Just Interesting ... thought you MIGHT like to see ...

[DaveW]

All cacti can flower when large enough, some may need to be quite large before doing so, but some will even flower about the third year from seed. It depends the genus and species you choose. You don't always need large plants for flowers though, these Echinocereus seedlings were just over two years old in cold old UK and still in the two inch pots they were sown in.

seedlings.jpg (127.83 KiB) Viewed 945 times

[stefan m.]

Should get THESE seeds.

[WayneByerly]

... these Echinocereus seedlings were just over two years old...

Love the color if these cacti. They are going on my "want" list.

Echinocereus... What??? If'n u dont mine my axin'

[stefan m.]

WayneByerly just so you know, thing on lower right is melocactus

[DaveW]

Sorry did not intend to hijack your post Wane. Just pointing out to Cheshirecat, cacti don't all have to be big to flower, or take decades from seed if you pick the smaller growing species.

If you mean the seedlings in the lower right pot of my previous picture Stefan that is an Echinocereus pulchellus variety. You perhaps did not notice the wooly bud on it as a Melocactus would need a cephalium to form before flowering.

Since you ask Wayne they are the smaller Echinocereus of the E. knippelianus, E. pulchellus group, including their varieties. E. davisii and the E. viridiflorus group are other small growing ones.

Three of the same batch of seedlings potted on in flower the next season.

E. knippelianus.

knippelianus2.jpg (98.64 KiB) Viewed 922 times

E. knippelianus ssp.reyesii

reyesii.jpg (98.75 KiB) Viewed 922 times

E. viridiflorus.

viridiflorusSB167.jpg (91.4 KiB) Viewed 922 times

[ElieEstephane]

Sorry did not intend to hijack your post Wane. Just pointing out to Cheshirecat, cacti don't all have to be big to flower, or take decades from seed if you pick the smaller growing species.

If you mean the seedlings in the lower right pot of my previous picture Stefan that is an Echinocereus pulchellus variety. You perhaps did not notice the wooly bud on it as a Melocactus would need a cephalium to form before flowering.

Since you ask Wayne they are the smaller Echinocereus of the E. knippelianus, E. pulchellus group, including their varieties. E. davisii and the E. viridiflorus group are other small growing ones.

Three of the same batch of seedlings potted on in flower the next season.

Everywhere i look i only find E. Knippelianus var kruegeri which is smaller than the normal plant. Where did you manage to find your seeds?
On another note, how come these species that look very different from other echinocerei are grouped in the same genus. I've always noticed how in the same genus the vast majority is heavily spines cylindrical stems while there are not so spiny globulars.
Thanks Dave

[WayneByerly]

Sorry did not intend to hijack your post Wayne.

Hijack away... you're quite welcome to at anytime, as ANY and ALL information is valuable and is to be desired.

On another subject, you have a PM from me about some problems I'm having sending messages or even just posting here. I'd be entirely grateful if you could help me out.

[stefan m.]

If it is pulchellus, certainly doesnt look like it. Shape is tad diffrent, spines too big. Might be debris or something moldy. Itd have redish petals at its size.

[DaveW]

I am going from memory Stefan since I cannot see the number on the bottom right-hand pot to check with my seed list that year. I think it was an E. pulchellus form and may have been E. pulchellus ssp. acanthosetus or even ssp. sharpie out of flower, though ssp sharpii has a white flower unlike the rest. I certainly did not set any Melocactus that year.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Echin ... 1344533321

The following are listed under E. pulchellus by Blum et al in their Echinocereus book:-:-

pulchellus
ssp. acanthosetus
ssp. sharpii
ssp. venustus
ssp. weinbergii (often found listed as a separate species)

I had a bit of a blitz on Echinocerei a few years ago and set seed from a few sources as you can see, all in the 2 inch (5cm) square or round pots they were sown in before being potted on.

seedlings2.jpg (143.09 KiB) Viewed 887 times

The seed was mainly from Aymeric De Barmon (ADPLS) in France and Mesa Gardens USA and a few other places as I recall. De Barmon (ADPLS) usually has quite an extensive list for most cacti, including Echinocereus and also tends to list the seed in groups or sections, with similar growing species listed together. I think both accept PayPal, so there is no currency changing problems and of course you can obtain any cactus seed not on Appendix 1 through the post from anywhere in the world, unlike plants.

De Barmon's new (2018) seed list will be downloadable from this Saturday (Nov. 25th)

http://adblps-graines-cactus.com/index_EN.html

De Barmon's Gallery with the plants listed under his seed numbers. Pictures enlarge if you click on them:-

http://adblps-graines-cactus.com/galeri ... WJiMTVhZjk

[stefan m.]

Hmm you were right. Weinbergii does look a lot like a melocactus.
Also thanks for verifying seller viability. provided if they have any on my wish list for next year, ill order.

[the_cheshirecat]

I am in awe of what you all are managing to achieve.
Speechless.

[DaveW]

Identifying species (or even genera) from pictures Stefan is a problem without any sense of scale. I read once a lady identified her Rebutia as Echinocactus grusonii from a picture in a book, because obviously there was nothing to indicate how big the plant was. I know I have sometimes misidentified plants in pictures, since size is often a clue to species or genus.

Can't find that PM in my box Wayne?

Regarding posting images I am not the most computer literate so others can correct me, but in many cases it may be your image is too large straight out of the camera. Images from modern high megapixel cameras are really overkill for the Web, your computer monitor only has the resolution of around 4-5 megapixel camera, so that's all the resolution you get on screen, no matter how many megapixels your camera has. Therefore larger file sizes are wasted and you need to reduce the image size to the maximum sizes this board uploader allows. See:-

"NOTE: The forum will resize images to 800 pixels when you upload. This will reduce the dimensions of larger images as well as the file size. However, if your camera takes really large images, (such as 4320 x 3240 14MB), these images will need to be reduced on you computer before you can upload them. Most people will already have a program that can do this, such as "Microsoft Office Picture Manager", "Picasa", or software that came with the camera. In addition, there are free utilities on the web that can do this such as "Infanview" http://www.irfanview.com/ which many have used with ease and success."

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=25028

Most of my pictures are usually reduced to 800 pixels wide or 600 pixels high, whichever is the greatest and around 100-120kb file size using Photoshop Elements and sizing in pixels, as the images I posted previously.

If you have a branch of the British Cactus and Succulent Society near you Cheshirecat, they will teach you how to grow them, plus are usually a good source of plants.

http://society.bcss.org.uk/

http://society.bcss.org.uk/index.php/branches.html

The UK BCSS also has an online Forum similar to this one which is free and open to non BCSS Members from around the world, therefore many of us are members of both.

http://forum.bcss.org.uk/

The same applies to all countries that have a Cactus and Succulent society or club. Unfortunately some do not yet have them. However some of us are overseas members of other Cactus societies too. I am a member of the British and American one plus the Mammillaria Society.

The Cactus & Succulent Plant Mall is a good source of information on everything to do with our hobby. Plus there are quite a few downloadable free journals on the Web now like Xerophilia and Cactus Explorer that also contain links to all other free downloadable journals.

http://www.cactus-mall.com/

List of world Cactus Clubs.

http://www.cactus-mall.com/clubs.html

Downloadable Journals

http://www.cactusexplorers.org.uk/journal6.htm

http://xerophilia.ro/

[stefan m.]

My method of id-ing (no flower, no hardiness, no origin) is the following:
attention to spines (shape, length, color etc.
attention to stem color, shape
Its not a very reliable method, but its better than nothing. Ive been wrong before, ill probably make mistakes again.

[WayneByerly]

Ive been wrong before, ill probably make mistakes again.

We have All been wrong before (once or twice anyway) and I cannot find any shame whatsoever in being that way on occasion. None of us know everything, and we all learn something new everyday. Or what is the point to existence.

I'm just grateful that you all exist.

[the_cheshirecat]

Hey there,
sorry for the long delay, it appears I do not know how to do this whole day off thing...

Cheers for the links and suggestions Dave, no branches near me right now but I do move around a lot so who knows?

Stefan, I like the way you think! Do you have something similar to ID succulents?

And to everybody else: you seem like a really nice group of people, hopefully you'll make a proper mad cacti lady of me yet!