ferrocactus blooming??

[ilariav]

I have a Ferrocactus emoryi that I have had for several years now. It was tiny when I purchased it and it is still fairly small, I know they get very large. Anyone know how big they generally must be before they bloom? Am I just going to enjoy the excellent spines for the next 20 years? Or, is it possible that it will bloom for me sometime sooner?

[ilariav]

Oh, oops, Ferocactus, not Ferrocactus

[teo]

Depends on the species - my F. macrodiscus bloomed for the first time about 8 years from seed - and it is one of the youngest to bloom (I think)

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[anttisepp]

I was thinking the same at beginning but now about half of all my ferocacti bloom.
Emoryi is old and big enough but hadn't bloom yet. I heard it have to be about size of football to bloom.

[ilariav]

Oh, mine has a ways to go until it is football sized. It grows every year and it has lovely and huge red spines, so it's nice even not blooming, but I like to see if I can get all my plants to bloom.

[greenknight]

My F. pilosus is now about 6" in diameter inside the spines. I hope it will bloom before it gets very large, since I have to move it under cover when it rains. To get some that should bloom when small, I planted some Ferocactus fordii subsp. borealis from seed, now 2 years old. Got about a dozen of them, they can bloom when only 4" or so in diameter.

[7george]

Here they are: first or second time bloomers of F. emoryi in Phoenix DBG.




Sometimes even smaller. This one is a potted plant from another forum:

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