Yes, pincushion cactus can flower. Pincushion cactus flower usually look like a funnel. Moreover, their flowers would carry numerous colors such as red, yellow, pink, white and green.
They would tend to make flower buds during their actively growing season. On the other hand, they would go into dormancy in winter, spring and in the beginning of the summer season too.
When they are in full blossom, it would be a treat to watch them. As soon as they bloom, they usually come up in a crown of flowers which is covering the top of the plant. Furthermore, those flowers could also transform into fruits which you could eat.
In this article we are going to find more about this beautiful flower.
How often do pincushion cactus flower?
Pincushion cactus flowers start to appear in early spring and in summer. They are attractive to pollinators as well as for hummingbirds. These flowers are fond of rainfall.
When these cacti are subject to rainfall in summer for the first time, the flowers open. Those flowers would stay alive healthily for about seven days’ time. These flowers could bloom several times in their actively growing season once they are exposed to a proper rainfall.
Having said that, if you would like to stimulate the probability of flowering, you could try to not expose them to water for several weeks until the plants go to spring.
In addition to that you could consider providing them a fertilizer as that would also enhance the flowering of these plants.
Colors of pincushion cactus flowers
As aforesaid, pincushion cactus is a spiny hardy set of plants which produce flowers in so many different colors.
They are usually funnel shaped. In terms of the colors of the flowers, they would be either red, yellow, pink, white and green.
Over time, these flowers would transform into a fruit in numerous shapes and in various colors. However, those fruits would look like berries.
They could be elongated or club shaped. Generally, you could spot them in red. However, you could spot them in other colors such as white, green, magenta and in yellow too.
These plants would usually tend to take a conical, round, pyramidical or cylindrical shape.
However, what is more interesting about these cacti are their spirited two separate parts of the areola.
You could spot one of them in the apex of the tubercle while the other one would be at the base. Growing little spikes is one of the duties of the apex.
On the other hand, the plant base part would be accountable to hold onto the flowers and to the fruits.
The flowers of pincushion cactus grow in a crown formation. Further they would consist of a stripe in dark colors as well.
Moreover you could spot some betalain pigments which provide an amazingly looking reddish hue to the flower.
How long do pincushion cactus flowers last?
The flowers of the pincushion cactus would stay alive for about seven days’ time in general.
How to make pincushion cactus flowers?
First and foremost, you need to be holding off watering them for several weeks into the spring season.
In addition to that, you could consider applying cactus food particularly during early spring season. These things would help to enhance the probability of blooming.
In addition to that, you need to make sure that you provide all the general care treatments so that the pincushion cactus flowers would thrive well.
These are generally easy to maintain. However, it is important that you continue taking care of them so that they can grow healthily and vigorously. Moreover, their flowering process would also get benefitted from this.
How to care for pincushion cactus flowers?
Pincushion cactus are generally easy to care for and a hardy set of plants. If you are someone who is fresher in gardening, you could consider growing these plants.
They used to grow in drought conditions and in limited fertility as well. Having said that it is important you grow them in a well-draining and in gritty soil mix.
Following are some of the comprehensive guidelines as to how you should take care of them.
Watering of the pincushion cactus
Avoid over watering them at any given point of time.
When you water you need to water them thoroughly and once you are done, you need to make sure that you are giving it adequate time for them to dry too.
Only after their soil is dry only, you need to consider watering them again. Further when you water, you need to make sure that you are allowing the excess water to drain through the draining holes of the pot as well.
It is important that your pot has enough draining holes so that the excess water could move through without getting retained in the pot.
When you are watering these cacti in winter, you need to halt in watering them completely right throughout the season.
In case if you are unsure as to when you need to water these cacti, you should first check whether their top surface of the soil is dry and only if so, you need to water them.
Once you adhere to these guidelines, pincushion cactus flowers would grow well.
Ideal temperature for them
The exposure to colder temperatures would be so harmful for the cactus flowers. As such refrain in doing that as well.
They could even make fatal impact on the plant. Especially if you have grown them outdoors, it would be difficult for them to thrive well in winter conditions.
The best thing you could do to overcome this problem is shifting them indoors before they get exposed to such colder weather conditions.
The ideal temperature to grow these wonderful cacti would be around 10 degrees Celsius – 24 degrees Celsius. (50 degrees Fahrenheit – 75.2 degrees Fahrenheit).
Perfect soil mix
It is vital that you grow these cacti in the right soil mix.
Despite you watering them properly it is very crucial that you are growing them in a well-draining soil mix so that both plants and its flowers could grow healthy.
If you wish to go for the best soil mix, you could consider growing these plants in a succulent soil mix or in a cactus soil mix.
If you want to make a right soil mix at home on your own, you could simply add pumice and coarse sand in the regular soil mix.
However when doing this make sure you are adding them at the correct ratios.
Fertilizing the pincushion cactus
You could consider adding a slow-release fertilizer in the potting medium so that it would enhance the flowering and the proper growth of the plant too.
Moreover, you could apply a specially formulated fertilizer once every fortnight during their actively growing season. Avoid feeding them in the winter season.
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