April 2022 cactus flowers in our garden

April is the busiest month of the year for the cacti in our garden. As you’ll see below, we’ve had some spectacular sights this year. With some rare exceptions, cactus flowers are very short-lived; many only last a day or maybe two. I suppose this element of impermanence adds to their allure and mystique.

Since this is a post about beauty and transcendence, I’ll keep my running commentary to a minimum.

Echinopsis ‘First Light’

Let’s start with a bang. Echinopsis ‘First Light’ has the most beautiful flowers of any cactus in our garden—and the most ephemeral. They open in the morning and are closed again by late afternoon. But what a spectacle they are!

Echinopsis ‘First Light’

Echinopsis ‘First Light’

Echinopsis ‘First Light’, first flower

Echinopsis ‘First Light’ with multiple flowers open

Echinopsis ‘First Light’

Echinopsis ‘First Light’

Echinopsis ‘First Light’

Echinopsis ‘June Noon’

‘June Noon’ produces several flushes in late spring. This was the first one, just a single flower:

Echinopsis ‘June Noon’

The second flush promised to be a big one:

April 27, 2022: seven buds about to open!

And it was. So big, in fact, that the stem flopped over under the weight of the seven flowers:

Echinopsis ‘June Noon’; please ignore the bamboo leaf litter, the result of several windy days

Echinopsis ‘June Noon’

I propped up the stem with a large rock, but pretty soon it flopped to the other side. Finally, I tied it to the palo blanco tree behind it. That did the trick.

Echinopsis ‘June Noon’

When the flowers are only partially open, they look more yellow because the undersides are a solid color. Wide open, the petals are predominantly white, with central yellow stripes.

Echinopsis ‘June Noon’

Echinopsis ‘June Noon’

‘June Noon’ may not quite have the wow factor of ‘First Light’, but I love the cheeriness of the white and yellow flowers.

Here are the others cacti that bloomed in April, in chronological order.

Homalocephala texensis

Texas horse crippler (Homalocephala texensis) [Texas]

Texas horse crippler (Homalocephala texensis) [Texas]

Mammillaria compressa

Mammillaria compressa [Northern and southern Mexico]

Thelocactus rinconensis

Bird’s nest cactus (Thelocactus rinconensis) [Northern Mexico]

Thelocactus bicolor

Glory of Texas (Thelocactus bicolor) [Texas]

Glory of Texas (Thelocactus bicolor) [Texas]

Escobaria vivipara ssp. kaibabensis

Kaibab beehive cactus (Escobaria vivipara ssp. kaibabensis) [Northern Arizona] in the 3" pot I bought it in

Kaibab beehive cactus (Escobaria vivipara ssp. kaibabensis) [Northern Arizona] after planting in the ground

Echinocereus species

We had quite a few Echinocereus species bloom in April. Their flowers last longer than most other cacti; the flowers of the claret cup types (Echinocereus triglochidiatus and coccineus) last for up to seven days provided temperatures are mild (i.e. not scorching hot).

Echinocereus reichenbachii var. baileyi, native to Oklahoma and Texas. Hardy to -20°F.

Echinocereus reichenbachii, plain species, but there’s nothing plain about these flowers

Echinocereus fendleri ssp. kuenzleri [Western Texas]

Echinocereus pulchellus ssp. acanthosetus [Oaxaca, Mexico]

Claret cup (Echinocereus triglochidiatus) [Southwestern US and northern Mexico] starting to flower in the refreshed cactus bowl (see post)

Echinocereus coccineus × Echinocereus triglochidiatus ‘White Sands’ from Donnie Barnett/Ethical Desert, now flowering for the first time

Echinocereus coccineus × Echinocereus triglochidiatus ‘White Sands’

White-flowering form of ladyfinger cactus (Echinocereus pentalophus) [Northeastern Mexico to southeastern Texas]

Texas rainbow cactus (Echinocereus dasyacanthus) [Western Texas and northern Mexico]

Epiphyllum hybrids

We also had two epiphyllums flower. They were a gift from friends who moved away last year. Epiphyllums are epiphytic cacti from Central and South America. Ours live in hanging baskets suspended from the chaste tree in the backyard.

Epiphyllum flowers are very short-lived. I didn’t catch this one wide open.

This Epiphyllum is the most spectacular one yet. I have no idea which hybrid it is, but I will be sure to pamper it so it grows more stems (and hence more flowers).

While May won’t bring quite the spectacle we just had, but I expect more cactus flowers all the way into early summer. Fingers crossed!

© Gerhard Bock, 2022. All rights reserved. To receive all new posts by email, please subscribe here.