They are at it again! My cacti garden is bursting with blooms!

Here is the one that started the Echinopsis collection, tentatively identified as ‘Stars and Stripes’.

A nice combo of pink and Schick hybrid  ’Hot Lips’ red.

This one, I call ‘Pale Peachy Pink’, is a creation of my very own! It can take many years to get from seed to blooming plant.

Not too sure, but I think this is another of my creations. I am not a good records keeper, much to my detriment.

This yellow beauty came from Home Depot. It has a light citrus fragrance.

This is another of my seedlings. It differs somewhat from the original parent “Stars and Stripes’.

Here is another Schick hybrid, ‘Oracle’, an electric fuchsia and red combination I so love in cacti flowers.

Not just Echinopsis are in bloom. This Opuntia Santa-Rita looks like a color pumped image, but its delicate purple and blue colorings and its light yellow blooms look great against the backdrop of a purple variegated barberry.

Lastly is this sea urchin lookalike, Astrophytum. Its very pale yellow flowers with their red rings look like eyes looking back at you.

Only lasting a day in most cases, these cacti flowers are worth rushing out in the early morning to drink up their incredible and fleeting beauty, and they live through my colder than Redding winter temperatures, with the added bonus of not needing much water in the summer, but they do need afternoon shade.

If you would like to try your hand at these beautiful Echinopsis cacti, take a look at these beauties!:

http://www.huntington.org/BotanicalDiv/Schick/catalogindex.html