I've been watching this guy for weeks, ever since he put up two little knobs that I knew would be flowers.
He's a bit of a mutant. I found him last year, tucked away behind some other prettier cacti plants. Somebody had the great idea to graft two separate species together, and he is the result. Why? I don't know; I'm not really a fan of that. I bought him with the plan to separate the two and root the top, which I think is a Snowball Cactus (Parodia Scopa).
It became obvious last week that one of the buds was getting very close to opening. I took the next photos Friday. I kinda thought Saturday might be the day.
No bloom Saturday morning. However, after running a couple errands and arriving home Saturday afternoon, to my utter delight, I found THIS...
I have to admit when I started adding cacti to my succulent garden last year, I had trouble seeing the attraction. They were painful to repot, slow to grow, and just blah.... But after transferring them all to the gritty mix I made, they have shown me what delightful plants they are. I've fallen in love with them.
This final photo was taken yesterday evening with my macro lens after the flower closed for the day. I'm hoping he reopens today; the pretty red flower on one of my other cacti bloomed for one day only.
There are more buds on two or three of the other cacti, and I can't wait to see what treasure they bring forth.
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