My Cacti 2012

[hegar]

Thank you for your input gemhunter, hob, majcka and Arjen. I feel, that this year is a very good one too. However, there should be several more exciting flowering events. One of the highlights was always the blooming stage of the Echinocereus pectinatus plants. They are either going to not participate this year or will flower later in the season. I do not see any buds on them yet.
@ Arjen: I did actually bend way down, in order to see what kind of scent the Echinopsis eyriesii flowers produce. It was not a strong whiff that I got. There is a slight sweet odor that is being emitted from the blossoms. I am certain, there are some cacti that are much more noticeable.
I recall having had a "jungle cactus" - I am not sure what kind it was, but it produced flat stems - that made the whole house smell when I arrived from work in the evening. If my Peniocereus greggii does bloom this year, I will also try to figure out, if that one has a strong scent.

Harald

[Peterthecactusguy]

Harald, P. greggii has a lovely sent, at least from the reproductions of the scent that I have come across. I also have heard and I am not positive on this, but that Datura wrightii smells like P. greggii. If this is true then I can't wait for my twig to bloom!

[hegar]

I have not had any nice flowers in a while, only plants that flowered for the second or third time. So I did not take any images. However, about a month or so ago I noticed, that my Thelocactus heterochromus plant had one bud. The last images of this one flowering were in April 2002! It did however flower one more time thereafter, but I do not recall the year. Then the plant went "downhill" until I finally decided to transplant it into a little more shady location. There it sat year after year and did not do anything. Once or twice it even got a little soft and I was afraid it would die. Because of its delicate state I did not dig it up and take it indoors during our severe cold spell at the beginning of 2011. I was very glad to see, that it would flower once again.
Here are a few images taken on July 11. The second one was taken by my son with his SLR camera.




Also flowering was the Astrophytum asterias.

The third cactus blooming the very same day was my Echinocereus perbellus. It is not the showiest of my cacti but flowers repeatedly during the season.

The last cactus in flower - also a repeat bloomer - is the "Pride of Texas" (Thelocactus bicolor).



Harald

T

[Ralf]

Beautiful flowers, Harald!
It's nice to hear and see that your T. hetero has survived and got such a stunning flower.
However, everyone has in its own way a challange to get beautiful plants and flowers.

[hoteidoc]

That heterochromus blossom is truly INTENSE, Harald! TFS

[Arjen]

lovely flowers harald!

[peterb]

beautiful as always Harald!

peterb

[hegar]

Thank you very much for your nice comments. That Thelocactus heterochromus did keep me waiting for a long time.
Here are two more images of yet another cactus that did refuse to bloom ever since our club salvaged it from the wild. I do have three Coryphantha macromeris plants and was almost shocked, when I noticed two flower buds on one of them. My last photos date back to 2008, when I planted the cacti under my "Chitalpa" tree, a hybrid of the Desert Willow (Chilopsis linearis) and Catalpa sp..
I had been told, that this plant needs shade in order to survive.
Well, perhaps it had too much shade. Now my Chitalpa tree is dying and because of the reduced foliage the cacti receive more sun. Perhaps that is also the reason why the Thelocactus heterochromus flowered once again.
Well, here are the two images I took shortly after noon this day.

Harald

[gemhunter178]

Nice plant and flowers! It's pretty cool that this was once in the wild!

[Arjen]

whatever the reason, it looks very beautiful! I think the location is well chosen too, not even a spot on that epidermis

[hegar]

Thank you gemhunter 178 and Arjen.
Overall I have had a nice year with the cacti in my yard, although some of the plants that used to flower profusely in the past failed to do so this year. However, if the coming winter is not going to be another killer I do expect better things next growing season. What is truly enjoyable though is the fact, that a number of my plants flower repeatedly, making up for those that do not produce blossoms. I do have a lot of small plants and thus there should be better times ahead.

Harald

[hegar]

With the year slowly coming to a close not too many cacti are flowering. However, I still did find a flower bud open yesterday on one of the late-blooming cacti in my collection. It is the only survivor of a small number of Ariocarpus plants. I do love this genus, but have not been very successful in keeping the plants alive for more than 5 years. Sometimes I lose one within a year after placing it into the ground. The photographed Ariocarpus fissuratus plant was purchased about 3 or 4 years ago. It flowered almost every year, but did skip the last. I almost missed the whole process, because it happened so rapidly.
Here are four images of the blossom, which is a little faded, because it was not photographed at its prime.

[gemhunter178]

Nice Ario! The plant looks pretty healthy to me!

[hegar]

Hello gemhunter 178,
thank you for your kind comment. The plant pictured is the only surviving Ariocarpus in my cactus collection. All my plants are grown outdoors and this one must have been placed in a good location. I did have four other A. fissuratus cacti, one of them a lloydii and another an elephantidens, in addition to an Ariocarpus kotschoubeyanus. They all succumbed to possibly root rot. One of them was a rescued plant that struggled for several years and even produced flowers once or twice.
I do love the genus Ariocarpus, but do not seem to have a "green thumb" for growing its members. I hope, that this plant will stay healthy for a good more number of years. If I do get the chance, I shall go ahead and purchase some additional ones. Perhaps the next time around I will do better.

Harald

[hoteidoc]

That IS a very nice Ario, Harald. Have just started A. fiss. intermed & kotch. in propagator (in baggies) and going to try to create a "micro" environment for them a couple of years down the road. Thinking 50/50 @ best, but if I can keep them Winter-dry.... Of course, your report not particularly encouraging, but dumb luck works sometimes, too Keep pluggin' away!