Saturday, May 17, 2008

Another Cactus flower...





The first bloom of the year from this beauty... I think I've told you before how I came by it, but here we go again... I was at an estate sale, and when I was paying the people, I looked out the window and saw this neglected cactus... Anyway, I bought it for 50 cents.


When I got it home, I looked it over, and it was two heads, in an old six inch plastic pot that only had 1 inch of soil in the bottom... I potted it up, it bloomed 1 month later and it's bloomed reliably about 3 times every summer for the past 5 years, and has at least trippled in size...
This is the first bloom of the year, but if you look closely, hiding under the spines are more buds coming up that should open over the next few weeks.
E. vivipara, formerly known as Coryphanta vivipara, is a winter hardy plant, reliably hardy up through zone 7, sometimes into zone 6, and, this plant at least, does seem to grow and bloom better with a winter chill. This spring I planted it out in the rock garden, and I'll be leaving it outside all winter. I also planted it so that one of the heads is deaper... I wanted to see if that would encourage it to pup out with offsets...


Couple of other shots from around the yard, since I had the camera... Littel Dahlberg daisies, I planted one of these 4 years ago, and ever since there's usually a couple around, having reseeded themselves. Cute little guys, this is growing up between the road curb and the rocks that edge the agave bed...

And a close-up of the striped leaves of Canna 'Pretoria' One of my favorite striped cannas, as the stripes are fairly reliable, and they don't sun burn as bad as some of the others. And the bright orange blooms don't hurt either....


4 comments:

  1. Canna leaves are so pretty! I need to look into them here...I've seen a few varieties on blogs, and I love them!

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  2. Love the leaves of the canna.Those rescued cactus seem like the best ones! I just rescued several from WalMart-hope they repay me!

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  3. Your cactus has a nice spikey flower that I don't see much. I don't have any cacti in the Escobaria genus for some reason.
    I've thought of growing Canna but never get around to to trying. I don't have any more room anywhere there's a northern exposure, and I think that's the only area where they will thrive.
    Aiyana

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  4. hey no rain... some people on one of my message boards, who are much more knowledgable than me, say that the E. vivipara is probably the southern or Arizona form, as most of that species have a much darker pink flower.

    As to the canna... here in Texas they take blasting hot sun, but a whole lot of water. I grow them near the house foundations, as we have to water the foundations to keep them from cracking, so I might as well grow something that likes the water there. The dark red leaved ones seem to take sun better...

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