Astrophytum hybrid

A whole month! What's gone wrong with me? Let me treat this break as a summer holiday, and try to make it up for the rest of the year.

I couldn't overlook this week though, because one of my Astrophytums grown from seed decided to bloom!

I sowed this set of seed in July 2004 from a packet I ordered from Cactusstore. I thought it started off slow, because it was still so small at 2 years old, but it showed a spurt of growth last year.

March06..................



January 2007 (in a 2" pot).................


August 2007 (in a 3" pot)........



I potted up to a 4" pot early in 2008, and now I am rewarded with this!

Astrophytum hybrid

The flower opened yesterday for the first time, and because of the heavy rains dropped by Tropical Storm Fay, I doubt that the flower will be able to open again today - it has been SMASHED!

Smashed like the Men's 100 m record by Jamaica's Usain Bolt yesterday, and then on top of it, the Jamaicans took the gold and two silvers in the Women's 100 m today. So call me negligent, but I was too busy paying attention to the Olympic sprints to realise that I should have taken the plant out of the rain to save the bloom.