Spring BH flowers

[Phil_SK]

I seem to have gone away over Spring Bank Holiday fairly regularly over recent years and manage to come back to loads of gone-over flowers! I thought that I ought to make the most of being at home this time around and take some plant photos. I find I'm easily captivated by expanses of aylosteras or sulcos at this time of year, not helped by my grouping of related plants together where possible. This means that not only do I really have to force myself to look at some of the plants within the big flower groupings as individuals but also to open my eyes to some of the things doing their stuff well away from the main attention-grabbers.
There has been a steady stream of lobivias for a while, and most of the earliest flowerers, maximiliana and pentlandii, are mostly over now. A contrasting pair of L. maximiliana ssp caespitosa are still flowering - one large and orange-red, the other small and pink-violet.

BDH62/3

WR735

Elsewhere, a nice L. pugionacantha has produced its first couple of flowers.

JK248

This Echinopsis haematantha is one of my favourites. Like all of its ilk, the flowers are quite 'full' with lots of petals. The plant body has a look of an Aylostera pygmaea.

Lau569

Another flower with plenty of petals - too many - is that of the peculiar Chamaecereus silvestrii f. crassicaulis cristata. The flowers are often slightly cristate and are self-fertile. I've only sown the seed once but all the seedlings became cristate too. I need to try growing a plant to a reasonable size to make the most of it, since it's a bit tatty and mite damaged at the moment.

crasscris

From fat flowers to thin flowers - this Cleistocactus smaragdiflorus is just starting to open its flowers.

azerensisFR836

[el48tel]

Super pics - thanks for sharing

[Phil_SK]

The Cleistocactus is in with a load of other Tall Things, including a few Corryocactus. This one crops up in seed lists now and then, as squarrosus, though I don't know how well identified plants in cultivation are.

OST84273

A number of opuntias are coming into flower. As well as my South American 'little' opuntias I do quite like some of the 'proper' ones... I only wish they weren't so big! Here's O. basilaris. It's flowering for the first time in a while, now recovered after a period of neglect.

basilaris

A proper one from South America next, O. sulphurea. I've tried to grow these from seed a few times but have only once succeeded with some sown in 2012 of which six germinated and this one flowered for the first time last year. I'm hanging on to all six hoping that one of them will produce wiggly spines as it gets older. I was surprised that one was ready to flower as I'd say that they're all still producing fairly juvenile pads.

KFF1140

This Maihueniopsis hickenii is just starting to open and looks quite red, though I know it isn't really.

hickenii exMK

Really red are these Tunilla. At first I though they were two flowers on the same plant, just one a day older than the other but on closer inspection they're different plants - labelled picardoi and retrospinosa. There are lots and lots of Tunilla buds waiting...

Tun pic&retro

Finally, outside, and walked past daily, is this Sedum furfuraceum enjoying direct sunshine. It's a right pain to weed, though!

sedumfurfuraceum

[juster]

Very enjoyable and interesting Phil, thanks!

[ralphrmartin]

It seems like a good year for opuntias - I'm getting more than I had last year.

[conolady]

Beautiful photos and flowers.

[Phil_SK]

It's been rainy here this morning and mostly dull for the rest of the day so no new pics. I'm hoping for a bit of sunshine between the showers that are forecast for tomorrow.