cacti with big flowers

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tom_212
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cacti with big flowers

Post by tom_212 »

Hello cactus friends,

At the moment I have a small collection of some good looking cacti.
But the downside of these cacti are that they produce very small and boring flowers.
That's why i'm looking for some species that can produce some big beautiful flowers.
I'm not a pro and growing cacti so it would be nice if they are easy to grow as well.
I also have a small budget therefore the species should be easy to come by.

What are your suggestions?
TR
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cactushobbyman
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Re: cacti with big flowers

Post by cactushobbyman »

Echinopsis hybrids will give you the flowers you want. The down side, the flower only last one day and most will get the best blooms at night and by mid morning the flower will have been spent. Thelocactus also have beautiful flowers.
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Spikylover
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Re: cacti with big flowers

Post by Spikylover »

Some Echinopsis chamaecereus hybrids have 3 inch flowers. Maybe a little bigger. And they last a couple of days. Gymnocalycium baldianum flowers come in a variety of colors at a size of around 3 inch. They last 2 3 days ans flower profusely even on seedlings.
Thats from my experience. I can't comment on others.
Maybe you can try some epiphyllum hybrids.
Rachel
Gardening with my mother and father in war ridden Syria
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greenknight
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Re: cacti with big flowers

Post by greenknight »

Parodia
Spence :mrgreen:
esp_imaging
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Re: cacti with big flowers

Post by esp_imaging »

It's a feature of the cactus familiy as a whole that they tend to have large, visually attractive flowers which are pollinated by insects or birds.
In particular, many small cacti have very large flowers in relations to the overall size of the plants.

Genera where this applies to many or most of the species include Ariocarpus, Astrophytum, Copiapoa, Coryphantha, Echinocereus, Echinopsis, Eriosyce, Escobaria, Gymnocalycium and so on, up to Parodia, Rebutia, Sulcorebutia, Thelocactus and Turbinicarpus. This is by no means a full list! For many of these, plants only a few cm across may flower, with flowers that can be as far across as the plant itself.

A commonly grown exception is the genus Mammillaria, where the flowers of many species are small and often white. For Mammillarias, the flowers are often borne in profusion, so a mature flowering plant is still attractive.
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Ron43
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Re: cacti with big flowers

Post by Ron43 »

I have Echinopsis hybrids that have flowers 8 inches across.
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tom_212
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Re: cacti with big flowers

Post by tom_212 »

Alright thank you al for the tips!
TR
DaveW
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Re: cacti with big flowers

Post by DaveW »

Size is relative. I presume the small flowers you are speaking about are mainly Mammillaria's which do produce a ring of small flowers around the crown of the plant? If you mean flowers larger in proportion to the plant body there are some Mammillaria's with larger flowers.

Mammillaria saboae
Mammillaria saboae.jpg
Mammillaria saboae.jpg (70.56 KiB) Viewed 1021 times
Mammiliaria guelzowiana
guelzowiana.jpg
guelzowiana.jpg (95.57 KiB) Viewed 1021 times
Notocactus is a rather neglected genus these days but still produces reasonably sized flowers.

Notocactus mammulosus
mammulosus.jpg
mammulosus.jpg (79.78 KiB) Viewed 1021 times
The Gymnocalyciums also produce reasonably large flowers.

Gymnocalycium uruguayensis rubriflorum
Gymnocalycium  uruguayensis rubriflorum.jpg
Gymnocalycium uruguayensis rubriflorum.jpg (84.4 KiB) Viewed 1021 times
The really big flowers in the cactus family unfortunately are formed on the vine like scrambling plants which are really not much use on a windowsill like Selenicereus etc.
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