More cactus flowers & some new plants

Howdy, friends! As promised: more flowers!

For one who cultivates plants, there is no greater reward than healthy growth and pretty flowers. This time, it's the old Copiapoa hypogaea var. barquitensis that I've bought three weeks ago at the Cactus & Succulent show in Kudelstaart and a Mammillaria bombycina from the local plant shop.

Copiapoa hypogaea var. barquitensis

Copiapoa hypogaea var. barquitensis flowering

Copiapoa hypogaea var. barquitensis flowering

Copiapoa hypogaea var. barquitensis flowering

Mammillaria bombycina

Mammillaria bombycina

I've bought this Mammillaria bombycina back in 2013 at a local plant shop, not the best place to buy succulents (they usually stand somewhere in the dark and get way too much water), but sometimes you can be lucky. Putting it in a decent soil mix and giving it some good care has finally paid off. This is the first time that this Mammillaria is flowering.

Photos

The photos above are taken by my lovely wife, Stephanie. She's much more talented than I am, so why not use my own personal photographer? Of course I have to pick my shots and only ask her once in a while for the more difficult pictures, otherwise, I'll drive her mad with my ever growing collection. Anyhow, she has done a hell of a job!

Euphorbia platyclada

One-year-old Euphorbia platyclada seedling, flowering

When you don't know this species, you might think it's died, but no. This is as pretty as it gets. Hell yeah! Talking about awkward plants, right? It's even flowering. I've been wanting this species for many years. I even tried to sow it back in 2013 and failed terribly.

This week I've read an article about this species on the Dutch 'Succulenta' website. It's kind of hard - if not, impossible - to find this plant for sale, so I've sent an email to the author and asked him if he knew where to buy one. In his kind reply, he told me that he would be glad to send me a one-year-old seedling and he even added some more information about and photos of this species. Added to the small package was a cutting of another bizarre looking plant:

Ceropegia adrianae

Ceropegia adrianae cutting

All that I know about C. adrianae is that it's from Madagascar and that it looks "funny" (quoting my son here). I think it's awesome! Some plants are just so ugly that they become beautiful, if you get what I mean.

The end

That's about it for this post. I'm also seeing some buds on my Gymnocalycium stenopleurum (I guess I'm doing things right :-) ). I'll keep you up-to-date. Later!