Hello Cactus Friends, I went outside this afternoon and found both of my Astrophytum capricorne in bloom. The A. capricorne var. senile had three blossoms, while the larger plant sported two. Thus far the "senile" variety produced smaller flowers and the plant does have a more scraggly loo...

Hello okoner, it looks like the infection had progressed more toward the base of the plant than what the color of the plant tissue would indicate. I think, a better place to cut back the stem would have been the location, where the stem is a bit constricted, i.e. to remove all the season's new growt...

Hello Cactus Friends, two more plants came into bloom this afternoon. While I heard cactus growers say, that Astrophytum asterias is the most difficult one of the genus to successfully cultivate, I can state from my own long-year experience, that at least the hybrid version is easy to grow. Perhaps ...

I do use Imidacloprid occasionally (early spring, before cacti flower) as a ground application with irrigation water. I do not believe, that I am doing substantial damage to the environment, including bees; at least I have not noticed a reduction in pollinating insects on my outdoor plants. I also d...

Hello Cactus Friends, today a small and inconspicuous cactus produced a flower. The plant's stems are only slightly thicker than a ball point pen and the blossoms are not very large either. Perhaps it has flowered since then, but I do not have any images of this plant in bloom since 2017. The flower...

Hello Cactus Friends, yesterday, shortly before 9 a.m. the Ferocactus hamatacanthus did open its flowers again and I was able to snap a few photos of the half-open blossoms. So, here they are: F_hamatacanthus7.jpg F_hamatacanthus8.jpg F_hamatacanthus9.jpg Also, my Mammillaria grahamii had its second...

Hello Gabriel, I do like members of the genus Coryphantha. I did have two Coryphantha plants - not at the same time though - and both were C. elephantidens. One did flower yellow, the other pink. I do not know how, but I managed to kill them both within a year or two. Both the blossoms and the appea...

I do not exactly know, why ants at times become a serious pest, but this year I am also confronted with ant activity around my cacti. There are a lot of them between my Escobaria sneedii ssp. sneedii and Escobaria sneedii ssp. leei. What is bothersome is their movement of soil particles and piling t...

Hello Cactus Friends, @ Gabriel (dinfelu): I agree with you. Of our "local" cacti the Eagle Claw (Echinocactus horizonthalonius) is a nice plant, even when not in flower. But it is very difficult, if not impossible, to pick a favorite. There are several, which are in contention e.g.: Echin...

This is a tough one. At first I thought, that it was just a physiological disorder or a natural event like corking. Then I noticed, that the problem seems to start out around the areole of the plant. Some insect and mite pests and also plant pathogens would most likely become active in that area. I ...

I was interrupted and shall now continue to post the remainder of the images. Next in line is the "peanut cactus" Echinopsis chamaecereus. This small, low-growing cactus does flower repeatedly during the growing season. Echinop_chamaecereus5.JPG The next image does show two flowering cacti...

Hello Cactus Friends, during the last few days more cacti did proceed to flower. So I am posting 14 images showing them in bloom. The first one does finally show my Echinocereus cinarescens with wide open flowers. This cactus usually does produce a lot more blossoms, but this year, perhaps because o...

Hello Cactus Friends, the repeated rainfall lately did have a very invigorating effect on most of my cacti. The plants not only did get rather plump, but also their buds started to swell, unless of course the prior heat wave had killed them. There was quite an assortment flowering the last two days....

Hello Cactus Friends, today there were three cacti in flower. One late blossom was produced by my largest Echinocereus pentalophus plant, which usually does bloom profusely. However, it is in a semi-shaded location, which delayed flowering. By the time the plant was about ready to bloom we did have ...

Hello Cactus Friends, after a lengthy dry spell, we did have finally a few cooler days and even some rain. My cacti did have a tough time this year, first having to survive the drop of the usually morderate temperatures to 11 degrees F, then having only a short spring, followed by very hot and dry c...