewed 2585 times

Opuntia sp poss macrocentra1.JPG (126.17 KiB) Viewed 2585 times

Opuntia sp poss macrocentra2.JPG (122.54 KiB) Viewed 2585 times

Opuntia sp poss macrocentra3.JPG (93.49 KiB) Viewed 2585 times

T_pseudomacrochele1.JPG (92.68 KiB) Viewed 2585 times

T_pseudomacrochele5.JPG (48.3 KiB) Viewed 2585 times

[hegar]

Hello Cactus Friends,
today, when I returned home from work, I found two cacti with open blossoms. Others had flowered also, but at 6:30 p.m. their flowers had closed for the night. I only hope, that by Saturday I can still take a few photos of them.
The two cacti I did photograph today are a pink-flowering hybrid (Echinocereus x roetteri), a color variant of the naturally occurring hybrid cacti from Orogrande, New Mexico. While my salmon-colored E_xroetteri was covered with blossoms, this plant will only produce two flowers, although it does have five healthy looking stems! With my pecan trees, there is a noticeable biennial bearing habit. Perhaps that is also the case with cacti?
Last year that same clump produced at least 10 flowers. I know, because I do have ten fruits with seed, which I harvested toward the end of last year.
So, I hope, that next year the cactus will dazzle me once again.
The second plant that had its first blossom, but many more to follow shortly, is a prickly pear. It is my favorite of the genus, because I do love the geometry of the dark red-brown glochid arrangement and also the flower color. I shall put another photo of that plant here, when there are numerous blossoms open.

Harald

E_xroetteri9.JPG (112.82 KiB) Viewed 2533 times

E_xroetteri10.JPG (63.95 KiB) Viewed 2533 times

O_aciculata1.JPG (102.21 KiB) Viewed 2533 times

O_aciculata2.JPG (65.31 KiB) Viewed 2533 times

[Shane]

Very pretty. Thanks for sharing!

[hegar]

This weekend was a pretty good one as far as flowering cacti are concerned. So I do have a number of digital images to show you. First off, two plants I have already shown, but now do have more blossoms: Opuntia aciculata and Echinocereus x roetteri with pink flowers.

O_aciculata3.JPG (92.83 KiB) Viewed 2486 times

Echinocer x roetteri pink3.JPG (140.01 KiB) Viewed 2486 times

Another plant which bloomed is the very dependable Ancistrocactus uncinatus with its odd-colored blossoms.

A_uncinatus1.JPG (138.67 KiB) Viewed 2486 times

A_uncinatus3.JPG (129 KiB) Viewed 2486 times

I did have two more Opuntia spp. flower today. One is Opuntia engelmannii ( a red-flowering version) and the other an unknown Opuntia sp. of small to medium size. That one does lie down in late fall and perks back up in the spring.

O_engelmannii1.JPG (92.05 KiB) Viewed 2486 times

O_engelmannii2.JPG (76.78 KiB) Viewed 2486 times

Opuntia sp1.JPG (102.94 KiB) Viewed 2486 times

I am going to show you a part of what I call my Cactus Bed # 1. It too did have a few plants in flower. The first one I present is - in my opinion - a claret cup, not a hybrid, with the name Echinocereus coccineus ssp. rosei. Despite looking healthy and having five stems, this plant only produced one flower bud this year.

Cactus Garden1.JPG (152.35 KiB) Viewed 2486 times

E_coccineus ssp rosei1.JPG (120.74 KiB) Viewed 2486 times

E_coccineus ssp rosei2.JPG (77.35 KiB) Viewed 2486 times

As you can see from my image of the Cactus Garden 1, there are other plants in flower, which I am going to show you now in all their glory.
The first one most likely is Echinocereus pectinatus. The second one our native Echinocereus dasyacanthus. Both produce gorgeous, nicely-colored and large blossoms. Usually there is only one or two flowers on each stem. The E. pectinatus, however, managed to have two flowers on each stem!

E_pectinatus3.JPG (138.02 KiB) Viewed 2486 times

E_pectinatus4.JPG (99.97 KiB) Viewed 2486 times

E_pectinatus5.JPG (83.07 KiB) Viewed 2486 times

E_pectinatus6.JPG (115.9 KiB) Viewed 2486 times

E_dasyacanthus.JPG (95.33 KiB) Viewed 2486 times

E_dasyacanthus2.JPG (157.57 KiB) Viewed 2486 times

E_dasyacanthus4.JPG (141.58 KiB) Viewed 2486 times

I hope, that whoever is viewing these images will enjoy the beauty of these cacti.

Harald

[keith]

The Echinocereus have wonderful flowers , thanks for the pictures. I grow a few myself but in Pots and I have one Echinocereus that is almost flowering but just one flower. its Echinocereus pectinatus looks like yours and is a Early flowering type my others are flowering later.

I also have a few echinocereus pectinatus v wenigeri 'ctenoides' with yellow orange flowers but don't know what the v. wenigeri 'ctenoides means ?

[mikethecactusguy]

They are always so pretty

[TimN]

Great stuff, H! Wonderful Echinocereus. I've identified two of my plants from your thread...