Steno lloydii -- first flower!

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Steve Johnson
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Location: Los Angeles, CA (Zone 10b)

Steno lloydii -- first flower!

Post by Steve Johnson »

If you love Stenocactus, lloydii is hard to resist. I went on a small holiday buying spree in December 2013, and I simply had to include one in the group of cacti I selected from Miles' To Go. Mr. Anderson sent me a lovely specimen, and because I was new to the species, this brought up 2 questions. First, when would the plant be mature enough to bloom? Second, how wide would the flowers get as they have to fight through all those long central spines? The answer to question #1 finally came last weekend:

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Is it early spring already? While El Nino has been doing its rainy magic elsewhere, SoCal's cactus collections must be enjoying the heat we'd normally expect to see in April or May. My lloydii sure does, so let's watch the plant go from bud to bloom in 6 days:

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Here's the answer to question #2:

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And finally, from this morning a special bonus hot off the press:

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Fantastic!
If you just want photos without all the blather, please visit my Flickr gallery.
My location: Los Angeles, CA (Zone 10b)
Pushrestart
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Re: Steno lloydii -- first flower!

Post by Pushrestart »

Look at the spikes on that beast :shock: guard plant for sure !
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majcka
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Re: Steno lloydii -- first flower!

Post by majcka »

Lovely flower.
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Maja

Strange is fun, cacti are funnier!
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tumamoc
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Re: Steno lloydii -- first flower!

Post by tumamoc »

It doesn't seem like the flower would be able to open up among the dense cluster of spines, but it finds a way. Cool plant!
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Steve Johnson
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A sweet update for y'all!

Post by Steve Johnson »

Another set of bonus pics from today:

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By the way -- my lloydii needs a bigger pot, which I happen to have. It's on my list for repotting next weekend, although believe it or not, a rain delay could interfere with that plan. I'm not a big fan of repotting cacti when they're in mid-flower, and since the plant does have another bud that's not ready to bloom yet, I'm in no hurry to repot it. Besides, after we had a disappointingly dry February here in SoCal, more rain would be awfully nice!
If you just want photos without all the blather, please visit my Flickr gallery.
My location: Los Angeles, CA (Zone 10b)
Pushrestart
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Re: Steno lloydii -- first flower!

Post by Pushrestart »

Steve, it would great if you could share what tools and gloves you use for repotting something as friendly as this. :mrgreen:
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Steve Johnson
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Re: Steno lloydii -- first flower!

Post by Steve Johnson »

Pushrestart wrote:Steve, it would great if you could share what tools and gloves you use for repotting something as friendly as this. :mrgreen:
Aside from a thick pair of gardening gloves, the only tool I use is rolled-up newspaper around the plant if the spines poke through the gloves. With that said, the spines on my lloydii aren't as nasty to handle as they may appear, so I'm more concerned about accidentally breaking a few off in the process.
If you just want photos without all the blather, please visit my Flickr gallery.
My location: Los Angeles, CA (Zone 10b)
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