Astrophytum color explosion
The whole garden is full of flowers, but there are some flowers that interest me more than others, for example the flowers of my beautiful Astrophytum Capricorne that I show you below.
The Astrophytum super Kabuto is still flowering and I can probably cross-pollinate with the Capricorne, although I'm not entirely sure I can do that.
This Myriostigma flowers like crazy and although I have tried to pollinate it, so far I have not had any good results.
I think the color of this flower will be yellow but we still have to wait until tomorrow to confirm it.
Let's go back to the Capricorne flower, this is how the cactus looks with its flower, the color is intense and I love it, many people don't like to graft cacti but we can't deny that the process is good when you want to see faster the characteristics of the cactus, for example this one is less than a year old, and it already gave flowers, something that normally would take up to three years.
Now let's take a closer look at these flowers.
Another cactus that has me surprised is this mammillaria nivosa, I thought it needed another cactus to pollinate its flowers, but as you can see some fruits are starting to come out, so here come the seeds.
The same with this other mammillaria, although last year it gave seeds the truth is that either I lost the seedbed or none of the seeds were born because I can't find their babies, this year I will pay more attention to see what happens.
Finally, I waited until sunset to observe again the flower of the Astrophyutum Capricorne and for some reason the color became redder, a beautiful color that reminds me of fire and that really impresses me to observe, this would be all for today, I just wanted to share a little of the beauty of my garden, see you.
Astrophytum are lovely all-round!
Yes, they are!
The yellow color is beautiful! I just commented in another publication that I have been with a cactus that I was given as a gift for almost a year and its growth is super slow, it has barely grown a bit, and I commented that I am crazy to see a flower on it. Now I'm reading your post and you mention that it can sometimes take up to 3 years for it to flower 🙈, well I'll keep waiting! Well they say that good things are made to wait 😅🤩.
Hola @schiogonzalez te voy a responder en español para entendernos mejor, los cactus en su mayoría, son de crecimiento lento, muy lento, los únicos que sé que se desarrollan más rápido son los columnares como garambullos, los organos, pitayos, ah y la pitahaya, pero ya de ahí en fuera todos crecen lento, sobre todo los cactus que he decidido tener en mi jardín.
El único método en el que confío para hacerlos crecer más pronto y den flores sin perder mucho su forma natural es el injerto, lo digo porque he visto personas que le ponen mucho abono pensando que eso les va a ayudar, y muchas veces terminan quemando las raíces del cactus, y si crece lo hace perdiendo la estética del cactus, algunos ponen un sustrato más orgánico para que conserve más humedad, y los cactus crecen y se hinchan al grado de que puede llegar a explorar, pero eso tampoco garantiza la floración.
En resumen los cactus son seres vivos que al igual que nosotros tienen un proceso de desarrollo que va cambiando por etapas, lo mejor es conocer tu cactus y sus características, hay cactus que dan flor pronto, y por pronto me refiero a menos de dos años, y hay cactus que tardan más, por ejemplo las Obregonia Denegrii, ariocarpus, peyote, etc, me ha costado aprender sobre los cactus que tengo en el jardín pero vale la pena hacerlo, porque eso me ha llevado a entender que para que los cactus maduren a su tiempo necesitan tener las condiciones necesarias, luz, agua, sol, viento, minerales, incluso la altitud tiene un rol importante en todo ésto, la temporada también, no todos los cactus florecen en primavera y verano, algunos lo pueden hacer en otoño y creo que alguno que otro en invierno, la paciencia es nuestro mejor aliado, suerte.