This is a color we’ve never had before. Here we see this Echinopsis Hybrid with two blooms about to open in the early morning.

Here we see this same cactus in the afternoon after it has fully opened. (Moments later the plant was purchased and taken away!)

We don’t have an official name for this particular hybrid. What would you call it? “Ice Cream”? “Mill Valley”? “Fork and Spoon”?

It’s cactus bloom season, also known as Spring. Part 2.

I hope you are still enjoying these pictures of cactus flowers because we have a few more to share, right here on the cactus blog.

Echinocereus viridiflorus is the infamous green-flowered cactus, Green Pitaya, from the Plains States. That’s right – it’s native to a range from Texas to South Dakota, even found in a corner of Wyoming.

Opuntia erinacea, possibly a subspecies of Opuntia polyacantha, is the Mojave prickly pear. That means its a California Native!

Yellow flowered Echinocereus grandiflora “Sunshine Yellow”

How many flowers are there on this one yellow flowered cactus? A Lot.

Pretty!

It’s cactus bloom season, also known as Spring. Part 1.

I hope you enjoy pictures of cactus flowers because we have a few to share, right here on the cactus blog.

Echinopsis chamaecereus is the renowned Peanut Cactus

Epiphyllums are the seriously underrated Orchid Cactus

Echinocereus “White Lightning” is photographed in front of a Tequila Agave.

There are a lot of very Hybridized Echeverias on the Echeveria market. Some are from the 1950s and some are more recent. But they all are growing right now in our very spring weather. Every single one of them. And they are all showing great color in our very sunny spring. A lot of color!

Here are some that we like. I don’t have most of them named so I’m not including names with these, but some of them we do know the names and others I’m sure you also know the names, so there’s that.

Here we go!

Don’t forget to click your favorites to see a slightly bigger picture.

And we’re off again!

Wow, those are some colorful succulents. I couldn’t possibly have more. But I could! I do! And these are all out at the nursery right now. And even more than I’m showing here! So many that I couldn’t hold them all in this blog post.

On to the rest….

Phew!

Cactus bloom season has begun and first up are a couple of whitish-yellowish flowers.

Parodia crassigibba has highly variable flowers, as you can tell if you click the link. Maybe this is a different Parodia? Maybe it is the same?They do vary from White to Yellow to Pink, so it is quite possible

Parodia sellowii on the other hand is only supposed to get yellow flowers. So I must have it mislabeled. What shall I do to try to correct this horrible mistake? Obviously nothing before I post this. [Editor: It’s Gymnocalycium uruguayense.]

Euphorbia characias “Portuguese Velvet”

European hybrid
Evergreen spurge

Sun: Moderate
Water: Drought tolerant
Size: 12″ to 18″ tall w/24″ tall bloom stalks

Thick velvety grey green leaves on full stems. Large bloom sprays of green bracts and mixed brightly-colored blooms. Grow from seed and offsets. Deer-resistant.

People usually like to see Hoya photos that feature the wax flowers since the wax flowers are always so pretty. But I like to feature photos of the leaves.

That’s just the way I am.

Hoya macrophylla “Variegata”

Hoya nicholsoniae

Pelargonium ferulaceum is a shrubby member of the Geranium family that will form a twisty caudex and get sweet little flowers. Easy to grow, hardy to around 30F, this plant is now on your list of favorites. You can thank me later.

A very nice clump of Lithops in late winter splitting mode. You can really see the mimicry effect with the red rocks around them. Don’t water when they’re splitting like this. You want to make sure they absorb all the moisture out of the older leaves into the newer leaves, otherwise the new growth can be choked off.

And it’s a Gymnocalycium!

Dendrobium kingianum is hardy down to around freezing around here, and works well both inside or out. It blooms late winter, as you can see, through spring.

We grow them in orchid bark, or as we prefer coconut husk chunks. I think we will be watering weekly indoor, and every 2 weeks if they’re in a shady spot outdoor. Fertilize every month. Easy!

Leucadendron “Wilson’s Wonder”
Conebush

Native to South Africa
Evergreen Shrub

Sun: Full Sun
Water: Low
Size: 4 to 5ft.

Red-tipped leaves, reddish stems; gets covered in moderately large yellow cone flowers in late winter. Hardy to 25°F.

Hoya australis is a vining succulent in the Asclepiad (Milkweed) Family (Asclepiadaceae).

According to the Australia Native Plant Society:

Hoya australis

Family: Asclepiadaceae

Distribution: Rainforests and rainforest margins from north-eastern New South Wales to north-eastern Queensland.

Common Name: Common waxflower.

Derivation of Name: Hoya; after Thomas Hoy, English gardener. australis; southern, referring to the global distribution of the species.

Conservation Status: Not considered to be at risk in the wild

3 Adeniums and 1 Pachypodium.

First up we have three hybridized Adenium obesum flowers with very different colors. How do they get so many colors?

1. A fairly standard, but very saturated, solid pink.

2. A crazy bi-color. Most 2-color Adenium flowers are center/edge colored, not striped like this.

3. This one is closest to the true species. And you can see the 2-colored with the petals being white towards the center and pink along the edges.

And then we have a very lovely solid yellow colored Pachypodium rosulatum flower.

Crassula perforata have the tiniest of blooms. They don’t really look like much. They crowd together at the tips of a growing stem which will then benefit when you cut the spent blooms off. It’s hard to tell without a magnifier when they’re spent or still in bloom. I would guess the tiny flowers are only 2mm across, but then I don’t know the metric system at all so I could be wrong. Here’s a life-size metric ruler, so they say, that shows what 2mm is.

The macro photo is not so clear. But it’s the best I’ve been able to get. It almost looks like a watercolor. Here is the same photo with a watercolor filter applied.

Nice!

It must be winter-growing-aloe-bloom-season in the Bay Area!

Aloe africana is an African Aloe also known as African Aloe. It’s from South Africa, of course. The Eastern Cape. These are some very orange flowers. The plant itself is a single-stemmed, generally solitary tree aloe to 10ft. tall. The marginal spines are vigorous, though not so large or numerous as to be hazardous.

Cleistocactus straussii is the first cactus I have blogged around here in ages. It’s been so long I practically forgot what a cactus even looks like. It looks like this.

They are summer bloomers, but there’s often stragglers on and off throughout the year.

I wonder what they look like at the tip of the plant, against a sky blue backdrop?

From the high altitude plains of the Himalayan mountains. I mean the Andes, sorry about that.

Hummingbirds love them. I do too. Am I a hummingbird? No, I am not. I am your faithful blogger, a person. And I have never been to South America.