E. senilis: Is this typical?

[Steve Johnson]

My Eriosyce senilis started showing flower buds 3 weeks ago. Here's what it looked like last weekend:

Here's what it looks like today:

My guess is that the plant will go into full flower in a week or so. This is a new experience for me, and I was wondering if it's typical for E. senilis to take so long to flower. Would it indeed be typical, or could there be something that's retarding normal flower development? If so, is that something I need to address? (I am such a worrywort sometimes!!!)

[CoronaCactus]

Yup, right on time. The GH ones started about 2.5 weeks ago, the SH ones are at the same stage as yours.

[Steve Johnson]

Yup, right on time. The GH ones started about 2.5 weeks ago, the SH ones are at the same stage as yours.

Ooh, nice! I remember you saying that E. senilis flowers come in several flushes, so I look forward to a pretty display going on hopefully through the end of March.

By the way, my Melo matanzus decided to put out a couple of flowers recently. They hid so well inside the cephalium I didn't see any evidence until the fruits appeared. I wonder if there might be a few more nice little surprises in there.

[Peterthecactusguy]

I gotta check mine, I repotted it during class and it seems like the buds are still on it but its slow to bloom. Still a little cold sometimes at night so it' s inside.

[iann]

Growth in winter is always a little slower. Mine can take a good month from me spotting tiny buds to getting the fairly large flowers open. The good news is that they last many days.

E. senilis is also quite frost hardy. 20F shouldn't a problem for short periods, maybe even a bit lower. It is from a Mediterranean climate and likes to grow when nights are cool. I suspect you could cause it serious trouble by watering in an Arizona heatwave, although here in England they seem to suck up water at any time hot or cold.

[Minime8484]

Yep - same with mine - I first saw the start of flower buds on mine on Jan 20th...and the first one should open any day now.
Can't wait, because this is the first Eriocyse flower for me - the hummers should be happy!

[Peterthecactusguy]

mine didnt have any buds on it. There were a few others that did. I like the look of it and so yeah. I will have to see what mine does

[hoteidoc]

Does increasing light or temps, or both, set off budding in E. senilis? Or is it "special" West Coast air? I (accidently) acquired one end of this past summer, d/t wrong shipment. Of course, once I got it, I really liked it, & All are accepted in this household . I'm assuming it's a "young" (i.e. 2 - 3 yr) plant. It's been indoors with temp @ 60f. Never made it into the "cool/43F" room since it was a bareroot newcomer, so that probably is going to limit flowering.

[iann]

They *should* be triggered by shorter winter days, or possibly by them lengthening slightly. The normal time to flower is at the end of winter, and that applies in habitat too. Some people persuade them to flower at the end of summer and I'm not entirely sure what's going on there.

Some other types of Neoporteria start flowering as soon as days length, or temperatures cool, and then keep it up right through winter, but that isn't normal for E. senilis.

[hoteidoc]

Thanks, Ian. So, of course, during my mid-afternoon plant tour, I found myself in front of the Erios. senilis. And I sez to myself, gee why don't you just look, maybe ...
Ka-ching! Lookey what I found !

IMG_0707_1.JPG (270.38 KiB) Viewed 519 times

So thank you, all you southermost harbringers of Spring! Even tho we're a good 2 months away!

[christos]

Growth in winter is always a little slower. Mine can take a good month from me spotting tiny buds to getting the fairly large flowers open. The good news is that they last many days.

E. senilis is also quite frost hardy. 20F shouldn't a problem for short periods, maybe even a bit lower. It is from a Mediterranean climate and likes to grow when nights are cool. I suspect you could cause it serious trouble by watering in an Arizona heatwave, although here in England they seem to suck up water at any time hot or cold.

Living in a mediterranean climate and having all my plants, besides Melocacti etc., outside, I have reached to the same conclusion with Ian.
Eriosyce do like autumn and spring better than the hot summer days and nights for their time of growth.

The same applies for Copiapoae(but more for autumn than spring).
Awesome plants!!!

[iann]

The same applies for Copiapoae(but more for autumn than spring).

I think Copiapoas like warm nights, but not hot days.

[Steve Johnson]

And here we are! A pic from my E. senilis today:

Eriosyce_senilis02262011.JPG (99.38 KiB) Viewed 429 times

Two more are about to open, and there's a new little bud just hiding behind it. Does take awhile, doesn't it? But worth waiting for, and a harbinger of spring (finally!).

[Minime8484]

Beautiful!! Congrats on flowers! Mine is still chugging along, and I hope my first bloom is not too far behind yours!