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Friday, November 23, 2012

Devil of a Bloom!

 It's been a good year for cactus blooms with milder than usual weather the last few weeks.  On Tuesday this Devil's Tongue barrel cactus (Ferocactus latispinus) bloomed for the first time.  Bright purple and similar to a straw flower it waited through a string of cloudy days to burst into bloom when the sun appeared in the afternoon.




Unlike more fleeting one-day blooms of many barrel cactus, this bloom continues to open in the sun and close when clouds are overhead like this cloudy Friday morning.



For context it's in the front of the bed with the Agave ovatifolia near the garage.  (Lower right to the left of the multiple small barrels.)


A small but cheery bloom along the sidewalk in late November.


Hardy to 25F, we rarely get lower than that.  If real cold is predicted we might have to dig it up temporarily. Shallow roots make this an easy task for Mr. R.


Four days and counting, I wonder how long it will keep blooming?



12 comments:

  1. You never know what a walk into the garden is going to bring. Nice.

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    1. Yes, finding summer flowers opening this time of year is a delight.

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  2. How pretty! I love that one has to look a little closer for blooms in autumn. This bloom might have been lost in summer, but now it's the star! And it deserves to be - it's adorable!

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    1. Most of the blooms are fading now but good weather has kept them going longer than usual.

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  3. What a gorgeous bloom. It's fantastic that it keeps on blooming for days and days.

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    1. I think our rare cloudy weather has kept it that way.

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  4. Love any cactus that blooms with that color-in fact I love any cactus that blooms. Must look out for this one, although 25° would be risky here.

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    1. It is a nice change from the yellow and orange that are more common. It should be in a container here too and might yet end up that way.

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  5. Lovely, they are also so contradictory in fragile flowers with thorny plant! Agave looks great too.

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    Replies
    1. Cactus flowers are so interesting because the plant doesn't look like it should produce such pretty flowers.

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  6. I grew up in Sydney, Australia and we had a widow five houses down, Mrs. Moon, who had nothing but cactus and succulents with beautiful flowers in cement pots all around the foundation of her house. You just can't imagine the bevy of different colors in those planters. When you're ten, they seemed much larger than they really were, I'm sure. You're beauty would have held its own in Mrs. Moon's yard.

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    1. Thank you, such a lovely image you shared with your words. Mrs. Moon would have been right at home in San Antonio. The flowers are surprisingly beautiful on these low maintenance plants.



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