My Cacti 2016

[hegar]

Well, this year the cacti started to flower a little sooner than usual. The first two, or perhaps three species all belong to the genus Echinocereus.
I photographed the plants on March 25th. The plant named "unknown" is similar to the claret cup (Echinocereus coccineus), but the blossom is smaller. Also, the flower only lasts three days, while those of the claret cup look presentable for at least one week.

Harald

[K.W.]

Bravo Harald!
(or Bravo to Your plants. . . )





Best wishes

K.W.


PS I like to see more!!!

[hegar]

Thank you for appreciating my first cactus flowers. It certainly is exciting - at least for me - to see the cacti come to life every spring.
Of course, I shall oblige, and more digital images are definitely to follow.

Harald

[hegar]

Here are three more images that I took today. You will see the Echinocereus coccineus in the back, while the hybrid E x roetteri with its salmon-colored blossoms started to flower yesterday. Its flowers are a little bit smaller than the brick-red blooming claret cup.

Harald

[hegar]

Today, two additional cacti were flowering. The first one portrayed is the "Pride of Texas" (Thelocactus bicolor). I almost missed seeing this blooming plant, because there are some wildflowers in the cactus bed, which obscure the view.
The second cactus also almost did not get noticed. Although it was "out in the open", the flower is not very large and I did not see it at first glance.
This plant is the first of the Escobaria tuberculosa (corn cob cactus) to bloom this year.

Harald

P.S.: For those viewers who would like to take a look at the amazing Orogrande, NM hybrid claret cup cacti, I did post a large number of images of these plants in bloom. The annual visit to Orogrande, New Mexico is for me the highlight of the cactus blooming season, because there are just so many plants growing there that show flowers ranging in color from pure white to pink, orange and red. I have gone there for the last six years or so and always posted a series of photos I took on those excursions. My avatar shows one of the naturally occurring hybrids. However, that one had a pretty large flower and spines resembling those of the parent Echinocereus dasyacanthus. Most of the images shown in the section "Cacti Places" are those of plants that more closely resemble the parent Echinocereus coccineus (claret cup). The hybrids are named Echinocereus x roetteri.

[hegar]

On March 29th I submitted images of the claret cup (Echinocereus coccineus) in bloom. Then a while later, March 31st, the hybrid of E. coccineus and E. dasyacanthus started flowering. Today the last blossom opend on the E. coccineus, while the hybrid (E. x roetteri) is still covered with flowers, but they are on their way out. However, the first image shows both of them in flower, plus the other main parent of the hybrid, the Echinocereus dasyacanthus (Texa Rainbow). I do love that plant, with its huge yellow flowers. There is a hybrid also formed, which displays the large blossom, but may have various colors. My avatar is one of those hybrids, which occur naturally in the Jarilla Mountains near Orogrande, New Mexico. That plant I encountered on my first field trip there about six years ago and I have posted hundreds of digital images of these plants in flower in the "Cacti Places" blog on this site.
The other cacti that were flowering were three Opuntia spp. (prickly pears): O. violacea, O. macrocentra, and some red-flowering hybrid with edible fruit (most likely O. engelmannii is one of the parents).
Also, the small, easily offsetting cactus Escobaria sneedii was blooming, as was the even smaller Turbinicarpus valdezianus. The latter is a very tough plant, despite its tiny size. Its body is only about the diameter of a penny! That is after it has been in the ground for five or six years. The maximum diameter does not get bigger than an average thumb. It is also less than one inch in height. However, the flowers dwarf this plant.
Both of these tiny beauties are sporting two flowers each. I am trying to expand my collection of the genus Turbinicarpus and also Ariocarpus, another slow growing and valuable cactus genus. That way I can have many more plants in my limited space. I will have to sacrifice most of my prickly pear plants though, in order to make room.
Well, I am also submitting a picture of a small piece of my Quenn of the Night (Peniocereus greggii) cactus. There are nine buds aligned in a row. If these are all going to bloom, it will be a sight to behold. Of course, I shall post images of that spectacle as soon as I get them taken.

Harald

[Mark]

Excellent stuff Harald! Can't believe you have so many blooms already! It seems like my plants are taking their sweet time. How often are you watering? I think it has to do with elevation since I am out in the valley it may not get as warm yet.

Everything looks great!

Mark

[hegar]

Hello Mark,
thank you for your nice comment. It is interesting to hear, that your plants are not yet ready to flower. I always thought, that mine were the "slow pokes", because at Peter Beste's place the cacti bloom about two weeks earlier than in my front yard. My boss showed me an Opuntia aciculatus that was already in bloom. I had given him a pad to grow and it was looking fabulous, did add several more stem sections and to top it off that nice red flower! My plant does not even show any flower buds.
Well, like with so many other things, there is also trouble in paradise here. I did lose one of my Peniocereus greggii plants, also the "Early Bloomer", which had looked fine earlier in the year, a Thelocactus heterochromus plant, and a clump of three stems of Echinocereus pectinatus. The latter was my pride and joy. A few years back I would take an hour of annual leave in order to extend my lunch break and race home, just so I could take a few good snapshots of that plant. Fortunately, I do have another one, albeit not as big as the one I lost.
Also, after I had taken the tarp off my cacti, placed there to protect them from frost damage, and then did a little weeding and cleaning up around the cacti, one of my small favorites, a Mammillaria with a dense white layer of spines, resembling either a M. herrerae or perhaps M. humboldtii, was nowhere to be found. If it had shriveled up, I should have been able to locate the remains, but the whole thing just vanished.
Well, I shall fill the empty spaces as quickly as possible.
I hope, that your plants will soon start with their flowering cycles. Perhaps, I will be able to post a few more images tomorrow. However, with the cool temperatures forecast and the good chance for rain, I most likely will have to wait another day or two. The Echinocereus fendleri is about ready to open the flower buds and so is a plant sold to me as Echinocereus coahuilense. To me it does look like E. pectinatus.

Harald

[hegar]

Well, today was another good day in the cactus patch.
I am going to post images of Ancistrocactus uncinatus , Echinocereus pectinatus, Echinocereus fendleri, Echinocereus dasyacanthus, Echinocereus coahuilense (could be synonym for E. pectinatus), Turbinicarpus laui, and Opuntia rufida. I did attach a scientific name to each image.
Because I am running out of space for the plants, I intend to get rid of almost all of my prickly pear cacti. They grow just too fast and cannot coexist well with my other slow growing and small cacti. Their flowers, however, are large, numerous and beautiful.

Harald

[hegar]

Hello Cactus Friends,

today only one cactus had produced a flower. It is a plant being crowded out by prickly pear plants. To the best of my knowledge, this is an Echinocereus x roetteri, one of the naturally occurring claret-cup cacti found in Orogrande, NM.

Harald

[hegar]

Today the following plants flowered: Opuntia macrocarpa, Sclerocactus (Ancistrocactus) uncinatus, and Thelocactus rinconensis var. freudenbergii.
Here are the pictures:

Harald

[hegar]

This year things are not working out well for me. I have missed the opportunity to take digital images of several cacti, which decided to flower, when I was at work. By the time I am home the blossoms are closed.
One plant, that has seen better days is a pink-flowering Echinocereus x roetteri hybrid. It has several stems, but decided to only produce one flower bud.
I shall try to get this plant going better next year by applying a special spray early in the spring.

By the end of the week, however, I should be able to post a few images of the Queen of the Night (Peniocereus greggii) cactus. Hopefully, the weather will be better than it was last year, when just during that event we did have several showers during the night hours.

Harald

[adetheproducer]

Stunning flowers. They always look much better grown in the ground.

[hegar]

Thank you for your comment, adetheproducer, some of the plants are doing fine this year, others are a disappointment compared to last year.
I even lost a few nice plants, including a Leuchtenbergia principis that despite having been in the ground for about 5 years never flowered. Then the tops of the tubercles died back and I noticed today, that those were not even attached to the base. They had rotted off. Fortunately, I purchased another plant just a week ago. That one I planted in a different location. Perhaps the new spot is a better choice.
Today two cacti decided to flower. One is a Thelocactus hexaedrophorus. Because of the spines and two blossoms being in each other's way, the flowers did not open normally. It did look nicer last year.
The other plant is an "unknown". I do not know, what happened to the label that was in the ground next to it. The body does have an almost pentagon-like shape. Maybe someone, who takes a look at my images, will be able to help me out with an identification for this one.
Could it be some kind of Echinocereus or am I way off?

Harald

[adetheproducer]

It's an echinocereus knippelianus kruegeri I got one the same but with whiter flowers. The flower was open defore I took this picture but I was busy earlier and didn't get to take a picture but it's flowers last a couple of days so should get a better picture tomorrow.