The devils tongue

[Mailman]

Devils tongue cactus that is. This cool little cactus only blooms once a year and today it popped! This entire cactus is only 6” tall with blooms about the size of your fingertip. It’s so small I have it planted up by my front door, it would get lost out in the yard! Even the buds have a rather cool looking mosaic pattern on them.

 

[650Skull]

Very pretty. Got a lot more coming on. Love cacti flowers, they seem to make up for such ugly plants.

 

[gggGary]

That's beautiful!

 

[atom4488]

Cactus fan here as well...growing what I can in SW FL. Too much bother in Montreal. Blossoming cactus always looks a little surreal, which makes them visually all the more appealing.

 

[Downeaster]

Next older brother lives in Green Valley, AZ (south of Tempe). He was always big into flower gardens.

 

[Raymond]

Beautiful, with the exotic and surprising splendour a cactus always seems to manage.

Mrs is well into cacti too. We both love seeing what are to us 'giant' cacti growing outdoors and their exotic flowers and seed pods when we're abroad, like in Madeira in October.

But at home, she grows em in pots. There's probably hundreds. Couple really poor photos of typical window sills -





Looks an empty pot, there's usually those tiny cactus that look like a split pebble. All sorts of exotic shapes and forms. Just not as big as in Arizona . . .

And there's lots of other plants too, mostly exotic tropical foliage. Our own domestic jungle. Luv it.

 

[DogBunny]

Devils tongue cactus that is. This cool little cactus only blooms once a year and today it popped! This entire cactus is only 6” tall with blooms about the size of your fingertip. It’s so small I have it planted up by my front door, it would get lost out in the yard! Even the buds have a rather cool looking mosaic pattern on them.
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View attachment 362255

Nice! Reminds me of a similar cactus I experienced in the wild in Big Bend. Was hiking on a moonscape – no soil, just rock and limestone dust. There were evenly spaced scattered small plants – nothing taller two or three feet, and everything had thorns, barbs, stickers, or stung when touched. Off in the distance you might see a lone cottonwood tree which marked a spring.

This was an off-trail hike which meant that every footstep had to be calculated in order to avoid rocks and obstacles and pitfalls, so we were constantly looking down directly in front of us.

No color anywhere until Surprise! we encountered a blooming Texas Living Rock cactus (Ariocarpus fissuratus). I’ve seen a couple others in Big Bend since. The bloom often lasts only a day, sometimes only for hours, so it’s special when you come across one in the wild. Would be almost impossible to notice one that isn’t blooming.

 

[Mailman]

Surprise! we encountered a blooming Texas Living Rock cactus (Ariocarpus fissuratus). I’ve seen a couple others in Big Bend since. The bloom often lasts only a day, sometimes only for hours, so it’s special when you come across one in the wild.

That really is a rare find! Normally you would walk right by that and never see it.

 

[Mailman]

Beautiful, with the exotic and surprising splendour a cactus always seem to manage.
Mrs is well into cacti too. But at home, she grows em in pots. There's probably hundreds.

That surprised me to see all those pots full of cactus growing in your part of the world. Can you buy them locally?
I’ve been to a nursery near my home that has a huge mail order business, he has acres of land where he propagates all sorts of exotic cactus and ships them all over the world. That’s actually where I bought that devils tongue cactus, I told him I was looking for something smaller and interesting. If you are interested you can see it here, ( he is temporarily closed at the moment for repairs and to build his inventory )

https://www.etsy.com/shop/ArizonaCactusGrowers?dd_referrer=§ion_id=55546567#about

 

[360Gradi]

The desert landscape flora is amazing; these plants showcase the beauty of creation that is too often overlooked by people that only see with a shallow lens. I, for one, have lived in New Mexico in the past, and appreciate these plants, the never-ending blue sky and sunshine.

 

[Raymond]

That surprised me to see all those pots full of cactus growing in your part of the world. Can you buy them locally?

Most garden centres have some cacti, usually limited range. also sometimes supermarkets and diy stores. Mrs scouts to see when more unusual varieties appear at different times of the year. Often she picks up plants, including cacti, at 1/2 price or less from the sale section where the plants don't look at their best, brings them home, gives them some attention, re-pots them and in no time they're fine specimens.

A few more of her houseplants -