Weingartia neocumingii

This common and easy plant always celebrates spring with flashes of bright yellow flowers, small but completely obscuring the plant's top. A nice addition to every collection!

Rebutia senilis 'lilaco-rosea'

This is another nice Rebutia with uncommon pink flowers. R. senilis is known for it's bright red or yellow blooms.

Cleistocactus hyalacanthus

The genus name Cleistocactus refers to cleistogamy - the term describing flowers that self-pollinate without opening. Cactus plants of genus Frailea re known to be cleistogamic in many occasions  but no Cleistocactus is really cleistogamic or even self-fertile.The small opening of those flowers, adapted for hummingbird pollination, resulted in confusion and name misapplication.

Haageocereus pseudoversicolor

Haageocereus is another genus of smaller cereae suitable for collections, especially for thous of us who are lucky to have a greenhouse. The plants are usually fiercely  spiny, and apparently are ready to flower at reasonable size and age.

Mammillaria deherdtiana

This beautiful Mammillaria is a close relative to more resent discovery and more popular M. saboae. The young plants of these species are hard to tell apart and flowers are almost identical.

Echinocereus reichenbachii 'albispinus'

The pretty and easy to grow plant, E. reichenbachii is well known and common among collectors. It is frost hardy and can be grown outside with rain protection in climates with mild winter.

Pediocactus sileri

This uncommon in collections plant comes from Southern Utah and Northern Arizona where it's habitat areas are scattered from St. George to Fredonia
Seeds of this species are commercially available, but the plants are a bit slow due to short spring growing season. It is much easier to get a flowering specimen on graft, which would mean extending grow period through all the summer.

Echinocereus mapimiensis

This unusual Echinocereus has grey soft stem and small rusty flowers. The species was discovered in late 1990-s.

Mammillaria perezdelarozae 'yellow clone'

This is a popular clone of beautiful M. perezdelarozae, selected for it's unusual spine color.

This is post #300 on this blog

Eriosyce subgibbosa

Young seedlings of Eriosyce subgibbosa blooming for the first time. The plants are about the size of a ping-pong ball.

Note the very soft lighting on that picture. All the pictures in this blog I take with natural light. California sun is usually pretty harsh and it requires some extra effort form photographer to soften lighting it produces. But today's sky had thin cloud layer, making photo-perfect soft light.

Rebutia violaciflora

The old classic - a very free-flowering Rebutia with notable violet flowers.

Echinocereus pacificus

The early blooming Baja California Echinocereud pacificus shows it's small but colorful flowers. This member of coccineus-triglochidatus group blooms younger in age than others, after reaching some 2 inches in height.

Mammillaria echinaria

This is merely a form of common Mammillaria elongata - noted for it's central spines that are produced very reliably. In any case, a pretty plant

Ancistrocactus matsonii

Now referred to Ancistrocactus uncinatus, this plant is well-known and easily recognized under it's old name matsonii. It has short stout spinest hat are making the plant reminiscent if a small copy of Ferocactus. The signature rust-colored flowers are characteristic for A.uncinatus species.

Mammillaria longiflora

Here is the illustration to the plant's name. Flower tube this Mammillaria has is not really that long, may be just a bit longer than average for the species.

Stenocactus crispatus

When it comes to Stenocactis species confirmation I'm always in great doubt, unless it is S. coptogonus or S.vaupelianus that are reasonably distinct. Everything else could easily go as forms of S. multicostatus, as the borders between the species are fuzzy.

Stenocacti are among the most sun loving and heat tolerant cacti, and the strongest spination will develop only under the most unforgiving sun.

Parodia chrisacanthion

Parodia chrisacanthion is another winter flowering plant. Under good sun they develop a disk-like stems densely wrapped with 'golden spines' as the name implies.