Copiapoa tennuisima

This is one of the smaller growing copiapoas which flowers readily and regularly creates monstrose plants. Purple bodied beauties.

Eriosyce heinrichiana var. setosiflora

We've been raising cacti for over 40 years and we never get tired of theses beautiful flowers. Very few places in the flower kingdom match the beauty of so many cactus flowers.

Mammillaria marksiana "Cabeza de Viejo"

This is a very neat looking mam, with its partial halo of yellow flowers, teasing us with the rest of the flowers yet to come.

Rebutia offset

This is an offset which got placed on some potting soil, but not labeled. It just couldn't wait. (This is in the corner of a small, 3" pot.) [Lynn-Marie tells me that this was from seed and that it's Rebutia marsonii. I guess I should have asked first!]

Have a Happy Easter!

Oreocereus doelzianus

 

I know, I posted this plant back in June or July, but - hey! - it's blooming again. It's one of those gifts which keep on giving. We don't give this plant any special care. In fact, it gets neglected an awful lot. But then, every summer it blooms and blooms. It's as if it's saying, "Hey, look at me; I'm still here, stupid. Water me!!!"

Gymnocalycium crest

This Gymnocalycium crest flowers dependably each year. I don't know the species, though an intelligent guess could be made. The graft was done by the late Lazlo of the former Desert Nursery in Deming, New Mexico.

Epiphylum oxypetalum

This is my first attempt at doing this, so bear with me. Our Epiphyllum oxypetalum flowered tonight, so I thought I'd attempt a time lapse video of the flower opening. Next time I'll try adding some music and some effects.

Enjoy your plants!

When you got no roots...flower anyway!

Steve Hammer, in his article in Haworthia Update, says it's helpful to him to say that his job is primarily to grow roots. And I've often expressed the same thing. But then...

This plant came to us with some problems: mealy bugs and some beginning rot. So out comes that sharp sterile blade and off goes the bottom of the plant. After letting it callus over, it's been sitting in the rooting tray. It hasn't had enough time yet to form roots, but - hey - why wait? You don't have to have roots to flower...and you can take that personally!

Bumble Bee in Cactus Flower

Lynn-Marie took this photo yesterday of a bumble bee on an Echinocereus flower. Yes, it's definitely Spring.

Another way I can tell it's Spring is that in the week we were gone our lawn grew tenfold, and now it's too wet to mow it. By the time I can mow it I'll be harvesting hay!

Trichocereus (Echinopsis) Flower

While Lynn-Marie was capturing the photo of the fish pond, she also caught this image. Yeah, it's stickery, but then it flowers!

The answer to "How do I get my cactus to flower?"

OK, it's time for an intermission from all the Haworthias.

This is a Copiapoa laui which hasn't yet established any roots. And you were asking how to get them to flower?

Rebutia and Copiapoa flowers

Since my last post was a "medley" of Echinopsis flowers, I couldn't resist another grouping. Sometimes I'm just wandering the greenhouses and a certain combination just strikes out at me. This is one of those cases. I couldn't have planned it better myself.

Echinopsis medley

Today was one of those days when they all come together. Three Echinopsis hybrids decided to flower all at once: Paramount Rose, Stars & Stripes and Buttercup.

Cochemiea poselgeri

I love the flowers on this plant. It makes for a very striking specimen.

Lobivia haematantha rebutioides sublimiflora (syn. Echinopsis denspina)

We received this plant with the following moniker: Lobivia haematantha var. rebutioides subsp. sublimiflora which is also known as Lobivia rebutioides var. sublimiflora (Backeb. ex Wessner) Backeb. or, simply Echinopsis densispina (Werderm.)Whatever it is, what flowers!

Weingartia variegate

We've had this Weingartia in our collection for longer than we can remember. And it flowers prolifically every year.

Cactus flower

Just another image of the flower from the last post.

Wow!

We woke up this morning to be greeted with this fantastic flower.

Mammillaria duwei crest

I took this photo just before we left on our trip but didn't have time to upload it. It flowers reliably every year and makes a handsome display.

Mammillaria

A beautiful unidentified Mammillaria hiding away on one of the back tables.

Now that's some flower!