My Cacti 2014

[kpj35]

Splendid flowers (and photography)!! With all that variety, it must be a treat to walk through your yard in the springtime!

[Arjen]

again amazing flowers harald!
do you mean they removed the last cacti from your area for construction?

[hegar]

Thank you very much for your kind comments kpj35 and Arjen.
Well, Arjen,
we still have thousands of cacti near where I live. For example, we were informed that a local quarry was going to expand its operations. The piece of land measured 400 meters x 1,000 meters. Our club dug up over 3,000 cacti and I am quite certain, that we did overlook a good number of them. However, that parcel of land was an exceptionally good one having more cacti per square meter than most places would have. While additional construction will reduce the area where cacti are found we fortunately do have some locations that are protected from encroaching development.
By the way, a short distance from here, albeit in New Mexico, are the Jarilla Mountains. This Saturday I will most likely go on yet another field trip. This one will be to visit the 'strawberry pitahaya" producing cacti. They are commonly called Bee Hive cactus (scientific name Echinocereus stramineus). I do hope, that there are going to be some flowers on those plants. There is another cactus that forms very delicious fruit. That one is also named "strawberry pitahaya". It is not found near here though. That plant is named Echinocereus enneacanthus. I do have both cacti in my collection. However, none of them has yet flowered and that means, I was not able yet to harvest a fruit.
If I do go on this field trip I shall photograph some of the plants and their magnificent flowers and place them on this site under "Cactus Places", where I did have a series of images about the Orogrande Hybrid Cacti posted a few weeks ago.

Harald

[Arjen]

great, please mention it here when you do!
I usually don't have the time to look at the entire forum anymore...
In my collection I have a few E. stramineus seedlings, I have heard it's a slow grower

[hegar]

Thank you for your response to my posting, Arjen. Yes, I will post a few pictures of tomorrow's field trip. I do hope to see a lot of flowering of the beehive cactus. You are correct with your assessment. The Echinocereus stramineus plants in my collection are also slow growing. Perhaps that will change, once they become more established. My two plants still are only slightly larger than when I purchased them and there is no indication of additional stems being formed or a flower bud or two.
Well, today I did photograph three more cacti in flower. The first I am going to show is what I believe to be a hybrid Astrophytum asterias. These two plants are growing well and flower repeatedly.
The next plant is not really one of my favorites, but it does bloom every year. It is an Echinocereus perbellus.
The third one I do consider to be really worthwhile growing. This plant also grows very well and quickly as far as cacti are concerned.
In addition it flowers quite a bit, with flower buds being produced over a long time. The flowers are spectacularly deep red and of medium size. In my opinion, this is a plant that even beginners should try growing. The name of the cactus is Gymnocalycium baldianum.
I did have a Gymnocalycium bruchii in my collection, but that plant succumbed to I do not know what. It too was a pretty cactus and I should have bought a replacement plant during the recently held "FloraFest".

Harald

[Eutow_Intermedium]

I do love Gymno Baldianum. A standard in any beginners collection. My Girlfriend just recently obtained one and it has been flowering, although not widely, due to the usual unfavourable weather in the UK/GB.

They say Gymno Bruchii is a beginners cacti, but I m not convinced. I've tried it many times over the years and found it tricky.

I have one in the Allotment greenhouse right now, and it's a right example of a marked up and multicoloured mess with the top cut off and various malformed children.

Unlike Gymno Glaucum ssp Ferrari of which I heard was hard to look after , and in the wild lives on an exposed rocky location high up. Yet i've had mine a couple of years now, although slow but sure and certainly still in the land of the plant living.

=^_~=

[hegar]

This note is specifically for Arjen.
We did travel to the Jarilla Mountains looking for Echinocereus stramineus plants in flower. Unfortunately, we arrived a few days too late.
However, there were still some impressive mounts of this plant to photograph. The weather was - as it almost always is - beautiful, with a blue sky, light wind, and a temperatures in the 80 degree F range. I am not sure we did reach 86 degrees F (30 degrees F) though.
The images about this trip will be posted in the "Cacti Places" section to be viewed by anyone who is interested.

Harald

[Arjen]

thank you harald, a shame you didn't get to see them in flower. they are beautiful plants nevertheless!
I will be on the lookout for your post in cacti places.

[hegar]

Well, before I go to bed I want to post a few digital images of the latest cactus in flower.
I just came back in, after taking photos of two blossoms that are open on my "Queen of the Night" (Peniocereus greggii) plant.
Last year the cactus had about ten blossoms that opened over time. This time around there are only three. However, it still is an exciting thing to see the plant in flower and smell the intense sweet fragrance of its blossoms.

Harald

[Arjen]

you managed to take some nice pictures of it, a very beautiful display!

[CactusFanDan]

Wow. Great pictures of those Peniocereus flowers. I feel that it's an underrated genus. I'd love to be able to grow more of them here, but seeds are relatively scarce.

[hegar]

Thank you for your compliments, Arjen and CactusFanDan. With just a flashlight in one hand and the camera in the other, it is indeed not easy to get a more or less focused shot. Especially the macro photos turned out to be fuzzy. I did not hold the camera still long enough. Also, my son did change something in the settings, making each image really huge. That resulted in the camera requiring more time to acquire the image, if I am not mistaken. The plant is growing next to a fig bush and I had to tie down the skinny, whip-like branch of the cactus in order to be able to photograph the blossoms. Next year I shall try to use a light stand, so I do have both hands free for the camera. I should have mounted it on a tripod, but I was rushing it.
Well, CactusFanDan, you are right about the availability of Peniocereus spp. members. I also do have a P. maculatus, but both were obtained as plants.
P. greggii is a rather lanky plant with a huge turnip-like root system that may weigh up to 60 lbs. Perhaps that is one of the reasons why not many cactus collectors are growing it. If my plants should produce seeds, I would gladly send you some. Last year the blossoms were not pollinated and I am not sure anything happened this year either. We did have a cold spell when the cactus was flowering.
I did not try to hand-pollinate it, but will do so next year, in order to see, if the plant will set fruit.

Harald

[hegar]

Last year I spotted a tiny cactus seedling growing in an inaccessible location between the concrete sidewalk and the border of my property. It was the only seed that had germinated. I could not even get a trowel into the small crack to lift the plant out. It is an Echinocereus reichenbachii and only the second plant of that species in my cactus planting. Well, I kept an eye on this little seedling and to my great astonishment noticed, that it was developing a flower bud. Now that bud has grown to a size much bigger than the cactus body and it will flower tomorrow. Most likely I will not be able to get home in time to get a shot of the open blossom, but I will try.
In the meantime, I did photograph the little cactus this evening around 7 p.m.. Here is the photo.

Harald

[fanaticactus]

That's just incredible, Harald! Hope you get home in time for the flower.

[Arjen]

These things grow everywhere! Coincidentally there was an article in this month's 'kakteen und andere sukkulenten' about one growing ond flowering on a watering mat..