Cactus Tips from a Master Grower Author(S): Elton Roberts Source: Cactus and Succulent Journal, 82(1):32-40
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Cactus Tips from a Master Grower Author(s): Elton Roberts Source: Cactus and Succulent Journal, 82(1):32-40. 2010. Published By: Cactus and Succulent Society of America DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2985/015.082.0109 URL: http://www.bioone.org/doi/full/10.2985/015.082.0109 BioOne (www.bioone.org) is a nonprofit, online aggregation of core research in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences. BioOne provides a sustainable online platform for over 170 journals and books published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses. Your use of this PDF, the BioOne Web site, and all posted and associated content indicates your acceptance of BioOne’s Terms of Use, available at www.bioone.org/page/terms_of_use. Usage of BioOne content is strictly limited to personal, educational, and non-commercial use. Commercial inquiries or rights and permissions requests should be directed to the individual publisher as copyright holder. BioOne sees sustainable scholarly publishing as an inherently collaborative enterprise connecting authors, nonprofit publishers, academic institutions, research libraries, and research funders in the common goal of maximizing access to critical research. CACTUS TIPS from a master grower ELTON ROBERTS 9Xii\c ZXZk` lmost any large, globular cac- ing, as the buds themselves are also covered in tus can be called a barrel cac- wool. The seed pods of Echinocactus are also cov- tus. Then again, some peo- ered in wool, while the seed pods of Ferocactus ple call even small globular are naked. In all, the woolliness of the flowering cacti barrels. I’ve heard peo- and fruiting parts of Echinocactus set its species ple in Colorado call a 10 cm- apart. Backeberg claimed echinocacti also never tall sclerocactus a barrel, and have hooked spines, like so many cacti do. But I even the larger echinocereus disagree. Both E. palmeri and E. polycephalus have are called barrels by some growers. But to most hooked spines, at least by my definition. Agrowers the true barrel cacti are members of I have had a lot of people ask why their gold- Ferocactus and Echinocactus. There are only a few en barrel has not bloomed, even though it’s 8–10w small-growing members of these two genera, but in diameter. Well, plants have to reach maturity, we call them all barrels for convenience. That a and for some cacti this can take a while. I have few grow rather columnar with age doesn’t real- seen golden barrels that were 20 years old and ly matter, either. In a pot most will remain man- bigger than a basketball and others the same ageable for decades. age not much larger than softball. Barrels can The differences between Ferocactus and Echi- be stunted by the container they are grown in, nocactus are not entirely obvious to most growers, and you can be sure a barrel won’t reach matu- and yet you can usually tell a Ferocactus when you rity if kept in a 4w pot its whole life. Plants that see one. Their thick, ridged spines in bright star- are never fed won’t grow much either. I’ve had burst clusters are one giveaway. And the juveniles customers report that their golden barrels hardly have such colorful spines that they can be found grew and never bloomed until they started acidi- for sale in hardware stores. One thing that sets fying their water. But once a golden barrel starts Echinocactus apart is that most form a woolly top to grow that dense woolly top, whether it takes when they are old enough to bloom. I’ve heard five years or twenty, it is old and large enough some growers call this woolly crown a cephali- to bloom. If you want to see an echinocactus in um, but this is not technically correct, since the bloom sooner, try E. parryi or E. horizonthalo- flowering part of the plant doesn’t have more nius, which will flower at baseball size. and more-closely spaced ribs and bristles like Echinocactus and Ferocactus plants come from a true cephalium. In contrast, the areoles on a hot, arid desert areas. I have seen plants grow- ferocactus can have short wool, but when a fero- ing on top of just a pile of rocks and doing fine, cactus throws buds, you can see them; they are so I provide them with a soil that’s a bit more not hidden in or covered by dense wool. Echi- open and fast-draining than my regular mix. nocactus buds are hidden in wool until they are And because in habitat the plant roots spread large enough to emerge from the woolly top of like spokes on a bike wheel, I try to give mine the plant, and even then they keep you guess- wide, shallow pots. 32 CACTUS AND SUCCULENT JOURNAL Echinocactus grusonii I think most of us know what the Golden Barrel is, but not every one knows the Latin name, Echinocactus grusonii. There are several variants in cultivation: the normal yellow-spined version (upper left), one with unusually short spines (lower right), one with gorgeous white spines, and a popular crested form. Quick from seed if given space to grow, old plants can reach two meters tall and almost a meter thick. It’s said the flowers can be 5 cm wide, but for me they are consistently smaller (3.5 cm), and unless viewed from above, they’re pretty inconspicuous, especially when hidden by a ring of dry flower remains. Smell them with care; the petals end in quite a sharp point! Flowering areoles produce a creamy wool, and the sharp dead flowers persist while the wool slowly washes away. The species appears to be self fertile. Fruits are always filled with viable seeds even when not intentionally pollinated. I’ve had plants scar at 20° F when the cold hit right after heavy rains, but I’ve also had plants take 9° F without damage when bone dry. Black spot is a common malady on in-ground plants that get wet and cold at the same time, so protect outdoor plants with a rug on nights when frost is predicted. Echinocactus palmeri It will take years to get Echinocactus palmeri to flowering size. My plants are 30-some-odd years old now, but they’ve been blooming for just the last five, though often I overlook the flowers, blending in as they do with the yellowish color of the wool—or worse, remaining completely submerged within it. My plants are 36 cm in diameter and 30 cm tall. There was a grand old specimen at a place where I worked that was about 65 × 60 cm, and in habitat they get to about three meters tall and a meter across. The flowers tend to be 5 cm wide, though 8 cm has been recorded. Mine have taken temperatures down to 16° F without showing any bad effects to the cold, but keep them dry over the winter. 2010 VOLUME 82 NUMBER 1 33 Echinocactus parryi Echinocactus parryi is rare in collections and is probably becoming more so in habitat as locals cut the plant up to make cactus candy. (And yet if you are caught with so much as a few wild seeds you’ll see what the inside of a Mexican jail looks like.) When not blooming I think that it is the wonderful, heavy-duty spines that beckon people to reach out and touch. I’ve never seen seed for sale, so I keep seven plants set aside as seed stock. Four of my seedlings, produced from my recently deceased mother plant, are now about blooming size after six or seven years from sowing. They’re in five inch pots and are now about 7 cm in diameter, spines and all. Seedlings from about 12 years ago are now 14 cm in diameter and 10 cm tall, and I think these will start flowering within a year. My one remaining flowering plant is now 22 cm in diameter and 18 cm tall, still a ways to go to reach the 45 × 30 cm they can reach in habitat. The flowers are wonderful: their brilliant yellow petals have a carmine red at the base that extends up the dense cone of filaments. They can be 7 cm across if spines don’t block the way. So far my plants have only bloomed once a year, but I’m hoping they’ll start blooming more often like some of the other species in the genus. In my area, where the humidity is low, the plants have taken temperatures down to 9° F without any scarring, though I’d suggest keeping them above 20° F, just to be safe. Ferocactus fordii subspecies borealis The plant that we have known for many years as Ferocactus fordii has been divided up a bit. For the form found in most collections you can add subspecies borealis to the label. Ferocactus fordii subspecies fordii is from farther south in Baja California, has longer (7 cm) central spines, and flowers less readily. The plants we have long known as F. fordii have central spines about 4 cm long—that’s borealis. F. borealis will bloom at about tennis ball size, so if you thought you’d never be able to grow a fero big enough to flower in a pot, this one is for you. And the flowers—a reddish-pink-violet—almost never stop. During the spring, summer, and fall, if the plants are not in bloom, they will at least have several buds standing by ready to open.