For how long must a cactus have been in your care, before you can take credit for its flowering?

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Mrs.Green
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For how long must a cactus have been in your care, before you can take credit for its flowering?

Post by Mrs.Green »

As the heading says, how long do you think a cactus must have been in your care, before you can take credit for flowering?
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ohugal
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Re: For how long must a cactus have been in your care, before you can take credit for its flowering?

Post by ohugal »

Well it's quite the opposite with me. I've had some cacti which flowered shortly after purchasing them and a year later they don't (due to not enough sunlight and absence of winter rest). So I guess a year? Having a cactus flower due to your own care and not somebody else's is very rewarding.
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Mrs.Green
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Re: For how long must a cactus have been in your care, before you can take credit for its flowering?

Post by Mrs.Green »

ohugal wrote: Sun Apr 24, 2022 3:19 pm Well it's quite the opposite with me. I've had some cacti which flowered shortly after purchasing them and a year later they don't (due to not enough sunlight and absence of winter rest). So I guess a year? Having a cactus flower due to your own care and not somebody else's is very rewarding.
Last summer several cacti with no visible buds when bought, flowered for me. But these were bought earlier in the year, so I don’t think it’s my excellent care that brought them to flowering.. :P But I see buds on some of them now, so like you I think it at least partly due to my care/conditions. I agree, it’s really awarding and when starting over with cacti again, I didn’t expect flowers, thinking that my less than ideal conditions from a cactus point of wiew, would lead to any flowers.
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7george
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Re: For how long must a cactus have been in your care, before you can take credit for its flowering?

Post by 7george »

Do you care about some credit? We don't even have likes or up-voting here. Flowers are flowers even just been brought from other place into your home. I sometimes post photos of blooming cacti that are not mine. Sometimes of habitat plants (that I deserve credit of finding or shooting)?

Flowers on our own seedlings deserve to be shown and admired for sure.
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First flower on this my seedling, still blooming today. :D
If your cacti mess in your job just forget about the job.
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One Windowsill
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Re: For how long must a cactus have been in your care, before you can take credit for its flowering?

Post by One Windowsill »

Two days. You haven't killed them in that time, you get credit.
Mrs.Green
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Re: For how long must a cactus have been in your care, before you can take credit for its flowering?

Post by Mrs.Green »

7george; apparently my English is even worse than I feared.. :shock: Credit was obviously the wrong word. I didn’t mean credit as in praise from others, but more as a proof to myself that I at least do something right . Unless the poor plants see me as a lousy keeper and think that their only hope is flowering before death, hoping to at least passing their genes on.

One Windowsill; Dang! I must be a real expert then ! None of my plants have died after only two days :lol:
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MrXeric
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Re: For how long must a cactus have been in your care, before you can take credit for its flowering?

Post by MrXeric »

I know I am doing something right when I can see new growth on plants after their first winter rest in my care. That said, I have several plants that haven't shown any growth (or decline) in over 2 years. :lol: I repotted some of them just before the spring this year, and the roots look pretty much unchanged from when I first got them. Guess they don't like it here much. :lol:
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Re: For how long must a cactus have been in your care, before you can take credit for its flowering?

Post by DaveW »

In the UK there used to be a required possession time of a year before entering in shows to prove you could grow not kill it. Also mainly to stop those with big chequebooks going out and purchasing a prizewinning plant and putting it in the next weeks show to gain trophies. However this proved unenforceable so was dropped since no doubt some just ignored it.

We all have plants we have obtained that we can take little credit for most of their growth. Even more in the pre-CITES days when mature plants decades old were obtained straight from habitat.
Mrs.Green
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Re: For how long must a cactus have been in your care, before you can take credit for its flowering?

Post by Mrs.Green »

MrXeric wrote: Mon Apr 25, 2022 5:52 am I know I am doing something right when I can see new growth on plants after their first winter rest in my care. That said, I have several plants that haven't shown any growth (or decline) in over 2 years. :lol: I repotted some of them just before the spring this year, and the roots look pretty much unchanged from when I first got them. Guess they don't like it here much. :lol:
Thank you MrXeric :) Good point, new growth is a good sign. But flowers are even better, if the plant is big/old enough I gather ?
DaveW wrote: Mon Apr 25, 2022 9:10 am In the UK there used to be a required possession time of a year before entering in shows to prove you could grow not kill it. Also mainly to stop those with big chequebooks going out and purchasing a prizewinning plant and putting it in the next weeks show to gain trophies. However this proved unenforceable so was dropped since no doubt some just ignored it.

We all have plants we have obtained that we can take little credit for most of their growth. Even more in the pre-CITES days when mature plants decades old were obtained straight from habitat.
Thank you DaveW :) The one year rule seemed fine in theory but Ican see why it was dropped.. Unless one bought an easily recognizable plant, I guess a seller could be persuaded to backdate the receitpt for the right price.

Regarding pre-CITES; it would be interesting to know how many percent of the cacti in cultivation now iare habitat collected.
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jerrytheplater
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Re: For how long must a cactus have been in your care, before you can take credit for its flowering?

Post by jerrytheplater »

I have always gone by the one year time span before I could be happy with myself for seeing a plant flower. A full growing cycle.
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Mrs.Green
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Re: For how long must a cactus have been in your care, before you can take credit for its flowering?

Post by Mrs.Green »

jerrytheplater wrote: Mon Apr 25, 2022 4:56 pm I have always gone by the one year time span before I could be happy with myself for seeing a plant flower. A full growing cycle.
Thank you Jerrytheplater :) I also assumed that about a year, would be right. On the other hand..only one flowering may not be enough to declare ‘success’ ? :-k Given that the conditions are about the same the following years but no new flowers, ones skills aren’t that great after all? :P
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jerrytheplater
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Re: For how long must a cactus have been in your care, before you can take credit for its flowering?

Post by jerrytheplater »

Well, if you purchase a mature blooming sized plant with buds they don't count toward you. If they bloom 6 months from purchase, maybe from you, but I don't count it. Bloom one year after purchase, counts towards me. Does not bloom within a year and is a mature plant and not a seedling, I am doing something wrong-but, some plants do require 7 or more years from sowing to bloom. This knocks the whole system out of whack. That means I have to know what I am purchasing.
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Fatich
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Re: For how long must a cactus have been in your care, before you can take credit for its flowering?

Post by Fatich »

My Mammillaria giselae seedlings flowered just in 8 months after i sowed the seeds.
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MrXeric
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Re: For how long must a cactus have been in your care, before you can take credit for its flowering?

Post by MrXeric »

Mrs.Green wrote: Mon Apr 25, 2022 3:34 pm Thank you MrXeric :) Good point, new growth is a good sign. But flowers are even better, if the plant is big/old enough I gather ?
I'm not so sure flowering is a good measure for how well we take care of our plants. Cacti do flower in habitat where conditions can be downright abusive compared to our coddling in cultivation. And as Fatich has stated:
Fatich wrote: Tue Apr 26, 2022 6:42 pm My Mammillaria giselae seedlings flowered just in 8 months after i sowed the seeds.
some cacti can flower early in their seedling stage, which may point to excellent seedling care, but since seedling care is different than caring for mature plants, it may not mean much to your skill as a cactus grower. :)

Also, Fatich, that is amazing! I like early bloomers and I like Mammillaria so I will be sowing some of these soon.
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Re: For how long must a cactus have been in your care, before you can take credit for its flowering?

Post by DaveW »

As Xeric implies there was an old saying "a near death experience will encourage some planta's to flower" obviously in order to pass on their genes in the form of seed that can withstand conditions in habitat that may kill the plants themselves. Maybe not entirely true, but hard grown plants do sometimes flower before than those grown lusher. However initial flowering cannot always be taken as proving good cultivation, but regular flowering maybe can .
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