Trichocereus hybrid flowers

These bloomed for the first time this year from tiny plants I got at Walmart 2 years ago.

Those are beautiful blooms - and it looks like you will have plenty more. Thank you for sharing.

Daisy

Good work. Happy plants.

I do have a question: What made you decide on Trichocereus and not Echinopsis? From what I can see in your photos, I agree with you. Its a curiosity question.

Daisy

Actually all Trichocereus are considered Echinopsis now by the "powers that be." However, Trichs are much larger plants than the average Echinopsis. I prefer to still separate them.

I divide Echinopsis and Trichocereus into little and big also. There is no size reference in valkyrie46225's photos. I was wondering if the plants were labeled or have grown into something big enough to consider a Trichocereus. It was a curiosity question.

To me there is another difference aside from the eventual size (which I agree with, but when plants are relatively small is not always immediately obvious), and that is the flower stems. As illustrated in the attached. The first picture is off what I would call typical Echinopsis hybrid flowers (E. x 'Anticipation' [White], and x 'Sorceress' [Fuchsia]) with the long thin stems. The second picture is what I see on all the large plants that I identify as some type of Trichocereus hybrid (T. x. 'First Light'), similarly large sized flowers but much shorter thicker stems.

Not sure if this is a consistent difference, but in my collection it seems to be.

Yes, I have noticed that what I consider Echinopsis do have long thin flower stems and Trichocereus have shorter heftier stems. And I do agree with valkyrie46225 that those are Trichocereus - I was curious about the process of arriving at that destination.

By the way, nice flowers and cactus. Mine are all rescued from someplace and have no variety or CV names - wouldn't even know where to start to find them some.

Thank you, everyone, for the input. I am learning.

Daisy

The Echinopsis group and the Trichocereus group are usually each parents to many of the hybrids. The former for their color (they are typically with colored flowered species and are diurnal), and the latter for their size (they are typically white-flowered species and are nocturnal).

That's why so many of the pretty colorful ones (colors coming from their Echinopsis past) bloom only until morning or shortly thereafter (a consequence of their Trichocereus past).

Getting names for those hybrids if you did not get them with the plant is hard. Some are so striking it is obvious, but there are just so many very similar ones that for most it is really hard.
Two places I use for trying to find names is the listing for the Schick hybrids (with pics) on the Huntington botanical garden webpage, and there is an on-line nursery that sells many E. and T. hybrids that has pretty good photo documentation with names. It is called mattslandscape.com.
I have been tempted by some of their plants, but they seem a bit on the pricey side of things.

The huntington will sell pups of most of the Schick hybrids at reasonable prices. Many of those (I have about a dozen of those or so) flowered for the first time this year for me - we have had a lot of late spring rain, which has certain made those plants very happy (the E. in the picture are drooping because they were still wet and heavy from the rain). If I had my photos organized I would post some, but I have been too busy with work to get around to sorting them out. There are another couple of websites one might be trichocereus.com (or something of the sort) and another may have Echinposis in the title but I am not sure and cannot immediately find them in my list of bookmarks, they have good pictures with names though - google should get you there.
I do however have about 10-15 unnamed ones and they are still very pretty!

I have bought gallon cans of the ones HD sells for years. They always turn out to be white. Then a few weeks ago, I saw a big pot of them for sale there with 3 large plants and many small ones in 1 pot. The buds were red so I bought it. And it was white! LOL

Then the other day, I was there and they had 2 pots in bloom. One had white outer petals with pink inside, a stunner. The other was a bright color too. I grabbed them. Since, the 1st one I bought has had more blooms and they were a vivid yellow. Another plant in the pot is a so bright pink. So it seems each plant in the pot is a different color which is great!

Anyway, I see photos of these that are just covered in blooms. How do you get so many on one plant? Is there a fertilizing regime that will get optimum bloom?

I posted some of my spring blooms on a thread called "Starting to Bloom". I have some first time bloomers this year since moving them to a very sunny new home. Their old home in CA was shaded by a huge Monkey Puzzle tree. But the prolific bloomers are just prolific bloomers.

I seem to always get them out of bloom so choose because I recognize them as Echinopsis or Trichocereus or Ferocactus - types I love or just too cool to pass up. I did have one bloom the other day that I thought was a Gymno but, now that it has bloomed (white of course) it is an Echinopsis too.

I know someone will scold me for this but I never fertilize anything and only repot when they outgrow their pots.

Kell, where in Northern California do you live? I moved from Oakdale (Zone 8).

Daisy

I have not found anything while experimenting with fertilizer that has given consistent results, but since I have fertilized them a little more - I added some miracle grow time release granules to the soil - I have gotten more to flower.
The worry with too much fertilizer is that they just grow bigger and do not flower - so you'd have to start watching the composition of the fertilizer.
I did notice that here in the desert they really like a little more water than I regularly give my cacti, and they prefer rain water over our tap water which has a slightly elevated pH compared to the rain water. Relatively speaking we have had quite a lot of rains since September of last year till as recently as the last few weeks (which is quite late in the spring compared to the previous 5 years or so). So this spring the plants have been very happy (my T. terscheckii has even started to branch - but no flowers yet).
Another issue here in the desert is that not all of them will take the full summer sun, but they really want the sun to produce a lot of flowers. The bigger 'Trichocereus' type plants do much better with the full sun than the smaller 'Echinopsis' type plants, which really need to be in partial shade otherwise they burn pretty badly. However if they flower in the really hot dry months (late May - early July) flowers sometimes are already wilted before they fully open... like the picture attached - this is the most open the flower ever got... :( . The second picture is of a flower looking like it is supposed to look (E. x 'Sorceress [Schick]).

Well, I guess i will just have to hope for lots of flowers! Another bloomed yesterday and is a red orange. I am so happy I have so many colors! I notice there are hybridizers in Europe that have amazing colors. Have not found the same here for sale.

Kell, you can find them here (but not very many of the European hybrids), but the Huntington still will sell you pups of their collection of Schick hybrids, some of which are spectacular. The last time I bought from them (last spring) the plants were about $7.50 each and in the range of large golf ball to lemon sized, so not huge, but they can already flower at lemon size.
The other website I mention above - Mattslandscape.com - sells bigger plants and a bunch of the Trichocereus but is expensive for the size of plant they say they sell, but if you want something specific they might have it. I keep regular watch on eBay as there are some growers that are occasional eBay sellers that have good deals on great plants, but unfortunately it is hard to predict when they will post things to sell.
Here is one I got on eBay last spring (photo is from last year). E. x 'Killian'.

That is sure a pretty one!

Does the Huntington still sell online? I looked at their website but did not find a plant store.

Those blooms are so seductive. LOL. I want them all!

Yep they do, but it a little more manual than an online store with a shopping cart and paypal check out: Check this link:
http://www.huntington.org/BotanicalDiv/ISI2014/catalogintro.html

Then at the bottom there is a bunch of links to previous plant introductions (if they still have them you can still buy them) and a link to the schick catalog. Usually I end up contacting them first to see what is available and then get my order in when I order from that year's isi plant introduction - they are late with that this year, but I know they will take separate Schick hybrid only orders as I have done that in the past.

I have a little over 50 named hybrids and another 15 or so unnamed ones... So yes they are very seductive plants... I am working on setting up a little area where I can start rooting offsets from these plants, when that is up and organized, I am sure I can send a few your way, but it is going to take me a while as it is a ways down on the to do list for things around the house and yard.

I ordered some Schick hybrids on line early last year. It took about three months to get them and there is an inspection fee. They are very small. I got five out of the eight that I ordered and the total was $67.50. So far only one has bloomed. 'Gold Emblem'.

That is a great color, smashedcactus.

I would never find that website on my own, mcvansoest. I probably should not thank you though!!! LOL

I have been a busy bee today.
I sent the Huntington 17 want to have list so I will see what they have. I also bought gallon sized Trichocereus hybrid APRICOT GLOW and Trichocereus hybrid FLYING SAUCER from Cactuslands

I maybe in trouble! LOL

Here is a picture of Apricot Glow, which just flowered for the first time for me. Picture is not 100% sharp as I am still learning to use my new camera and macro lens...
If you give these plant pot or ground space they will fill it up.

Just as an FYI: It does take John Trager at the Huntington awhile to respond and send out ordered items. He will also sell unrooted cuttings if you request them. I did that last year and so of them are rooted now and budding. I give mine sun here in Phoenix area sun in the morning until about 1 PM and I do water quite often in the spring/summer compared to most cactus. If I don't water enough buds tend to drop off. Frustration!

These flowers are so beautiful I feel dizzy……… ;-)

Echinopsis Los Angeles 10-year old specimen

Bob Weeks

This message was edited May 18, 2015 1:52 AM

Good to hear from you Bob. Nice flowers. I may finally get some Echinopsis blooms within the week.