These two flowers opened on the same day making a beautiful display. I wish I had a few more of these Echinocactus horizonthalonius and could get them to make seeds. As it is we only have one plant as a pet.
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Thursday, August 23, 2007 Echinocactus horizonthalonius flowers These two flowers opened on the same day making a beautiful display. I wish I had a few more of these Echinocactus horizonthalonius and could get them to make seeds. As it is we only have one plant as a pet.
posted by Stan at 9:17 PM Tuesday, August 21, 2007 Hatiora gaertneri seed pods  This small Hatiora was putting out some flowers last May at the same time our Disocactus ackermannii was making flowers. I tried to cross pollinate these two plants and thought that it didn't work because the Disocactus never made any seed pods with the flowers which were crossed. Later I was surprised to see that this H. gaertneri had seed pods on it. It seems that the H. gaertneri pollen wouldn't take in the D. ackermannii, but the D. ackermannii took in the H. gaertneri. This seems sort of strange, but I would be happy if these seeds are actually viable and grow into plants. Sometimes combinations like this will make seed pods, but they will be empty or the seeds will be sterile. We'll have to wait and see how they develop and plant the seeds if there are any.
posted by Stan at 4:20 PM Sunday, August 19, 2007 Disocactus ackermannii seed pod  The seeds in this pod will be hybrids and they were pollinated last May. There were three pods and they are almost ready to fall off now in the middle of August. Three months seems to be a long time to wait for seeds to mature. In the last few weeks these pods have been turning red and almost look like something to eat. I'm unsure if I really want to taste them or not, but I will take the seeds and plant them. I have two of these D. ackermannii plants and hope to have both of them bloom at the same time some spring. Then I could get some pure species seeds.
posted by Stan at 4:51 PM Saturday, August 18, 2007 Astrophytum asterias flowers  I've had a half dozen of these cacti which have rotted over the past several years. They are very difficult to keep in Wisconsin and place outdoors in the summer. Perhaps they are best kept on a very sunny windowsill all of the time. I'm keeping these under artificial lights and in windows, but never will try to put then outdoors. These are blooming and making seeds, and I plan to plant some of their seeds this winter. Astrophytum asterias are a threatened species in the wild and I would like to have my own population to keep growing if I can have them grow from seeds into adult plants. These plants came from an Arizona greenhouse, and Arizona growers probably can grow them much easier than we can. I'm going to try growing them using mostly artificial lights - and see if this can work in the next 5 to 10 years - with new adult plants that will make new seeds.
posted by Stan at 5:14 PM Friday, August 17, 2007 Ariocarpus fissuratus  Ann had one of these Ariocarpus fissuratus plants for a long time. It came in a cactus pkg of 3 plants from Walgreens or some drug store back in the 70s. I remember it sitting on a sunny window at Grant Street in Ft. Collins for several years. We moved to Wisconsin and it was one of the few house plants we had that lived long enough to make it to our house here on Winnebago st. We had it in some windows that probably didn't get enough light and we watered it when it didn't want water. In the late 1990s it died and we were both very sad. It took a long time to find a new one. The local greenhouses have never had any of these and we ended up buying some from places in Arizona. We found one in Iowa once. Now we have several of them from various greenhouses. This one is the largest and we found it on our vacation last spring. Labels: vacation
posted by Stan at 1:52 PM Thursday, August 16, 2007 Sclerocactus uncinatus v wrightii  The Sclerocactus uncinatus v wrightii seed pods are very beautiful. I think the Sclerocactus group is being moved to Glandulicactus, so I'm unsure how soon I should stop using the name Sclero. I sort of feel attached to the old name. I'm finding the the seeds in these pods are very fussy about germinating. I've had some germinate quickly and a few other pots planted at different times and in different soil that haven't germinated at all. In the past I've had good germination rates for Scleros when starting them in the winter. In our basement under lights the night time temps are much cooler, and the daytime temperatures can be made much higher with the lights and a heating pads. I think I'll wait until November to try planting more of these and hope to grow lots of these plants. Labels: seeds
posted by Stan at 10:39 PM Sunday, August 12, 2007 Opuntia fragilis flowers  This is the first time we've ever had Opuntia fragilis flowers. We have about 15 different versions of these Opuntia species and they are great plants to grow in a place like Wisconsin. They take all of the punishment the hot summer days can give and easily live through the coldest parts of winter. We have a few versions that won't take the cold of winter, but most of them could live in outdoors in a place even colder than this. These O. fragilis flowers are on a plant that originated in Roaring Fork Canyon in Colorado. A cousin of mine has these growing in his property, and let us have some. We are trying to make new plants with them and hope to offer them for sale in a few years. Labels: summer
posted by Stan at 7:13 PM |
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