It had been a long time since I owned a cactus, and never a flowering one, so when I picked up this prickly little guy in a Union Square street market last summer I didn't know what I'd be in for. It had two small stalks and one tiny flower. The flower fell off about 2 weeks later and the thing didn't create any more for many months... I figured that the seller either exaggerated or had the wrong info about this cactus.
Over the course of the fall and winter, it grew rather happily, creating a number of branches off the two main trunks with plenty of fine green leaves. Then in the latter half of winter, I started to notice some growth that did not look like leaves. They were flower buds. And wow, was there ever an abundance! I wish I'd thought to photograph the plant at its peak, but alas I didn't. I'll definitely try next blooming season. The flowers would last maybe 2 weeks then drop off. But bloom after bloom after bloom would appear. At one point, the thing looked more yellow than green!
I watered it a little more frequently than I would a normal cactus, being about once weekly instead of once monthly. It sure liked to be watered, because it just kept flowering for MONTHS, maybe 4 to 5 until it finally tapered off. The only trouble is that the flower stalks are rather sticky and can be a bit of a mess when they start falling all over.
But the flower clusters were wonderfully varied. Some would be just one or two flowers on a tiny stalk, but on one I saw about TEN flowers off of a single stalk making a kind of mini bouquet.
The flowers themselves are not fragrant but they're quite beautiful. They have a soft pale yellow coloration to them that starts to turn darker as the flower passes its blooming apex, with a reddish hue appearing along the edges. The center has a few tiny stamen stalks, surrounded by a bright yellowish gel or nectar.
Anyway, I eventually had to start trimming the darned thing back because it was getting too unwieldy. I pruned two stalks and coated the wounds with cinnamon, which didn't seem to disturb the plant in any unhealthy way. In fact, I transplanted one of the stalks after soaking in water for a couple of weeks to see if it might be able to grow on its own. Going on a couple of weeks now, the pruned stalk is still mostly healthy with only a tiny bit of leaf wilting. It'll be fun to see if it will actually live on. I can then make this into a gift cactus, imparting the seedlings to friends that want them.
So... anybody know what this cactus is? I searched for flowering cactus images on the Internet and couldn't find very much. I eventually found an image of one, but the photographer captured them in the wild and didn't have a clue.
Anybody know the correct name for this flowering cactus?
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