Echinocereus viridiflorus

For us, these flower abundantly and require next to no special attention. Other than not being especially happy with the amount of rain we get in the winter, these plants can take any cold weather we could ever send their way.

Echinocereus viridiflorus

These little beauties with the strange flowers are extremely cold hardy and can even stand a fair amount of Winter wetness, as long as they have excellent drainage. The original plants come from the foothills of Northern Colorado and Wyoming.

Echinocereus viridiflorus

This nice little Echinocereus grows hidden in the grasses or under the snow in fairly mountainous terrain in Colorado and Wyoming (and in various expressions, throughout other states, from Texas and north). It can take a lot of mistreatment and not only survive, but thrive. Just as yesterday's post was of a "hard keeper," this is one "easy keeper."

Enjoy your plants!

Trip photos I

During the next few days I'll be sharing some photos of our travels during the past couple of weeks. After leaving Oregon and Idaho, and the corner of Utah, the weather turned quite cold and blustery in Wyoming.

It was here that we did our only real cactus explorations. And it was cold exploration.

The Pediocactus simpsonii  was the first to show up, very obvious with these bright blooms. Actually, it took quite a while of walking in the cold wind before we spotted them, as the grasses provide excellent cover. And did I say it was cold!?

But looking down at your feet sometimes brings rewards. The one on the right is Echinocereus viridiflorus, not quite ready to bloom.

...but plentiful!

...and cold! After a brief visit to Nebraska, and some snow flurries, we were ready to head south.

Echinocereus viridiflorus

These aren't flowering right now. It's just a bit cold out there - for another night. But they are out there shivering in the cold night. These particular Echinocereus viridiflorus plants come from Colorado, up near the border with Wyoming, and they're quite hardy. They'd better be. Our temperatures right now are almost rivaling those of Wyoming and Nebraska. ... Notice I said "almost"! But it's going to be into the teens again tonight!

Enough already! We're expecting another night of this and the greenhouse heater still isn't working right. So, another night of temporary heaters. And I'll have to get up in the middle of the night to check 'em! Argh!