Echinopsis blooms

This past Thursday night was time for the blooms to open - my first two Echinopsis for the season. Last year I don't think I had any blooms until August - this is a little bit earlier and may be a sign of good things to come. Hope to have many more in bloom through the month of August.

First one is a creamy white. Other one has kind of pinkish mid-stripes.

Buds ... #1 ..................................................#2



... and blooms.


Still watching all the others very closely.

Blooming red Gymno

I picked up two gymnos at the CSSM show in May 2007. They might both be the same species but I wasn't sure and figured there was no harm in getting both since they weren't so expensive (although I really had set out to get nothing). Overall I ended up buying four plants, and so far they are all okay.

Both Gymnos were budding but one apparently changed its mind and the little bump has disappeared. The other was quite happy to show its colours. The first bud shocked me when I took a close-up photo and found it covered in aphids.





Killed those bugs quickly, but the bud never managed to open properly.




The second flower bud has grown and finally opened over the past weekend. Although the bud doesn't look typical Gymnocalycium baldianum, I am assuming that as the identity until something better is offered to me. I am hoping that I get two blooms at the same time on different plants so that I may be able to get some seed from them.

Up close ...

... but not so personal.

Just some shots of flower buds.

Gymnocalycium damsii



Mammillaria karwinskiana


And a flower - Mammillaria magnimamma

Second gymno

Very quickly - not much to say but just to show Gymnocalycium damsii v rotundulum's first bloom of this season. This one is another reliable bloomer so I should have many more to come throughout the summer.




Up close to the flower...

First gymno bloom for 2007

This variety of Gymnocalycium damsii is such a dependable and reliable bloomer. It propagates very easily also, so I have a bunch of small plants that I don't know what to do with, and it keeps on making more.

This is a 2002 offset that is quick on the draw this year. There are a few others budding up, so I should have no shortage of flowers for this season. Hopefully my large plant will put on a good show with multiple blooms.

More pink!!!

I used to have only yellow mamms blooming but I seem to be seeing a change in my collection. All of a sudden the pink ones are showing their stuff.

First time blooms for Mammillaria bombycina


And Mammillaria hahniana (when I got this one I thought it was M. geminispina)


M. columbiana has been quietly and steadily blooming although it has never quite made a ring of flowers. This is as close as it got, but only on one side.

Mammillaria hahniana finally blooming!

I think this is Mammillaria hahniana (maybe) ssp woodsii.





I remember buying this small globe at the JHS Flower Show about three years ago just because it looked like something I didn't have. Never mind that I didn't know what it was, but eventually I got a tentative ID from one of the Forums that it might be Mammillaria hahniana.

Although it has been quietly growing, I was surprised to see buds form earlier this year.

Finally, the display!

And, a closer look at the flower.

More Mammillaria blooms!

Things are really looking up for me. I'm starting to count the cacti that haven't bloomed instead of those that have. Of course, I try to catch each new bloom on camera so I have a record of what it looks like because I can't be sure when I will see it happen again - I'm not yet confident that I'll see blooms annually as the seasons roll around.

What have I seen for the first time today?

Two plants of Mammillaria magnimamma ...




And Mammillaria pringlei - just when I was lamenting the fact that M. rhodantha was being such a prolific bloomer and nothing was happening with M. pringlei - guess it felt now was a good time to prove me wrong (not that I'm complaining)