If it's not flowering NOW, then it has buds and it WILL

[WayneByerly]

I thought I would post a couple of pictures ... well, 19 of them actually ... to illustrate what my collection is starting to do this spring. So I won't bore you with long speaches ... and i'll just get to the pictures ...

1) Astrophytum myriostigma

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The flowers below are only the size of the fingernail of my smallest finger.
2) Echeveria lucita

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Not only is this cactus offsetting like mad, it's also producing flowers, even as small as it is! Sorry the system has turned this picture sideways.
3) Echinopsis chamaecereus 'Rose Quartz'

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I told you all, in another topic somewhere ... that I would keep you updated on what this cactus was doing. It's only got 2 buds, but those buds will make THE most spectacular flowers.
4) Echinopsis oxygona

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This cactus is still my favorite of all of my cacti. I've even used pics of it's flowers as my avatar.
5) Gymnocalycium mihanovichi v. rysanekianum

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The last time I looked at this cactus, there were three buds on it. Now there are five.
6) Hamatocactus setispinus

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This will make large 4" brilliant yellow flowers.
7) Lobivia aurea v leucomalla

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This cactus did the same thing with these little brown buds. But then just as I thought they would bloom, the cactus sucked them back in.
Mammillaria baumii

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9) Mammillaria crinita ssp wildii

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10 and 11 bloomed all winter long ...
10) Mammillaria dixantrocentron

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11) Mammillaria formosa ssp microthele

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This cactus got to be about 8 inches or so tall ... and I killed it with too much water. So I cut the top off, and a couple of the offsets, laid them on dry soil, and these two pieces here are what took root and survived. It's been a couple of years since I made the cutting, and this is the first time it's flowered since then.
12) Mammillaria fraileana

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This cactus also flowered all winter long, and NOW, it's starting to offset ... but not from the base ... from it's sides ... go figure.
13) Mammillaria hahniana

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The dichotomous growth of this cactus is something that I find extremely attractive for some reason.
14) Mammillaria karwinskiana

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the long white white equally long, equally spaced spines provide such a uniformity of design ... it appeals to me greatly.
15) Mammillaria spinosissima cv 'un pico'

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The "Red Headed Irishman" is not so red as some specimens I have seen. Maybe I should cut the top off, replant that and discard the rest. Maybe THAT woiuld be redder ... like the TOP is...
16) Mammillaria spinosissima

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17) Parodia eurbescens

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There are two plantings of this. One is the parent, and the other is the cutting. Between the two there are 12 buds, and they produces enormous 5" white flowers. I can't wait to show you the pictures!!!
18) Tricocereus grandiflorus (cutting)

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19) Tricocereus grandiflorus (parent)

Tricocereus grandiflorus.jpg (108.18 KiB) Viewed 2738 times

[cactidan]

Some very nice plants, the lobivia is my favourite one. I would say however that number 12 isn't M. fraileana, not sure what it actually is though.

[WayneByerly]

Between the two pots of Trichocereus grandiflorus, i've got 13 buds. The first bud opened this morning and I couldn't wait to post pictures. Also Included here are pics of my Echinopsis oxygona, which has two buds (ONLY two... bummer) and is not quite blooming, but I thought that as long as I was already posting pictures, that I would give you all an update so that you could see how that was doing. Okay... 'nuff said...

... here's the pics.
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E. Oxygona ... details will follow when it opens up.

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T. grandiflorus

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You can't even see all the buds...

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[WayneByerly]

Oh MAN!!!

I was replying to a post elsewhere in the Forum here, and needed to go outside to the greenhouse to get the measurements of a cactus that I was talking about in my reply. And I found that my Echinopsis oxygona and the smaller container of my Trichocereus grandiflorus has bloomed. At night!

So naturally, I cant wait to show them to you. Magnificent flowers! Too bad its nighttime and my lighting just won't support good photography...

I am slightly puzzled... The Trichocereus grandiflorus only produced two flowers last year... and they were 5" (12.7cm) across. I cannot help but wonder why they are only 3" (7.6cm) wide this year

So... here they are...

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[ElieEstephane]

Oh wow wayne these are amazing! You should totally try to make hybrids

[WayneByerly]

Thanks Elie... your opinion is appreciated and valued.

I just read something last night that said while Trichocereus are not nominally self-fertile, it is possible to use the pollen of other cacti to fool it into pollinating itself.

And I've got the Echinopsis oxygona that I can extract pollen from to apply to the flowers of my Trichocereus grandiflorus. And although I don't have a lot of certainty that that will accomplish anything, the flowers look enough alike each other that I think I'm going to try.

And I've got two Echinopsis hybrids that while they are not quite old enough to flower, they will be in the future. So in a year or two I think, I'll be able to use those with that in mind!

And here are a couple more that havr opened up since last nite.

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[stephanelli]

These are beautiful! I love those yellow flowers! It always amazes me of the beauty that some cacti have when in bloom.

[WayneByerly]

This Echinopsis chamaecereus is a new cactus for me ... one I acquired just recently. And I am truly surprised that it produced any flowers, it being only 3.5 to 4 inches tall or so. But it DID produce two, and they are spectacular ... to MY eye anyway. At least enough to think that MAYBE someone would like to see them. Some of them were taken outside, and some were taken inside, thinking that perhaps the bright morning sun would wash out some of the colors. These pictures, taken day before yesterday, don't really do the flowers justice ... they had deep red/purple hilights that just don't show in the pictures ... heavy sigh ...
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Left and right...

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Left ...

2) Echinopsis chamaecereus.jpg (78.24 KiB) Viewed 2453 times

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Right ...

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I literally stood in front of these last two pictures with my mouth hanging open. The color is soooo ... well, red! I don't think that I needed to worry about the sun washing out THESE colors! I really hope that this cactus produces more than two next year.

4) Echinopsis chamaecereus.jpg (59.92 KiB) Viewed 2453 times

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Cactus Envy Blues (sung to the tune of "Riders of the Storm" by The Doors)

5) Echinopsis chamaecereus.jpg (64.06 KiB) Viewed 2453 times

[ElieEstephane]

Gorgeous!

[WayneByerly]

These cacti flowered today.

First is a Mammillaria baumii. This is the first year that this Cactus flowered. In the prior 2 years it has produced these little brown bugs all over. But then it was like "hey, I don't think I can deal with this" . And then it sucked them all back in. They just disappeared without blooming . This picture I've taken only has one flower in it right at this moment. I've composed it this way to show the relatively high number of buds on it. I'll post another picture later as more of these buds erupt, but for now it just shows the one flower.

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The other Cactus is a Parodia eurbescens. And although it's got 10 or 12 buds on it, clustered up together to right at the top, it only has three flowers blooming currently.

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But now that I'm here, I thought I'd post one more picture. My Echinopsis oxygona flowered the other day, and when it did I posted a picture of it. But they were pictures that I took of it during the day. The cactus had actually opened up at night ... about three or four oclock in the morning. I got a couple of pictures of it then, with artificial lighting, and it was just the tiniest bit more dramatic. So here's the "in the dark" pictures.

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[WayneByerly]

An update on buds/flowers

Mammillaria baumii
This is what I've been waiting for. For some more of the buds to open up. This looks a little more interesting than my last post of this cactus where there was only one flower open. As you can see there are still a number of buds that need to open.

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And here's a close-up.

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This Cactus started out with 10 or 12 buds, and 5 is as many flowers as I've seen on it at any one time.

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Hamatocactus setispinus
This Cactus has produced six or eight buds, and the last (and the first) flower opened up about three weeks ago. Since then I've been waiting for the buds to mature enough to open up. The flowers aren't very spectacular, they're yellow like many cactus flowers are, but they've got a really pretty orange Center

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Mammillaria crinita ssp wildii
This Cactus has been presenting 3 to 5 flowers at a time for the last 3 or 4 weeks. As quick as those go away, a new set pops-up. It must have produced 35 flowers or so in the last month. Again, you're not very spectacular, but I do really like the soft highlights on these non-showy flowers.

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Euphorbia horrida noorsveldensis red
Speaking of not being very spectacular, there's this Euphorbia. They're not very showy, butI think it's kind of interesting the way they're set out on the ends of spines the way they are. The flowers will eventually die and fall off, but the spines remain and will turn a dark reddish color which eventually Fades to Brown or tan. Hence the red in the name of this Euphorbia.

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Lobivia aurea v leucomalla
I think this Cactus is trying to tell me it's done for the year.

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