Oh wow, Time for SEX! (picture post)

[Chacmool]

yes i love them as well! do you have any now? i would love to see them! how patient are you? and what country are you in? i have some excess seeds of various globular cacti as you can see from all the flowers.

I don't have any at the moment, but I'll probably swipe some from my parent's garden soon to start my own collection. I'm not very patient, but I'll just have to be because the really big cacti are quite expensive.

 

 

Attached is a picture of a prickly pear. They grow easily and are found all over the northern parts of South Africa. They are also cultivated commercially for their delicious fruit. I love prickly pears; I can never have enough when summer comes around!

[Ganoderma]

do you want some dragon fruit seeds? they are very fast growers (not quite as fast as opuntias (prickly pairs) but still fast, and the fruit is even better! dragon fruit are those white flowers at the top of page 2. You are in Africa? very nice!

[Chacmool]

do you want some dragon fruit seeds? they are very fast growers (not quite as fast as opuntias (prickly pairs) but still fast, and the fruit is even better! dragon fruit are those white flowers at the top of page 2. You are in Africa? very nice!

It is a beautiful plant! It is amazing how cacti often have these beautiful, delicate flowers. Thanks for offering me seeds! I'm just not sure what the postage and/or import regulations would be regarding this. I'll try and find out and get back to you.

 

By the way, what camera do you use? Your photos are really awesome.

[Moontanman]

some dragon fruit flowers. hard to get good pics of tehse gorgeous night bloomers! by far one of the prettiest flowers around. also about 30 cm!

 

 

Yes this the right blooms but I have never seen any fruit from these blooms. Dragon Blooms is a great nzame for such a large unusual bloom. Is there a picture of dragon fruit? PS, I live in the Southern USA. South Eastern North Carolina to be exact.

 

Michael

[Ganoderma]

there are similar species that are known to fool people and never fruit. google has tons of pictures. they are large red fruits with either red or white flesh inside. very very tasty!!! the ones used as grafting stocks at say wal-mart may very well be another specie, hard to say until it grows.

[Ganoderma]

here is a not all too common sight.

 

Epiphyllum sp. flowers.

 

 

[Jet2]

Hi Ganoderma,

 

May I know where can I find / buy them?

Or you have a special way to help them blossom?

 

Jet2 :eek_big:

[freeztar]

Awesome stuff Ganoderma! I missed this earlier, but WOW!!! :eek_big:

[Ganoderma]

thanks freeztar :eek_big:

 

Jet2. find what? many stores carry many cacti species, some of the above are very easy to find, some not. which ones interest you. i buy most of mine from another white guy here in Taiwan.

[Jet2]

I thought you might have some special method or secret formular to help them having 'sex'...:shrug:

 

By the way, will catus really cause bad 'Feng Shui'? :confused:

Jet2

[Ganoderma]

when i assist sex i am using my kinky little fine haired paint brush and caressing the stamens then going over to the second little honeys' pot and place my paintbrush deep inside her stigma. :confused:

 

no tricks at all, just run of the mill hand pollination. they flower here so well cause the weather here is warm all year. i get MORE flowers in spring but many of the species i keep flower year round.

 

well, i don't believe in Feng Shueii. my wife does but it seems more "my mothers friends cousins teachers' priest said....." so i don think she know if its ok. i have not read any of the books on it.

 

i like all animals lucky or not...i do after all have 2 dogs :shrug:

;)

[InfiniteNow]

So, Ganoderma... Are your cacti almost ready to flower again? I can't tell you just how amazed I was by your photos last year! ;);)

[Ganoderma]

thanks Infinite :)

 

they are flowering full force right now, or at least starting too! i will psot some pics later, its night now and pictures dont like dark lighting and shakey hands :naughty:

 

I got a whole whack of new stuff that you may like :)

[Ganoderma]

it started raining today :( everythign is budding, hopefulyl the sun will come back and they can open.

 

some pics of this year (a couple are last year i think)

 

Astrophytum asterias

 

 

Astrophytum myriostigma

 

Ariocarpus kotschoubeyanus

 

Ariocarpus retusus

 

Copiapoa hypogaea. this is pretty weird as they are suppose to have yellow flowers.....this one seemed to forget.

 

 

Lophophora fricii

 

lophophora koehressi

 

 

I managed to cross breed and get viable seeds from the L. fricii and L. koehressii above...heres one of the babies...looking variegated!

 

 

Lophophora williamsii

 

 

 

 

 

some neat looking cacti (not flowering yet)

 

 

Perhaps the first cactus transvestite?

 

Myrtillocactus geometrizans variegated crest

 

"totem Pole" cactus...Lophocereus schottii f. monstrose

 

 

not a cactus but its flowering and i like it :)

Pseudolithos migiurtinus

[freeztar]

Wow!

 

Absolutely beautiful Ganoderma! Thanks for sharing! :P

 

Any commentary on these individuals? ;)

[Ganoderma]

thanks B)

 

heres a little about my plants.

 

the first few pics of A. asterias are a cultivar called "Hanazono". very unique type because they have areoloes scattered all over the skin, unlike other cacti which follow the ribs. the japanese actually made something scientifically significant, rather than just "weird". i am breeding them together right now, the babies should be nice :)

 

 

the A. asterias right below them are called "nudum"....i am sure you can figure out why. nice clean skin with no white flecks (compared to others like superkabuto which are bred for increased white).

 

 

next is Astrophytum myriostigma...nothign special about this one. its parents were "Kikko" or "turtle shell" but this one barely shows any trace of it. this one is 13 cm wide, so its nice and big.

 

then there is Ariocarpus kotschoubeyanus. pretty expensive type, and this one is big. i like ariocarpus, but they are very slow growers, and die easy in our climate.

 

more big ariocarpus.

 

 

the copiapoa is a cultivar called "Lizard skin" this means instead of a nice smooth brown skin it is very rough. this specie (actually most of the genus) has all yellow flowers....this one is pink, so it has me thinking. i am very excited about it though! i only have one, unfortunately and many cacti are not self fertile....but i pollinated it and it seems to be forming a fruit....fingers crossed for viable seed :hihi:

 

the next 2 photos are Lophophora fricii and Lophophora koehresii. both these "types" are self-sterile. actually everything inside the Lophophora is self-sterile except L. williamsii which is self-fertile. Because at the time i only had one fricii and 1 koehresii flowering i decided to try a hybrid, and it worked. Lophophora are not common to hybridize with anything, even each other....oddly, only the pollen from fricii to the stigma of koehresii worked....koehresii pollen to fricii stigma does not :naughty:

 

the picture followed by these 2 plants (which are both about 10cm) is one of the babies from this breeding. it is grafted, along with 15 others. i have another 20 i am growing from seed without grafting. looking forward to future breedings in the future.

 

 

After that there is a lot of Lophophora williamsii. Lophophora is my favourite genus, so i tend to photograph them more ;)

 

 

And here is our lady boy. I do a lot of cactus grafting at night....and i tend to drink a lot of beer when playing with plants, grafting sowing repotting etc...gardening and beer just go together like popcorn and movies. anyway this is a result of many hours of gardening (aka drinking)...but it worked.

 

the rest are just plants i really like a lot so i put up pictures...