CactiGuide.com

M.elongata is a very common cactus here, a plant you can see in ‘every’ household, that has cacti as one of their houseplants. Yet I can hardly remember having seen much flowering on these, either from pics or IRL. Having a couple of the yellow spined myself, one bought last year and the other i have had two or three years. They have made a lot of offsprings for sure but not a single flower or bud. One is kept in an unheated room all year an the other one in the livingroom.

I found this plant not laong ago and it’s flowers are really nice. But the buds were already on the plant when I got it.

So the question is, is I doing something wrong or are there strains that aren’t very eager to bloom?

Plants are often sensitive to microclimates. Moving one from the top shelf of the greenhouse to the staging or vice versa can often make a difference. Also if you have two greenhouses, or the house and a greenhouse, moving them from one to another may work.

I had a friend who lived about 4 miles from me who when he moved a few streets away said plants he had not flowered before started to bloom. The only real difference was altitude since Mapperley is on top of a hill whilst Nottingham, UK is about a hundred feet lower in the valley below.

With some plants a cool dry winter rest will also promote flowering.

I have the typical yellow-spined variety, when I moved them to a sunnier spot they began to bloom much more freely. They get more light and more heat than before, one or both of those changes must be responsible. They always did get a cool, dry winter rest.

Thank you DaveW and Greenknight I am familiar with the effects from microclimate, both indoors and outdoors and it could have explained this ‘case’ if it were only my plants unwillingness to bloom. But as mentioned, I have seen very few elongatas with flowers or buds, either IRL or on pics ( from Norway). They are pretty common in sale here, but the one I bought was the first one I can recall having seen with flower/buds on. It will be interesting ro see if the last one will repeat the flowering, next year.