spring cacti flowers

Nice ones Lewis lucky to get flowers the day after you bought the astro

This is flowering on an on its one I just got an ID on, an oreocereus x cleistocactus.

Interesting one Betty. I read that Oreos are very reluctant to flower. The hybridisation must make them flower more readily. Very nice.

trig the astro is labelled as a 'myriostigma cultivar'... the guy i got it off said 'it grew from a packet of mixed myriostigma seed from italy'. in other words it could be anything. almost looks like a 'hakuun nudum'. yeah 'semi-nudum' is what i've been calling it. as for why ive been getting these weird flowers i have no idea.. the liquid seaweed fertiliser i use? hmm maybe thats the secret.. i wonder if i up the dosage and regularity maybe my whole collection will go monstrose!
thats the first time ive ever noticed that epithelantha micromeris specimen ever flower.. it obviously has been regularly in the past though because it produces lots of fruit.
p.s did someone say gymno?

Gymno? Sure did. I have a G. baldianum, G. freidrichii (spelling?) and a few others all with nice flower buds pumping along. Will post pics when they do. Gymno flowers are great. Maybe I can get ID's on the unknown ones when they flower? Looking to be a good year for me and cacti flowers. Also got a Weingartia sp. closely related to Gymno so I hear, which is just about to burst into flower. Has about 30 odd flower buds on it, eagerly awaiting this one to bloom

Wow, theres some great pics here. Better than results from google images. You guys should get you photos tagged for web searchability. Truly awesome photos.

Heres another of mine that flowered this morning.

Echinopsis. (if anyone knows the species please let me know)

E. oxygona? Not totally sure, don't know them all that well.

Here's a Weingartia sp. syn Rebutia sp., check out all those flower buds

nice one trig
heres a LW:


fma. caespitosa

and more awe-inspiring, magnificent, absolutely unbeatable epi action!

its actually a var. neomexicana apparently. so now ive got normal micromeris, neomexicana, polycephala and bokei
soon the above will look like this neomex:

Great shots everyone.

Hey Lewis I don't think that LW is Caespitosa. Looks like a regular Williamsii to me.

I agree HN, looks like regular to me. Really nice plant. Wow those Epi fruits are actually alot more showy than the flowers. Very nice! Oh speaking of Epi fruits, what ever happened to the seeds you said you would send me lewis? I'm still keen mate.

Sulcorebutia Rauschii




Harissia Jusbertii





Never got to see this one open kept missing it.

Awesome HN. Never seen the Harrisia in flower, did you get to pollinate it with anything? Nice Sulco too, really nice colour.

Epiphyllum sp.

Nah no pollenation because I didn't get any pollen. It has another flower bud that is just starting to form. I think Watertrade is going to help out with some I just need his to flower in time.

Awww no fair, i want a Sulcorebutia Rauschii

HN and trig i can guarantee the LW is caespitose.. i removed the offsets so the main head would actually grow and flower. underneath the plant (you can't see in the photo) its going crazy with offsets... which i don't like.
HN cool pics.. wow the jusbertii flower is huge in comparison with the plant size.
i love sulco rauschii, finally tracked a couple down at the show. i got one green one and one purple.

^^Yeah the green one looks awesome ! I want one.

I'm going to graft that little pup on mine to Hylo tomrrow.

Nice ones guys

Keep em coming!!!

Astrophytum capricorne X Super Kabuto, it has one of the largest Astro flowers I have ever seen! 3 or 4 more buds forming. Hmm any tips on collecting and saving pollen? I wouldn't mind saving a bit because I have a few more Astros budding up and some nearly ready to pop.







Note to lewis, am glad I didn't sell this one now, it's amazing

Very Very nice plant and flower Trig. To save pollen I just get tweezers pluck out the little anthers, put it all in a old film canister and put in the freezer. Depends on sp how lnog it will last. I'm not sure with astros but a friend has used it after 3 weeks and had sucess.

ya they are huge
capricorne nudum:



i crossed it with the myrio semi nudum.

Cool. Really like that nudum lewis. Looks to be about the same size flower as the hybrid one I had (pictured above). I had an var. aureum (not sure if it's the same? Looked similiar) but it rotted in the beginning of last spring unfortunately, didn't know much about Astros back then. Oh well, you win some you lose some.

Actually I also lost a asterias nudum at around the same time. I wonder if these nudum types are more susceptable of rot? Anyone know? Or have any theories or experience on that?

Looking good Trig and Lewis! In the next day or so my Capricorne Nuduum should open up, cant wait for the big flowers.
Had a nice suprise when i got home today, my 2 recently purchased Asterias and SK were open for me. Now, i gotta read up on howto pollinate them.
I was wondering, is the SK flower much smaller in size because of the plant size? Sk's are just heavily flecked Asterias pretty much, but its alot smaller in flower size to my Asterias.
Damnit, i gotta learn howto resize my photos.

Beautiful!
looking great Michael
they seem to have settled in well, lucky to have them flowering simultaneously.
edit: to pollinate i usually just get a fine paintbrush and wiggle it around the anthers (the things around the middle with the pollen) and transfer the pollen to the stigma (thing in the middle) of the other flower. do it both ways so hopefully both plants set seed. now i don't think that made any sense, someone will be able to describe the process better than i can.

Thanks Lewis, ive read up about pollinateing them, but im a little bit confused, somewhere i read that you have to wait a couple of days before youe pollinate, and somewhere i read you can do it whenever. But in a couple of days, they probly wont be open.

i think due to the short lifespan of most cactus flowers the pollen is ready for use shortly after the flower opens,maybe as soon as it comes off onto your finger when the anthers are touched.

MichaelCactus: The easiest way i've found to rezise photos without using photoshop in windows is with MS Paint.
Right click on your photo, open with MS Paint. Goto the 'Image' Tab and select 'Stretch/Skew'.
Rezize your photo by percentage which is about 20-25% for my camera to get a good web size shot.
Save As and you're all done.