Echinocactus texensis blooms

[smweaver]

After a long cold winter dormancy, all of my plants of this species are starting to produce their spring blooms. This plant, at nearly one foot wide, is the biggest, and here's the first of the buds to open. The scent is very nice, although not terribly strong. The problem with that combination is that the enticing fragrance makes you want to push your nose down into the flower--and the surrounding spines are not very forgiving.

[ilikeorchids]

What a cool flower!

[RosieC]

Wow, really pretty!

[WhiteRabbit]

Lovely!

[Ordphien]

That's gorgeous! So airy.
Are you any good at identifying cacti?
I've got one that blooms 4 times a year. And when it was identified in the past there was a hitch with the fragrance.
Supposedly it's not fragrant but my plant is.
The guy got pretty upset with me and I haven't pursued it since.

[sbrofio]

Congrats, one of my favourite cactus. Did you know there are some different forms (color and shape of flowers and spines)?
Ordphidien, post the pic of you cactus, let's ID!

[No-Pro-mwa]

That's a big one. I love it it's beautiful.

[smweaver]

Originally Posted by sbrofio

Did you know there are some different forms (color and shape of flowers and spines)?

Until fairly recently, I did not know that there were several different forms--although it shouldn't have come as a surprise, considering the distribution of the species.

Most of the plants I have are equipped with flat and wide spines, with a prominent central spine that's much longer and points more or less horizontally. One of them, however, has long upright spines that never lie flat against the body (I think the flat, wide and horizontally oriented version is the standard or more typical arrangement of spines), and the central spine has a distinctive hook on the end. The body is also more gray-green in color. And the big one (the one that's flowering) has relatively short spines and all of the same length. The flowers of all of them, however, are nearly identical. I would be interested to see a plant that has atypical blooms.

Thank you, everyone, for your feedback!

And yes, I too would like to see a picture of the plant that you (Ordphien) have. Why on earth would the seller get a little heated simply because you informed him or her that the flowers were fragrant? Plant people are odd. And while most of the time I consider that a good thing (diversity, differing tastes, etc.), once in awhile you do run into a truly odd character that gets a little more worked up than is probably necessary.

[sbrofio]

Here you can see some pics from an italian grower. Seat down before
Cactus & Co.

Cactus & Co.

and also maybe this pdf can be interesting
http://www.fws.gov/southwest/federal...ogyaze-6-9.pdf

I LOVE H. texensis

[smweaver]

Those are all fantastic. But I'm certain that they are missing their homeland. Please tell the grower that if he would be kind enough to return them to the United States, I will be more than happy to cover the shipping cost. :-)