Discocactus horstii

Hi guys,

last week I got again a little flowering party of my D. horstii. The scent was awesome and took the whole collection!





Best regards
Alex

Hi Alex welcome to the forum! That is an awesome party you got going on there.
It is understandable why this species is endangered: the biggest it gets is a few inches then they start to send up groups of huge flowers that only last a single night(presumably to attract a bat or a moth on which it depends for pollination) then after a few years they die without ever offsetting. The seedlings take a few years to get to an inch diameter and it is unlikely that you can flower them on own roots within a decade from seed. The smell of the flowers, as Alex mentioned, is one of the freshest, most beautiful and distinct perfumes you can encounter.
That truly is an awesome effort with thoose plants. It is interesting the way they all flower at the same time too.

The night-blooming cacti are definitely some of the most beautiful of all flowering plants. You've grown some fine specimens there.

Thanks!
It is really a mystery, how they synchronize to flower in the same night! It is very rare to see a single flower.
These are 3 years old, all grafted on Selenicereus and started to flower with one year of age. Now I'm trying to root some of them, but it seems to be hard, as the adult plants are not very vigorous.
Although I harvested lots of seeds and I'm growing a new bunch of seedlings on own roots.

Alex
My D. horstiis were also in flower a few weeks ago.
Own root seedlings have also grown well.
Unfortunately I can not show a scent but here is the photo.
Hanzono

Very nice plants, Hanazono! I know some of your fantastic plants from pictures in another forum.
You must be harvesting lots of seeds too...

Best regards
Alex

Alex
In fact it was not easy to get seeds of horstii.
Since a stigma is in deep location of the flower and hard to cross correctly.
I found a method 3years ago and was possible to get prenty of seeds.
I sowed seeds last year and this year.
Hanazono

I use a toothpick with a little piece of cotton and it works very well to pollinate all kind of Discocactus.
I've been harvesting thousands of seeds from my 40 grafted plants!

Cheers
Alex

Hanazono wrote:

Alex
In fact it was not easy to get seeds of horstii.
Since a stigma is in deep location of the flower and hard to cross correctly.
I found a method 3years ago and was possible to get prenty of seeds.
I sowed seeds last year and this year.
Hanazono

yeah, I heared sometimes people even cut along the flower to get to the stigma..
Here is mine from yesterday evening..

Fantastic variegate or yellow disco Newman!

IXOXI wrote:

Fantastic variegate or yellow disco Newman!

thanx! in reality it is orange...my old and trusty sony camera gives wrong colours unfortunately...I have another 2 discos which are realy lemon-yellow but they are without cephaliy yet..