Mammillaria blooms...

Well, I've had enough of the Random Rants part of my blog name, and I've decided that it's time I got back to the Prickly Plants part...

Now, maybe you remember a while ago, when I told you about a raving racoon that went through the yard and knocked all the cacti off a shelf... Three Mammillarias ended up in one pot, because I didn't have enough small pots. One of them is now blooming, the M. karwinskiana ssp. nejapensis... also known by the much easier to pronounce name of "Silver Arrows cactus"

It doesn't have the most attractive blooms, and I origionally bought the plant last year, when it was a pretty little globe and I didn't know much about the species. It has now started to divide dichtonomously, and, from the pics I've seen on the web will spend a few years looking kind of sloppy, until he's formed a big mass and looks kind of cool again.

Also in this post is a "golden nipple cactus" more properly referred to as M. rhodantha ssp. pringlei and a Red-headed Irishman cactus... aka M. spinosissima. They are planted a little too close together, and I'll probably separate them next spring. I've never liked to transplant cacti in the fall or winter when they should be starting to go dormant.

I wasn't sure the Red Headed Irishman cactus was going to make it. It developed a large brown spot after I got it in the pot, I think due to bruising from the racoon debacle, and I was pretty sure that rot was going to start in... I was gearing up to lop off the top to try to root it, or perhaps even doing areola grafting, which I'd never tried but looked easy enough, to save the plant, but it started new growth, and then, beside the bruised area, started putting up some branches... so I'll leave it for now and hope that it'll start clumping.

I know that many people try to grow only perfect specimens of their cactus, but sometimes I really like the scarring on the plants. It makes them look a little 'tougher' I guess...