My flowering Cacti 2017

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hegar
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Re: My flowering Cacti 2017

Post by hegar »

Here are today's flowering cacti.
Several prickly pear cacti are still blooming. The Opuntia dillenii opened its first blossoms today.
I also took a picture of the open flowers of the big Sclerocactus uncinatus. The last time I had called that plant Ancistrocactus uncinatus (cat claw cactus).
One of my Echinocereus sp. cacti did flower yesterday, but it opened its blossoms also today. It is a still small E. knippelianus.

Harald
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adetheproducer
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Re: My flowering Cacti 2017

Post by adetheproducer »

Nice echinocereus knippelianus strange how it flowers from the sides mine always flowers from the centre.
And as the walls come down and as I look in your eyes
My fear begins to fade recalling all of the times
I have died and will die.
It's all right.
I dont mind
I dont mind.
I DONT MIND
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hegar
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Re: My flowering Cacti 2017

Post by hegar »

@adetheproducer
most of my plants of the Echinocereus spp. produce blossoms not directly at the apex of the plant, but somewhat lower. The E. viridiflorus ssp. chloranthus sets flower buds mostly on the lower half of the stem. This E. knippelianus was somewhat in between those possible locations. I almost missed the flowering, because the bud showed up next to the stems of the peanut cacti (Echinopsis chamaecereus).
Today, three more cacti produced blossoms. One of them was yet another prickly pear cactus (Opuntia sp.). This plant is perhaps a hybrid. The flower color was almost peach, not a pure yellow that is found on most species.
This afternoon, also the two flower buds on the Echinocereus reichenbachii ssp. fitchii -in the past I had listed this one as E. perbellus - opened up, as did the big and perhaps only bud of a large Echinocactus texensis (horse crippler cactus). That plant has been with me for over 30 years and thus is my oldest cactus.

Harald
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hegar
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Re: My flowering Cacti 2017

Post by hegar »

Today, a few more cacti opened their blossoms.
One of them was a straggler. Most of the other members of that genus and species flowered starting April 7th, with a peak around April 10th.
This plant does receive a little bit more shade. Here are two pictures of Echinocereus dasyacanthus (Texas Rainbow Cactus).
Another Echinocereus sp., this time my only E. engelmannii, also flowered today. Unfortunately, it only had one flower bud. Most of my plants are kind of stingy with producing blossoms this year. Another Echinocereus plant with only one flower decided to bloom today. It is one of my favorite cacti, because it does have such a nice deep red blossom color. This plant is also called "Claret Cup", just like Echinocereus coccineus ssp. rosei. Its scientific name is E. triglochidiatus.

Harald
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MadridPeter
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Re: My flowering Cacti 2017

Post by MadridPeter »

The engelmannii is a real beauty I don't know how it's not your favourite..fantastic genus in general must say
Monkman23
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Re: My flowering Cacti 2017

Post by Monkman23 »

I easily resized photos by sending them to myself. Aol pop up would say my files were to big and offer to resize them before sending. I then downloaded what I sent to myself and it worked perfectly. Best wishes and happy growing.
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hegar
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Re: My flowering Cacti 2017

Post by hegar »

Thank you, Monkman23. I have been processing my images with the GIMP2 software and I do like it. Then I just go ahead and export my images and save them as JEPG's. I do have to stay with 600 x 450 bytes? in order to stay below 500 KB for the image I want to post.
Today has been a rather windy day and because the sky is quite overcast, due to all the sand being in the air, I did not find any of my Turbinicarpus cacti ready for a photo. Most likely, the flowers will be open tomorrow, especially if the wind calms down and the sun is visible.
One of the Echinocereus members opened one of its flowers. The blossom is at the tip of a spindly stem that was bouncing around in the wind. Surprisingly though, both pictures I took are not too much out of focus. So, here they are: Echinocereus poselgeri, with two to three flower buds on each stem. I do really like this cactus! :D

Harald
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hegar
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Re: My flowering Cacti 2017

Post by hegar »

When I arrived at my house this evening, the first blossom of my "purple pentalophus" i.e. Echinocereus pentalophus was just about ready to close.
Because there are a lot more flower buds, I am certain, that in a few days I will be able to post better photos.

Harald
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hegar
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Re: My flowering Cacti 2017

Post by hegar »

Here are a few more blossoms from yesterday evening and today.
The Echinocereus poselgeri did have a good number of flowers open. Two of the long thin stems became entangled with one another, allowing me to take a picture showing four blossoms in the macro mode of my camera.
Also, another one of the prickly pear cacti displayed its large, bright flowers. I am not sure, what species this plant is. It does look similar to the one I call Opuntia dillenii.
A small cactus with thin greyish-green stems also displayed its nice orange-red blossoms. It used to be called Chamaecereus sylvestris, but was renamed to Echinopsis chamaecereus. Its common name is "peanut cactus".

Harald
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hegar
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Re: My flowering Cacti 2017

Post by hegar »

Last night, the second blossom of one of my Queen of the Night (Peniocereus greggii) opened. The first one I could not photograph, because it was almost in the neighbor's yard and not even facing me. So I went out with my camera and flashlight at around 10:30 p.m.. The flower was pretty low on the stem and - despite taking over 20 images, only one turned out fine. I am attaching that picture and another one, which do show the blossom fully expanded. Because of the rotten success from the night before, I did go out again before 8 a.m. and found the flower still partially open. So I took a few more images, two of which I am posting.
As you can see, that one stem does have three more good-sized flower buds and will delight me at least one more time. The other planting of two older cacti still has about 10 more blossoms. If I am lucky, I might even end up with a few red fruits. I do not know, if these plants are self-fertile or require cross-pollination. I could transfer pollen from one plant to the other, Most likely, the plants will synchronize at least some of their flowering. :)

Harald
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hegar
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Re: My flowering Cacti 2017

Post by hegar »

Well, it happened again. While I did have three days off over the weekend, my cacti stubbornly refused to flower. Once I have to go back to work, the plants bloom. Today, when I arrived home, the Echinocereus rigidissimus ssp. rubispinus had its blossom closed. I think, there is a second one present, and that the plant will wait until Saturday to open another flower. My big Astrophytum cornifera also bloomed during my absence.
I was still able to photograph an almost fully closed blossom of the only Echinocereus fendleri var. kuenzleri. This cactus is a slow grower and only gives me one blossom every year. However, things ate looking up, because it is pushing out a second stem. :)
Also, the repeat bloomer Astrophytum asterias - most likely a hybrid - had not yet closed its flower. Here are a few images of these two plants.

Harald
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hegar
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Re: My flowering Cacti 2017

Post by hegar »

Here are a few photos from yesterday. The Echinocereus fendleri var. kuenzleri plant did flower a second day and I was able to get a picture of the blossom being more open than what I had found the day before.
My "purple pentalophus" (Echinocereus pentalophus) also went into full bloom. Fortunately, my wife was home and took the first image. :D When I arrived from work, the flowers were just about to close.

Harald
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hegar
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Re: My flowering Cacti 2017

Post by hegar »

Here are a few more images of blooming cacti from my garden.
The third blossom on the "Queen of the Night" (Peniocereus gregii) opened the night before last and I could not help myself, went out, and took a few more digital images. I thought, the flower was especially large, with a diameter of 9 cm (3.5 inches) and perfectly formed. Here is one picture I took, shining a LED flashlight at it.
Also blooming with its second flower was the Echinocereus rigidissimus ssp. rubispinus. This is a plant I have owned for a good number of years. It produced only one blossom for most of these years, but delighted me with two this time around. It also remained a single stemmed plant, unlike a lot of my other Echinocereus members.
The last cactus that went into bloom is a Gymnocalycium baldianum. I had a big plant of this species, which - for a for me unknown reason - died. That plant did have very bright red blossoms. I went ahead and purchased a small plant to replace the loss, but did not know, what the flower color would be, except that it would be red. Well, this specimen is not as bright red, which makes it easier to photograph it, but I would have preferred the "killer-red" of the big plant that died.
The last set of images show a Thelocactus hexaedrophorus. I was finally able to photograph it with a decent blossom. :)

Harald
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hegar
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Re: My flowering Cacti 2017

Post by hegar »

There were a few more cacti in bloom yesterday and today.
Last night four flowers were open on one of my Queen of the Night (Peniocereus greggii) plants. However, because of the special distance and the fig bush being in the way, I was only able to take a photo showing three of them. That picture was not well focused. So I am showing the other plant, which had two flowers in bloom the same night.
Another one of my favorites, the Thelocactus heterochromus also flowered. Fortunately, my wife took a picture for me. The flower of this plant is very large for the genus and also bright pink.
Last year I had four or five blossoms on my Echinocereus cinarescens. This year only one flower bud was produced. The flower is pretty too.
Another Thelocactus, this time T. rinconensis ssp. freudenbergii produced one blossom. This plant may, however, go into the flowering cycle again later in the year. I hope, that I will be able to get a better photo then.
A real show stopper was once again my Echinopsis eyriesii clump. I counted 28 large white with pink blossoms! This plant is very easy to grow and forms a clump relatively quickly. It also flowers several times a year.
Two days ago one of my miniature cacti (Escobaria sneedii var. leei also gave me a few blooms.

Harald
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hegar
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Re: My flowering Cacti 2017

Post by hegar »

I still managed today to be able to photograph two cacti that had flowered earlier in the day and were just about ready to close the blossoms.
The first plant is one of my small Echinocactus horizonthalonius (Eagle Claw) cactus. I do have more than half a dozen of these plants, which are native in this area. The glaucous exterior color of the fat stems and the heavy spines make this plant even attractive when it is not in flower. It does bloom several times each year.
The other cactus that bloomed - although only one flower was present - is one of the cacti commonly called "Strawberry Pitahaya", because the fruit smells and tastes very much like strawberries Echinocereus enneacanthus produces smaller fruit than the "strawberry pitahaya" Echinocereus stramineus (Bee Hive cactus), but in my experience, the plant produces additional stems and also flowers a lot sooner.

Harald
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