Cactus / red flowering asterias

There are various opinions but I think this one is almost red flower.
The stigma is also red. Unfortunately it seems this red stigma can not make seeds.
I just can use this cacti as male plant.

Cactus / reddish flowering asterias 3

This unusual color flowering asterias is also come from the same seeds packet.
It is quite unusual color but not my favorite and so I have not increase nombers of this form.
I just have kept this plant only.

Cactus / reddish flowering asterias 2

This asterias is propagated from same seeds packet as yesterday's post.
It seems quite red before buds are open but it turns to yellow after open.
Almost all asterias propagated from the same seeds packet were this form.

Cactus / reddish flowering asterias

The flower color of standard asterias is yellow petals and orange throat. There is red flowering asterias developed by Japanese origianally. I tried to get red flowering asterias a while but it was hard to get. I started from seeds and so there was no guarantee seeds named "red flower asterias" to be red flower asterias.

I got 2 asterias almost true red flower and many unlike.
The photo is one of unlike red flower asterias. I think this one was crossed many times and the size of body is very small. The gene of thin petals is also mixed.

Cactus / asterias

When you repeated crossings, plant size becomes small. Astrophytum asterias (kabuto) repeated crossings in history and body size has been small.

I have tried my astrias to return to the original size. I select some of my plant and use them for the process. The photo is one of my plant for that purpose, 15 cm diameter.

Cactus / Ariocarpus hybrid 2

This is another Ariocarpus hybrid, retusus v elongatus x fissuratus.
I have created 4 Ariocarpus hybrids in total.
I sowed seeds on 17/10/2010 and grafted several seedlings.
I think this cacti shows father's gene strongly.

Cactus / spegazzinii

My main collection is North American cactus but I collect some South American cactus also.
The photo is Gymnocalycium spegazzinii v loricatum. I bought seeds and sowed on 16/11/2003.
Spegazzinii has several variations. Loricatum has short and thick spines.

Cactus / Ariocarpus hybrid

This small grafted cacti is an Ariocarpus hybrid, kotschoubeyanus x scaphirostris.
I crossed in 2009, 1st filial hybrid and sowed seeds on 25/11/2010.
The successful gramination ratio was poor and seedlings were abnormal color which came from crossing stress, I think.

I grafted several young seedlings. They have grown slowly.

Cactus / luethyi

Several Mammillaria luethyis were in flower this afternoon. It was a warm day today. The temperature in the greenhouse was more than 40 C'.

I onec collected grafted luethyis more than 100 plants. Almost all grafted stocks were so weak and I dislodged  many plants last month.
The photo is a grafted luethyi, one of remained plants.

Cactus / super kabuto

I bought a new camera. I had tried to find a best setting for cactus flowers.

It may not be the best but I found a good setting yesterday. I took a photo, a flower of super kabuto yesterday.

Cactus / short grafting stock

 I got the following information through the internet last year.

"Attach a short pereskiopsis stock on a scion and bury the stock in potting mix. Roots come out from the stock initially but roots also come out from the scion eventually."

I set up 3 Ariocarpus last year, on 05/10/2010 and checked roots yesterday. Unfortunately roots just came out from the stock only. I am not sure how long does it take coming out roots from the scion. I have buried them again.

The photo is kotschoubeyanus with a short pereskiopsis stock.

Cactus / myriostigma

An Astrophytum myriostigma was in flower yesterday.

I bought a small seedling in 2003. Astrophytum grow normally slowly but this one has grown with quite good speed. The current body diameter is aroung 15 cm.

Cactus / Hanazono kabuto

This is an Astrophytum asterias cv hanazono kabuto. Hanazono means a flower garden and this cacti has multiple flowers. Although the histories of super kabuto and miracle kabuto are quite clear but it is unclear for hanazono kabuto. It seems hanazono character will appear when the caci became mature age. When the cacti was young seeling, the appearance is same as a normal asterias.

Cactus / myriostigma

This is Astrophytum myriostigma v nudum cv khoyo, kikou. I degrafted this cacti last autumn and under rooting currently.
This cultivar has two specific characters. One is khoyo, turning body color to red in autumn and spring and returning to green in summer when the cacti was juvenile. This cacti is too old to turne  the color but it is remained some character. The other is kikou, turning body shape as like tortoiseshell when the cacti was matured. This cacti has shown the kikou character.

Cactus / super kabuto

This is an asterias cv super kabuto which has a special pattern on the flower.Normal asterias flower is yellow with orange throat. Red flower has also developped. I found this one 4 days ago but I had never seen this special pattern on asterias flowers before.

Cactus / miracle kabuto

Astrophytum have been in flower continuously. This is an asterias cv miracle kabuto.

Miracle kabuto is similar to super kabuto but it has finer white flecks than that of super kabuto. Miracle kabuto is a sort of monstrosa and was started from just 1 plant. It was mixed with various asteria in history. Because of that, you can not expect that all seedlings are miracle kabutos. I normally select good miralce kabutos when seedlings are 3 years old.

Cactus / Onzuka

An Astrophytum  myriostigma cv Onzuka was in flower yesterday.

I bought seeds and sowed on 29/07/2005.  I grafted very young seedlings. I  degrafted this cacti and rooted in 2008. Onzuka was developed by Mr Onzuka of Okayama prefecture in Japan. I understand the original plant was myriostigma v tulense and so the body shape was elongated naturally.

Cactus / super kabuto

Many Astrophytum were in flower lately. This asterias cv super kabuto is one of them.

This super kabuto is mixed red flower gene.
I propagate this from my seed and the diameter of body is around 10 cm.

Cactus / red flower asterias

I bought 20 seeds of Astrophytum red flower asterias and sowed on 06/08/2007. I grafted 10 young seedlings. I found ture red flower was just 2 plants.

The photo is one of two true red flower asterias. Since stigma color is also red, I think this cacti has true red flower gene. The problem of red flower asterias is small body size. I assume mixing was repeated offten in history.