My flowering Cacti 2021

This is a place for members to post on-going topics about their plants and experiences.
Mrs.Green
Posts: 1083
Joined: Fri Oct 23, 2020 5:59 pm

Re: My flowering Cacti 2021

Post by Mrs.Green »

hegar wrote: Tue May 25, 2021 2:43 am Yes, Mrs. Green, some Opuntia spp. do have large and showy flowers. Those plants overall are also quite easy to cultivate. However, therein lies the problem. The prickly pear will outgrow most other cacti. It does not help its reputation, that in addition to spines, that group of cacti also does have glochids. :x
I do not see any reason, why the Echinocereus poselgery would not grow and flower on a windowsill. The problem with that cactus is its growth habit, i.e. forming long. thin stems, which tend to grow into every direction possible. So it would make sense, to reign those stems in and forcing them to grow more upright. I was thinking of using a tomato cage or some other structure to do just that.

Harald
Thank you Hegar. Those glochids..I still remember them after all these years ( about 40 in fact) nearly impossible to remove and left my fingers a bit swollen for several days. I bought several Opuntias and was careless handling them but I learned fast! Even so, it would be tempting to have some of those Opuntias in your post, if they didn’t got so big . My windowsills are pretty crowded already.
Great, I am tempted to order an E.poselgery , despite its unruly growth. As you say, it should be possible to ‘cage’ it, in some way.
User avatar
hegar
Posts: 4596
Joined: Mon Jan 23, 2006 4:04 am
Location: El Paso, Texas

Re: My flowering Cacti 2021

Post by hegar »

Hello Cactus Friends,
I have already missed two times this year the flowering of one of my Astrophytum capricorne, but not to worry, the plant will most likely bloom at least two more times this season.
Today, one of the not so showy cacti was in flower. It is the "pencil cholla" Opuntia leptocaulis. This plant is another native where I live. It does produce cute little red fruit, which the locals call "chilitos", i.e. little chili peppers. The plant does form a shrub with pretty tough woody stems.
A little over a week ago I went ahead and gave this plant a severe cut-back, because it was overgrowing the other cacti.
Here are two digital images showing what is left of the shrub and a close-up of its flowers.

Harald
O_leptocaulis1.JPG
O_leptocaulis1.JPG (170.06 KiB) Viewed 4989 times
O_leptocaulis3.JPG
O_leptocaulis3.JPG (92.56 KiB) Viewed 4989 times
User avatar
hegar
Posts: 4596
Joined: Mon Jan 23, 2006 4:04 am
Location: El Paso, Texas

Re: My flowering Cacti 2021

Post by hegar »

Hello Cactus Friends,
over this weekend there was an almost total lull as far as anything of my cactus collection being in flower. Today though, at least one of my Turbinicarpus plants produced a blossom. This T. schmiedickeanus ssp. klinkerianus is blooming the second time, the first time was on May 1st.

Harald
T_schmiedickeanus ssp klinkerianus5.JPG
T_schmiedickeanus ssp klinkerianus5.JPG (88.02 KiB) Viewed 4950 times
T_schmiedickeanus ssp klinkerianus8.JPG
T_schmiedickeanus ssp klinkerianus8.JPG (73.85 KiB) Viewed 4950 times
Mrs.Green
Posts: 1083
Joined: Fri Oct 23, 2020 5:59 pm

Re: My flowering Cacti 2021

Post by Mrs.Green »

Hello Hegar :) I really liked that pencil cholla! Is this cactus a rare ? As in rarely seen for sale? Can’t remember to have seen it before.
User avatar
hegar
Posts: 4596
Joined: Mon Jan 23, 2006 4:04 am
Location: El Paso, Texas

Re: My flowering Cacti 2021

Post by hegar »

Hello Mrs. Green,
the pencil cholla is one of the most common cacti growing in the wild around where I live, exceeded in numbers by only the pad-forming prickly pear Opuntia cacti. Whenever my cactus club participates in a "Plant Rescue Mission", nobody saves that plant, because even we consider it more of a weedy nuisance than a desirable collection cactus.
I did bring a small plant home, mainly to use its branches or cladodes to keep feral cacts from digging around in the cactus beds, when they prepare to defecate.
My tiny plant grew into a multi-stemmed shrub and started to shade out and overgrow my other cacti. The major stems are woody, but the thin green stem segments do break off easily and will sprout roots readily. That, in addition to the seed produced by the red fruit, will make growing of the cactus problematic, at least if it is not contained in a pot. I constantly have to weed around the plant and remove the seedlings that are sprouting like crazy. The flowers are small and their color almost blends in with the stems. The only attractive thing about this plant is perhaps the red fruit, which will stay on the cactus and adds some color during the cold part of the year.

I venture the guess, that what I did write in the paragraph above, would most likely explain, why this plant is not easily found for sale. I did find a few vendors, when I googled. Most of those were for a hybrid though, with one parent having been Opuntia kleiniae. The latter does have thicker stems and a red blossom, which would make it a more attractive plant.

Harald
Mrs.Green
Posts: 1083
Joined: Fri Oct 23, 2020 5:59 pm

Re: My flowering Cacti 2021

Post by Mrs.Green »

Thank you Hegar, your reply got me thinking of the saying; ‘one man’s trash is another man’s fortune’ :) I understand why it isn’t much demand for the cactus in your area but I would have gladly paid for it. But off course this isn’t unique for this plant , I guess there are a lot of plants that are seen as weeds in their native country who would sell well other places.

Talking about weeds..the ground elder ( Aegopodium podagraria) is a much hated plant by many gardeners. They try to eliminate it at all all costs . The crazy thing is, people pay for variegated ground elders and plant it in their garden..
User avatar
hegar
Posts: 4596
Joined: Mon Jan 23, 2006 4:04 am
Location: El Paso, Texas

Re: My flowering Cacti 2021

Post by hegar »

Hello Cactus Friends,
not much has been going on for the last week. There was a final flower on my lager Echinocereus reichenbachii on June 10th. Today, I did notice the first blossom on my recently transplanted Opuntia engelmannii. That plant had become rather large and developend a tendency to fall over.
It did receive too much water and the top growth became too heavy for the roots to hold the plant in place, when the soil became wet.
Now the cactus is planted along the back-dide rock wall, where it will not be regularly watered.
I did keep this prickly pear cactus, because this specimen does produce an organge (red) blossom, while the regular O. engelmannii does produce a yellow flower. Also, this species of prickly pear does produce a good-tasting fruit, which the native people here call "tuna".
The usual flowering period for this plant would be from around mid April to the beginning of May. However, I believe, that the transplanting did postpone the blooming date of the cactus.

Harald
O_engelmannii red2.JPG
O_engelmannii red2.JPG (101.58 KiB) Viewed 4742 times
O_engelmannii red3.JPG
O_engelmannii red3.JPG (88.67 KiB) Viewed 4742 times
User avatar
hegar
Posts: 4596
Joined: Mon Jan 23, 2006 4:04 am
Location: El Paso, Texas

Re: My flowering Cacti 2021

Post by hegar »

Hello Cactus Friends,

this weekend not much did flower, perhaps due to the extreme heat wave we are experiencing at this time. Today, the mercury reached 109 degrees Fahrenheit!
I did have one blossom on my Echinocereus reichenbachii and another one of one of my Astrophytum capricorne plants (see attached images below).

Harald
E_reichenbachii10.JPG
E_reichenbachii10.JPG (136.91 KiB) Viewed 4665 times
Astro_capricorne7.JPG
Astro_capricorne7.JPG (125.18 KiB) Viewed 4665 times
Astro_capricorne8.JPG
Astro_capricorne8.JPG (102.21 KiB) Viewed 4665 times
User avatar
hegar
Posts: 4596
Joined: Mon Jan 23, 2006 4:04 am
Location: El Paso, Texas

Re: My flowering Cacti 2021

Post by hegar »

Hello Cactus Friends,
after a lengthy dry spell, we did have finally a few cooler days and even some rain. My cacti did have a tough time this year, first having to survive the drop of the usually morderate temperatures to 11 degrees F, then having only a short spring, followed by very hot and dry conditions. Some of my plants did get both frozen and burnt in short order and do not look good at all. Worst of all, a large number of flower buds look like they have been toasted and will not produce any blossoms.
The two exceptions have been my Echinocereus reichenbachii, which did bloom twice, including producing a blossom yesterday and the day before and the to me native cactus Escobaria tuberculosa.
There are, however, a few more plants, which will most likely flower within a week or so. So, not all is lost! :)
Today one of those did open its first blossom. It does not look damaged, because it is protected from too much sunlight by the larger plants around it, mostly Opuntia spp.
So, I am posting two images of my Echinocereus viereckii var. morricalli. Last year the plant had only one blossom, which was open on May 19th.
I will most likely see several flowers on it this time around.

Harald
E_viereckii var morricalli1.JPG
E_viereckii var morricalli1.JPG (110.26 KiB) Viewed 4518 times
E_viereckii var morricalli2.JPG
E_viereckii var morricalli2.JPG (103.66 KiB) Viewed 4518 times
User avatar
hegar
Posts: 4596
Joined: Mon Jan 23, 2006 4:04 am
Location: El Paso, Texas

Re: My flowering Cacti 2021

Post by hegar »

Hello Cactus Friends,
today there were three cacti in flower. One late blossom was produced by my largest Echinocereus pentalophus plant, which usually does bloom profusely. However, it is in a semi-shaded location, which delayed flowering. By the time the plant was about ready to bloom we did have the very hot weather. I am not sure, if there are more blossoms going to follow. At least the plant seems to have recovered a bit and its stems are not as reddish-purplish as they were before. My wife was so nice to take the image, although she is not fond of cacti. :)
E_pentalophus10.jpg
E_pentalophus10.jpg (121.07 KiB) Viewed 4475 times
Another cactus my wife did photograph is the Echinocereus viereckii var. morricalli. I did see one open blossom on one of the stems. However, today it did produce a total of four flowers, while I was at work.
E_viereckii morricalli4.jpg
E_viereckii morricalli4.jpg (155.19 KiB) Viewed 4475 times
The last flowering cactus was also blooming during my absence. So my wife once again "came to the rescue" and took a few photos. The first one shown is a larger plant and it produces very large blossoms. By the time I arrived home, the flower was closed. The second, smaller plant does have smaller flowers, but it has spines, that are nicer colored. It is the last image presented here and I took it shortly before 7 p.m..
The plant is a Thelocactus heterochromus. It does seem to bloom only once every year, but the plant looks good without blossoms and great, when flowers are present.
T_heterochromus4.jpg
T_heterochromus4.jpg (138.63 KiB) Viewed 4475 times
T_heterochromus6.JPG
T_heterochromus6.JPG (109.26 KiB) Viewed 4475 times

Harald
User avatar
hegar
Posts: 4596
Joined: Mon Jan 23, 2006 4:04 am
Location: El Paso, Texas

Re: My flowering Cacti 2021

Post by hegar »

Hello Cactus Friends,
the repeated rainfall lately did have a very invigorating effect on most of my cacti. The plants not only did get rather plump, but also their buds started to swell, unless of course the prior heat wave had killed them.
There was quite an assortment flowering the last two days. I am going to show you what did bloom today.
First up some blossoms of my Echinocereus cinarescens clump. I did arrive too late from work today and did not get to see the flowers fully open. Perhaps I will have more luck tomorrow.
E_cinarescens1.JPG
E_cinarescens1.JPG (179.65 KiB) Viewed 4438 times
E_cinarescens2.JPG
E_cinarescens2.JPG (128.32 KiB) Viewed 4438 times
Also my Echinocereus pentalophus produced a number of blossoms. The second plant, which is in a sunnier location, did bloom several weeks ago.
E_pentalophus13.JPG
E_pentalophus13.JPG (151.58 KiB) Viewed 4438 times
Not to be outdone, the spineless Echinocereus viereckii var. morricalli had a few colorful blossoms.
E_viereckii var morricalli5.JPG
E_viereckii var morricalli5.JPG (133.93 KiB) Viewed 4438 times
There were also two Echinopsis specimens in bloom. The first one is my Echinopsis eyriesii. The clump is pretty large, but the plant decided to only have half of it flower today. The other half will do its thing tonight. The flowers do stay open until almost noon the following day.
Echinopsis eyriesii1.JPG
Echinopsis eyriesii1.JPG (164.96 KiB) Viewed 4438 times
Echinopsis eyriesii 2.JPG
Echinopsis eyriesii 2.JPG (141.54 KiB) Viewed 4438 times
Echinopsis eyriesii4.JPG
Echinopsis eyriesii4.JPG (113.37 KiB) Viewed 4438 times
The other Echinopsis produces smaller flowers of an intense red color. Tomorrow perhaps it will have multiple blossoms open and I will add another photo or two.
Echinopsis sp2.jpg
Echinopsis sp2.jpg (155.6 KiB) Viewed 4438 times
My Mammillaria grahamii also tried to bloom, but was not overly successful :)
M_grahamii1.JPG
M_grahamii1.JPG (138.5 KiB) Viewed 4438 times
Unfortunately, I did arrive too late to get a good photo of the Thelocactus bicolor, which produced two blossoms on its stem.
Thelo_bicolor3.JPG
Thelo_bicolor3.JPG (114.16 KiB) Viewed 4438 times
Last, but not least, is the pretty Thelocactus rinconensis var. freudenbergii. I did take the first photo before going to work and my wife did take the one showing both blossoms wide open.
Thelo_rinconensis var freudenbergii1.JPG
Thelo_rinconensis var freudenbergii1.JPG (135.77 KiB) Viewed 4438 times
Thelo_rinconensis var freudenbergii3.jpg
Thelo_rinconensis var freudenbergii3.jpg (150.78 KiB) Viewed 4438 times
This is all for the day. Perhaps something will flower tomorrow or at least within the next few days. I shall keep my fingers crossed! :)


Harald
User avatar
hegar
Posts: 4596
Joined: Mon Jan 23, 2006 4:04 am
Location: El Paso, Texas

Re: My flowering Cacti 2021

Post by hegar »

Hello Cactus Friends,
during the last few days more cacti did proceed to flower. So I am posting 14 images showing them in bloom.
The first one does finally show my Echinocereus cinarescens with wide open flowers. This cactus usually does produce a lot more blossoms, but this year, perhaps because of the cold snap and following heat wave was not conducive to a larger flower production.
E_cinerascens3.jpg
E_cinerascens3.jpg (199.67 KiB) Viewed 4365 times
Also, the pretty native to the El Paso area cactus Echinocactus horizonthalonius came into bloom. This plant will flower beautifully a few days after we receive a desert rain. We are now in our "monsoon season" and it did indeed rain two days in a row. :)
Echinocac_horizonthalonius1.jpg
Echinocac_horizonthalonius1.jpg (211.17 KiB) Viewed 4365 times
Echinocac_horizonthalonius3.jpg
Echinocac_horizonthalonius3.jpg (137.84 KiB) Viewed 4365 times
Echinocac_horizonthalonius6.jpg
Echinocac_horizonthalonius6.jpg (122.51 KiB) Viewed 4365 times
Another cactus, which bloomed was my Echinocereus stramineus. This plant did flower on May 11th and now produced one more blossom. The flowers of this cactus are rather large and the fruit is delicious, tasting like strawberry.
E_stramineus6.JPG
E_stramineus6.JPG (147.18 KiB) Viewed 4365 times
E_stramineus7.JPG
E_stramineus7.JPG (141.4 KiB) Viewed 4365 times
E_stramineus9.JPG
E_stramineus9.JPG (124.76 KiB) Viewed 4365 times
User avatar
hegar
Posts: 4596
Joined: Mon Jan 23, 2006 4:04 am
Location: El Paso, Texas

Re: My flowering Cacti 2021

Post by hegar »

I was interrupted and shall now continue to post the remainder of the images.
Next in line is the "peanut cactus" Echinopsis chamaecereus. This small, low-growing cactus does flower repeatedly during the growing season.
Echinop_chamaecereus5.JPG
Echinop_chamaecereus5.JPG (139.19 KiB) Viewed 4360 times
The next image does show two flowering cacti, the white-pink flowers of Echinopsis eyriesii and the pink-flowered Echinocereus cinarescens. On the right side of the latter the spent flowers of the Echinocereus pentalophus are visible. Having the cacti all in the ground does cause problems every once in a while, if the cacti do form clumps and start to crowd each other.This is the case for those three and it is even more problematic, if the neighbor cactus is a prickly pear, as is the case with my Echinocereus stramineus plants.

Echinopsis eyriesii and  E_cinarescens plus pentalophus.JPG
Echinopsis eyriesii and E_cinarescens plus pentalophus.JPG (158.34 KiB) Viewed 4360 times
My red-blooming Echnopsis - not sure about the species (it may be a hybrid) - also did a nice floral display.
Echinopsis4.jpg
Echinopsis4.jpg (178.89 KiB) Viewed 4360 times
Echinopsis5.jpg
Echinopsis5.jpg (131.52 KiB) Viewed 4360 times
Another native to the area here cactus that flowers several times a year is the Escobaria tuberculosa
Esc_tuberculosa9.jpg
Esc_tuberculosa9.jpg (163.02 KiB) Viewed 4360 times
The final two images show a repeat performance this year of my two Turbinicarpus horripilus cacti. This is one of the larger-bodied species of the genus Turbinicarpus. The flowers are quite noticeable and occording to Mr. Miles from the Miles-2-Go nursery, this cactus does form clumps.
T_horripilus8.JPG
T_horripilus8.JPG (139.05 KiB) Viewed 4360 times
T_horripilus11.JPG
T_horripilus11.JPG (81.45 KiB) Viewed 4360 times
This is all for this week. I do hope, that in addition to a few Ariocarpus images in late fall, there will be some more blossoms appearing on my plants. It would be nice, to especially show a cactus, which has never flowered in my garden.


Harald
User avatar
dinfelu
Posts: 588
Joined: Tue Sep 25, 2018 7:00 pm
Location: tlalpan in México city

Re: My flowering Cacti 2021

Post by dinfelu »

Hello Harald

I really liked your Echinocactus horizonthalonius

what beautiful flowers and the body of the cactus is impressive

regards
🌵 Gabriel
User avatar
hegar
Posts: 4596
Joined: Mon Jan 23, 2006 4:04 am
Location: El Paso, Texas

Re: My flowering Cacti 2021

Post by hegar »

Hello Cactus Friends,
@ Gabriel (dinfelu): I agree with you. Of our "local" cacti the Eagle Claw (Echinocactus horizonthalonius) is a nice plant, even when not in flower.
But it is very difficult, if not impossible, to pick a favorite. There are several, which are in contention e.g.: Echinocereus dasyacanthus, Echinocereus coccineus, Echinocereus stramineus, etc., all of which do have abundant beauty. :)

Well, today - when I returned home from work - another cactus was just in the process of closing its blossoms. This is a very vigorous kind of cactus that does grow quickly to a good size. It also does flower repeatedly. The blossoms, although of a good size, are not the prettiest ones though.
The inside is all yellow, even the pistil does have a lighly yellow color. The plant is named Ferocactus hamatacanthus.
Perhaps I can take another photo tomorrow morning, before I am going to work, shortly before 9 a.m. Perhaps the blossoms will open up once more. If not, it will most likely bloom again in August.

Harald
F_hamatacanthus1.JPG
F_hamatacanthus1.JPG (156 KiB) Viewed 4295 times
F_hamatacanthus2.JPG
F_hamatacanthus2.JPG (156.77 KiB) Viewed 4295 times
F_hamatacanthus4.jpg
F_hamatacanthus4.jpg (109.16 KiB) Viewed 4295 times
Post Reply