A lot of succulents and cacti have yellow flowers which don’t particularly excite me. So I am always on the lookout for species or cultivars with red or orange or purple flowers. One cactus genus I have admired in photographs is Rebutia which tends to have bright red or orange blooms so over the years I picked up a few.
What a disappointment my supposed Rebutia deminuta turned out to be. Instead of the red flowers I was promised they were a rather insipid white. Either a white form or a mislabeled plant but a big disappointment either way. This year my Rebutia sanguinea bloomed and I am thrilled that it is the real deal!
Cacti are one of those worrisome plant families with a dormant period. In winter they are more than happy to take a break and any watering could lead to rot. This is a problem for California gardeners growing their plants outside as we tend to have a lot of cold rainy days in winter. I was told that the plants could be overwintered in a dark garage which I have to admit sounded a bit daft to me. But since I now am living in a house with a garage I decided to throw caution to the wind and when I moved in this past December my cactus collection when right into the garage where I promptly forgot about them until late April.
Seems to have done the trick as this is the first time this plant has bloomed for me and the rest of my plants look unharmed as well. I think I may need to start expanding my cactus collection a bit.
Have you tried some of the native southern California Coastal Choola or interior chaparral Staghorn Choola ? I use to collect and plant several varieties for habitat restoration projects and was pleasantly surprized at their reddish-orange flower colour. Here’s a picture taken from my blog where I planted as a kid tons of the cholla joints on Rattlesnake Mountain in El Cajon, CA which decades later turned into a regular wildlife habitat with Coastal Cactus Wren which I never saw as a kid in the 1960s. Incredibly when the Enviro studies were done for the Sky Ranch Housing approval, this area was roped on as conservation area.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RHce-Weez98/T4QNpvgLfpI/AAAAAAAAAEk/dIRYBRgjm6c/s1600/IMGP0230.JPG
You’ll notice just a little bit where some flowers are blooming, but when in full bloom is explosively beautiful. There are some San Diego coast Barrel Cacti there as well, but on the ground. Behing this scene here are two rather large Torrey Pines, something they can’t figure out how they arrived there.
hehehehehe –>> Kevin
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Nice! Just love cactus flowers of all kinds.
Try San Diego Coastal Cholla as an interesting native, It has almost the same exact colouring of flowers your flowers there but a bit more on the red side. Beautiful colours btw.
Kevin
Pretty sure I have seen that plant or something like it in a few yards around town and was wondering what it was. Thanks!