Gemhunter from now forward~

[gemhunter178]

My two E. subdenudata both had flowers this weekend--the older one had two and the younger, just one. Got pictures of them about 1 am. I've neglected to post photos recently as many of mine flower...very busy here.

Congrats on the flowers! ...and yes, I understand the busy part. All three flowers on my E. subdenudata bloomed yesterday and I got pictures at ~7AM. Probably won't have time to process them until this weekend...

That being said, here's some photos I processed last weekend!
This mini-theme for this post is "oddballs and experiments"

First off, I was able to get a +Myrtillocalycium 'Polyp' from Miles this year! If anyone was interested how the apex of a chimera looks with a macro, here you go!


Link: https://flic.kr/p/2gAuiYd

Second, here's my Delosperma 'flame' that started to have these weird growths where the stem would twist around in a way that all the leaves grow on one side. I even have some "spirals" that I might process the photos of later....


Link: https://flic.kr/p/2gAtHxi

And third, here's the "experiment" part: people have said you can grow Opuntia from green fruit....
Last year I trimmed my Opuntia humifusa for grafting material. Some pads had unripe fruits so I decided to try it out!

*Note, I put in like 15 fruit, only 2 remain, but they have this-

Link: https://www.flickr.com/gp/157149974@N06/00fR04

....I guess that's confirmed!

So, yes, there's a lot happening and I hope I can update you all soon!

[gemhunter178]

Some pictures of my Echinopsis subdenudata with 3 simultaneous blooms!
These are just three different views of it, taken around 6:30AM-8AM


Link: https://flic.kr/p/2gFrvuQ


Link: https://flic.kr/p/2gFrvWG

and here's a backlit one, showing how translucent these are!


Link: https://flic.kr/p/2gFse54

[gemhunter178]

Here's some flowers from seed grown plants! Both were 4 years seed-to-flower, though the Frailea produced seed last year (without blooming - they need it to be hot and sunny!)


Link: https://flic.kr/p/2gHB7Vv
This one above is Frailea buenekeri v. densispina, sown Feb. 14th, 12015, AH_54!


Link: https://flic.kr/p/2gHAoQx
This one is Gymnocalycium berchtii 'nataliae', which is also a nice, dark plant without the flower! Sown March 20th, 12015, STO 526

[gemhunter178]

I was going to have more flower pictures for today, but I got very busy. Instead, have two pictures of an Echeveria sp. that spontaneously defasciated and created a bunch of heads! A clearer picture of the defasciation point can be found here.


Link: https://flic.kr/p/2gMnCzt


Link: https://flic.kr/p/2gMnCfR

[Dodi Russell]

Interesting succulent.Are these crested succulents rare

[gemhunter178]

Interesting succulent.Are these crested succulents rare

Well, as the plant above has defasciated, it is no longer crested... (but it was a freak and therefore pretty uncommon)

That being said, the initial crest is uncommon to rare as it's a small chance a "normal" plant will become crested. Once crested though, crests can be multiplied and cloned ad infinitum in most cases, such as how cactus crests can be cloned by grafting. A non-cactus example that is often seen in stores is Euphorbia lactea crests - there are literal thousands of those around.
Unsure If I could've propagated this particular crest though.

[fanaticactus]

The Frailea and Gymno are beautiful, but those three simultaneous flowers on the Echinopsis subdenudata are striking. I've managed two at a time, but never three. I love the backlit photo. I snapped this photo of my last one to bloom and also like the lighting on it. I suspended a small LED flashlight from a cable above the flower for the effect.

DSC08286.JPG (39.92 KiB) Viewed 3664 times

[gemhunter178]

Very nice flower and picture! I do know mine tend to stay open well into the morning if you want to try a picture in sunlight!

For everyone else: I seem to be quite busy this week, so, no guarantees for an update this week. I can say I have some flower pictures though! They need processing...

[fanaticactus]

I actually did take some pictures the next morning. But I really liked the sort of ethereal beauty of the nighttime one.

DSC08289.JPG (62.76 KiB) Viewed 3616 times

[gemhunter178]

Oh nice! Did you pollinate them?
You could try an even brighter light if you want to see that nice subsurface scattering on the petals that I got with the sun backlighting!

Also, pulled some time to get these two pictures for you all -
Some flowers last week: a Echinopsis chamaecereus 'white peanut' and a Parodia (Notocactus) schlosseri!


Link: https://flic.kr/p/2gT88CJ


Link: https://flic.kr/p/2gT897K

[gemhunter178]

Apologies for not having the time to process some pictures this week, but, here's what to look forward to:

My Parodia (notocactus) rudibuenekeri and Copiapoa hypogaea bloomed! The latter was grown from seed given to me from another member years ago!
[no picture yet] I successfully saved one of those 'lollipops' (a Gymno on top of a Hylocereus) by grafting the last un-rotten areole to an Opuntia humifusa. We'll see how it turns out.

Hope everyone's week has gone well!

[fanaticactus]

I had a beautiful 'White Peanut', but it succumbed to mealies and, I think, some red spider as well. Yours looks great.

[Sarraceniacrazy]

Beautiful plants. Love that Dark gymno!

[gemhunter178]

Thank you for all the kind comments!

I have finally processed some of the photos from about two weeks ago, I'm holding off on that Copiapoa for next time. Most of these photos are actually part of a stack that I can focus stack, but I did not have the time for it... So, hope you enjoy anyway!

Parodia (Notocactus) rudibuenekeri

Link: https://flic.kr/p/2h3kX6L

Gymnocalycium anisitsii

Link: https://flic.kr/p/2h3kWQW

Notocactus (Parodia) roseoluteus

Link: https://flic.kr/p/2h3mEor

[gemhunter178]

As promised (though late,) here's a flower on my Copiapoa hypogaea that I grew from seed (Feb. 8th, 12015!) I backlit the flower to show its translucence!
One is earlier in the day and one is later (respectively)


Link: https://flic.kr/p/2h8BwrD


Link: https://flic.kr/p/2h8Bwxk