A couple of photos from the last day of last year. First is what was purchased as Mammillaria elegans and it has a bloom for last year and this year too . It's really early compared to past years. 2-3 months early. I don't see any buds, so maybe it's an anomaly. This year I've only moved this inside for one cold spell, so like nearly all my cacti this year, it's being subjected to more cold than I've chanced in previous seasons.


Taking that chance hasn't been good for Mammillaria karwinskiana subsp nejapensis. It's the only one in the collection that is showing damage. I think the minimum temp of 20-25F I found isn't correct. Or at least I have several only supposed to be able to withstand down to 32F and those appear undamaged and were subject to the same temps as this one. I've been taking more precautions with this one by moving it closer to the wall of the house on cold nights which seeps out a bit more warmth. If we have an extended freeze, it'll likely be moved inside. Assuming I don't allow any further damage, it should be okay.

Baby's got buds!

Could you add the bud photo to the DB , @Baja_Costero? There doesnt seem to be much photos of the plant. And believe it or not, when it comes to looking for cactus flower buds on the net, there is a surprising shortage...

This has always bloomed in April in years past. I don't understand why it's started a bloom cycle this early. Except for the one short winter spell that had a low of 17F, it has spent the rest of the time outdoors this winter on an exposed porch which keeps it dry, but not warm. The first bloom showed up in December and I can see more buds underneath the cotton, some very small. It'd be nice to get another cycle of blooms, but it's never done that before. Other Mamms still are blooming, but most started late last summer. This was purchased as M. elegans.

It turns out that M. oteroi is really easy to start from offsets... here's the mother after giving up 5 heads, and one of them after a few weeks already growing and branching.



This is good news for the survival of the species and it gets me thinking maybe I need to plant a lawn of these plants somewhere one day.

Saw this guy

I dont intend to buy it, but i would like to know about it...

Good style on the spines there.

This one is still going at it...

First flowers... I like the pink filaments on the inside.

This Mammillaria hahniana 'Old Lady Cactus' got repotted last week along with another cactus I'd purchased earlier. The wind had blown the plastic containers over and both had dislodged and tumbled out. The soil was dry and I'd just set them back in the containers and waited about 3 weeks and gave them new containers when a nice corresponded with some time to do it. This one got put in a container a bit too large, I guess. However it was on hand and available and I'm not going to make a 100 mile round trip every time I need a new container, so often use what's on hand. It got soaked by almost 2 inches of rain this week. Spring is definitely springing now, so hopefully it will manage. Spring doesn't mean no cold weather here. I've moved it inside for two nights to avoid temps in the mid to low 30s. Those temp swings are likely to occur through mid-April. I've put off changing and potting some cacti and succulents and concentrated on plants that aren't as sensitive to being handled in cool and wet temps, but I want as many ready as possible because the early growing season is beginning and everything is responding to the increased daylight and increasing number of days with warmer temps. I hope mild weather lasts a long time, but here it often goes from cold to unpleasantly warm rapidly. How do others handle it? Wait for consistently warm temps?

I just wait until it's safe (consistently warm).

Still waiting on the spinossisima bloom. Likely to be next week...

skopjecollection said:Still waiting on the spinossisima bloom. Likely to be next week...

I see tiny buds emerging on my spinossisima now. It's the first time it's made any attempt at blooming.

Here is my spinossisima just starting on opening the flowers with many more to come also on the other heads of the clump:


M. marksiana:


And three that I do have the names off, but currently not handy:

And a few more:

Mammillaria melanocentra:


A form of M. karwinskiana:


And probably a M. hahniana (though I am less sure of this one's ID):

I got to see a hummingbird spend some time with this plant a few days ago... nectar must be pretty good.

Yay. This was sent via viber btw

It started blooming in December. It has a complete crown of blooms now. Looking very bright and happy currently. Purchased as Mammillaria elegans. I need to devise some way to keep those wires more perpendicular or I'm going to need to change containers again. It's grown more than I expected since it was moved to this container for the same reason. Except for the wires, it could stay put for a while. I have no idea what its potential size might be.

A nice close up of the flowers on M. marksiana, which are looking pretty good:


Flowering progress on M. spinosissima:


and a bit of a mystery, given the plant's offsetting behavior I had strong reason to believe that the two main 'trunks' in this plant were part of the same plant, but this flowering behavior makes me suspect otherwise:

I have heard of plenty of mammillarias where the same species can have different colored flowers, but not that the same plant can have 'arms' with that...

mcvansoest said:
and a bit of a mystery, given the plant's offsetting behavior I had strong reason to believe that the two main 'trunks' in this plant were part of the same plant, but this flowering behavior makes me suspect otherwise:

I have heard of plenty of mammillarias where the same species can have different colored flowers, but not that the same plant can have 'arms' with that...

A cluster from where multiple seeds came up together. I see this with the native cacti here often. I think it happens when a fruit containing multiple seeds gets drop by whatever was harvesting it for food. The M. heyderi that had four barrels was surely a result of that happening. At a glance they were so tightly jammed together it appeared as one barrel. A close examination proved otherwise. Could have been offsets or four that came up from a cluster of seeds. Digging clearly showed they were four distinct plants.

Was yours collected, by any chance?