My Cacti 2015

[hegar]

It looks like spring has arrived in full force. The cacti - at least most of them - did survive the winter months and have sprung back to life.
This year seems to be one with a lot of flower production and I can start now to post digital images of what has bloomed thus far.
The first plant in bloom this year was Escobaria tuberculosa on March 28th, followed by the claret cup cacti and the Echinocereus viridis ssp. chloranthus.
So, without further ado, here are the first images of my plants in bloom.

Harald

P.S.: I do have one plant, which I am quite sure is a member of the genus Echinocereus. It produces few flowers - only one at each year during the last two years - and those blossoms are a vivid red, but very small. You can see the plant between the Echinocereus coccineus specimens. Does anybody here have any idea, what the species name of this "unknown Echinocereus" is?

[Ralf]

Stunning flowers!
The orange flowering hedgehog is awesome!

[hegar]

Thank you for your kind response, Ralf.
The orange-colored claret-cup hybrid most likely is part of a plant that was removed from the Orogrande, NM Jarilla Mountain range some time ago. One our our club members gave me one stem and it certainly has grown to quite a nice clump.
I have been visiting and taking digital images of these naturally occurring hybrids since 2006 and just posted another thread very recently about these amazing plants in the section "Cacti Places".

Harald

[hegar]

Today, when I returned home from work, I noticed, that my larger Thelocactus bicolor had opened its blossom. Unfortunately, it was about to close, but I still managed to get a few shots.

[kristian_Fossmo]

Those Echinocereus coccineus flowers...Wow...

[Mark]

Excellent plants Harald! My plants are starting to open up already. My Echinocereus hybrid with pink flowers is already done flowering.

Did you Ferocactus latispunus flower this year?


Mark

[hegar]

@ Kristian: You are correct. The Echinocereus coccineus plant is a nice one to have, if you have enough space for it. This cactus tends to produce additional stems at a good rate. The flowers are not the largest ones within this genus, but they do last the longest.

@ Mark: Of all the Echinocereus plants I do have, thus far only the E. viridiflorus ssp. chloranthus and two of the E. coccineus, the hybrid and the possible pure-bred one have flowered. I have to take a look, to see, if the pink hybrid even has buds on it this year.
Most of the plants will flower and overall it should be a good year for me.
The Ferocactus latispinus almost managed to bloom. I already saw the deep pink (purple) tip of the bud, but it never opened.
Most likely the frost did hit it a few days too soon. The other buds that had not developed that far were aborted.
Well, perhaps next year - or hopefully late this year - things will work out better. Supposedly, this cactus does flower twice in Mexico, once in the Summer and another time late fall. I wish, that my plant would "get smart" and try flowering during the summer months.
How are your E. dasyacanthus plants doing? They should be starting to flower now. This Saturday we do have the Garden Tour and I expect to see a lot of those Texas Rainbow cacti in full bloom.

Harald

[kristian_Fossmo]

@ Kristian: You are correct. The Echinocereus coccineus plant is a nice one to have, if you have enough space for it. This cactus tends to produce additional stems at a good rate. The flowers are not the largest ones within this genus, but they do last the longest.

It is definitely on my next seed sowing list, as the Thelocactus bicolor. There is always some stuff to move out of the way to create space for beautiful things.

[hegar]

Here are some more images, all taken early this afternoon.
Echinocereus viridiflorus ssp. chloranthus - not one of my favorite cacti, but a tough plant that produces flowers over a long period of time - is still going strong.
Escobaria tuberculosa, the corn-cob cactus, with a more showy blossom, is now on its third flower flush. Both these cacti are plentiful in our area.
I was also able to get a slightly better photo of the Thelocactus bicolor.
I am also attaching a "cactus group photo" of some of the plants in bloom.
New to the flowering plants are the first blossoms of our native Texas Rainbow cactus (Echinocereus dasyacanthus). This plant produces very large sized flowers, but they do not open fully, looking more like tulip blossoms. I do have about a dozen of these plants and expect many more flowers to open up from all those flower buds.
There was also an Echinocereus coahuilense cactus in bloom. This could be the same as a plant with the scientific name Echinocereus pectinatus.
Last, but not least, is a plant that I have had for several years and it is flowering for the first time. I believe, that it is some kind of Turbinicarpus member. I recall receiving a small plant from one of our local cactus club members. Well, now it has grown to two stems, but they are still rather small. The only other Turbinicarpus species that is present in my front yard is the tiny Turbinicarpus valdezianus. One of the two plants also does have a "large flower bud", i.e. large in comparison to the small stem of the adult plant.
Perhaps that cactus will flower tomorrow or on Sunday.

Harald

[Minime8484]

Great plants & photos, and a really nice selection of Echinocereus!

[cactushobbyman]

Echinocereus, I'm liking them too. I wonder how they will do in the outside garden. I have echinocereus engelmannii outside and doing well, time to start looking.

[hegar]

Thank you for commenting on my post, Minime8484 and cactushobbyman.
I find most of the Echinocereus genus easy to grow and there certainly are many species to choose from. Today I bought yet another member of this genus and will plant it tomorrow. It is an Echinocereus scheerii. I may also try once more to get an Echinocereus scheeri ssp gentryi to grow. It is a spineless plant.
Well, the genus has plenty of species to choose from. Some of these plants do have large and showy blossoms, others do have colorful spines. All my plants are in the ground, mainly in the front yard. If you supply them with soil that is draining well or plant them on a slope or raised beds most of them will do well for you. In my opinion, this is a genus that should be in every cactus growers collection, unless of course if they specialize in growing only for example Turbinicarpus, Mammillaria, or other genera exclusively.

Harald

[Mark]

Hey Harald, my Texas Rainbows have buds, but they have not opened yet. The buds however are huge. My E.texensis is full of blooms this year. It looks great.

Great to see your plants.


Mark

[hegar]

Hello Mark,
after who had written about your pink E. coccineus hybrid already having finished flowering I went out and took a look at my plant.
It does look perfectly OK and did flower last year. However, this year the plant decided to take a break. Not even one lousy bud!
On the other hand, most of the cacti do look great. I am going to see flowers for the first time on my Echinocereus engelmannii and also on the E. enneacanthus. There is yet another cactus - one that was most likely given to me as a present by Ad Konings - that should flower, possibly tomorrow, if the weather clears up. I had hoped to take a picture of that one and ask Ad, what the name of that plant is. However, with the rain lasting almost all day long most buds remained close. The Fendler's hedgehog's blossoms were partially open and I had hoped, that I could get a nice shot of them today, but the usually sunny weather decided to interfere with my plans. Well, I have to leave on time the next few days and hope, that by 6:30 p.m. I will still be able to have open blossoms to photograph.
I just could not help it and ended up purchasing a small Echinocereus scheeri ssp. scheeri yesterday at the Garden Tour. I worked in the morning at Jacques' place and the afternoon shift at Peter's. Of course, I made sure, that I would be where plants were for sale.
I was able to suppress my need to add to my collection at the first location, excusing my hesitance with the thought, that perhaps the cacti at Peter's residence were better ones. That did not turn out to be the case. At the first location I could have replaced my Escobaria sneedii ssp leei that was lost during this last winter. I do have two more chances of buying cacti locally, one of course will be at the upcoming FloraFest on April 25th and 26th, and the second one at the monthly club meeting on May 2nd.

Harald

[hegar]

Here are two digital images of one of my Echinocereus fendleri plant. This is another pretty member of that genus. I should have been able to photograph the plant with an open blossom on Sunday, but the weather changed and it did rain almost all day long. Yesterday we did have another cool, overcast day and today the sun did come out. The problem is, by the time I arrived at my home the cactus had started to close its flowers.

Harald