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Hi I posted this elsewhere but maybe this will be better. Mine are only 18" Tall what is this one doing?

Growing -- the plant hasn't set any buds yet.

My other youngsters are all breaking out in growth right now. Flooding their pots every 10 days seems to make them happy. I’ve always wanted a forest of these since I was like 10 years old.
As to the National Park Service link confirming the flowering age at 35, that makes sense, considering an optimal Arizona specimen would probably have reached 6 feet in that time.
Mine having been in a pot for a number of years before planting in the ground has limited it to an inch per year.
So it’s acting it’s age if not it’s stature. Good then, that’s settled. I’m still a proud dad.
Now I’m sure I won’t ever see it throw up any arms.
For that I need to rely on more capable species. Like my Browningia microsperma, displayed here at the Spring San Jose show.

There are some south American echinopsis called "saguaro" that look like saguaros and grow much faster, but none look as stately as the original, imo.

Yours are some of the nicest I've seen in cultivation. Well done

Thank you. I never know with some of the species if its flowering or if its just growth.

How old are these Saguaro? I have what appears to be 4 specimens that are now 11 years old. I do not believe that I will live long enough to see them flower, as I am now 66 years old.

"When a saguaro reaches 35 years of age it begins to produce flowers"

They should always qualify such statements with "on average" since some may flower younger and some very much older.

Today is the payoff. The bees should get wind of it in awhile.
Shown here towering over my longest tenured cactus- also in flower, and a habitat neighbor- which I’ll call Ferocactus acanthodes because that was its name when I got it around 1979.
So, thanks for watching with me. It’s very cool that despite all of my work in the greenhouses on rare, sensitive or otherwise more “important” cacti, that a dumb old Saguaro gave me a top seasonal event.
I’m like a kid again.

Congratulations!

Awesome. Thanks for sharing

congratulations

Nice one! Congrats on the flower!

You must be doing everything right, to have a saguaro cactus flower while still being rather young.
I was also under the false assumption, that this kind of cactus will only bloom, once it is large (tall) enough to form side branches.
I hope, that next year you get a repeat performance with more flowers to boot.

Harald

Thanks for all the feedback.
The Saguaro flower lasted one day. It’s all brown and gone. But there’s always something blooming.
So following suit with a similar looking flower from yesterday on a Pilosocereus calcisaxicolus, or P. superfloccosus if you’re so inclined. Surrounded by some of my other columnars that I really like.

This is great information .I never knew a saguaro could flower at 3 feet in height .