The power of grafting - II

In less than one and a half years my grafted Lophophora williamsii (SB 854; Starr Co, Tx) has grown from a minute seedling to a mature plant, flowering for the first time. The Lophophora scion is 4.85 cm (~1.9’’) wide and has grown 3 offshoots; the flower is a typical pinkish white with a somewhat darker midstripe, and is 1.8 cm (~0.7’’) wide. None of my other plants are currently blooming so I attempted to self-pollinate the flower.


Flowering Lophophora williamsii graft

The Echinopsis (Trichocereus) pachanoi stock is striving to get a life of its own – since the previous post I’ve removed two offshoots. Even though it slows the growth of the Lophophora scion down a bit, I let the shoots grow for as long as they don’t intimidate the scion. The removed shoots are rooted and will be used for future grafts.

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Sowing in the rough - III

I’m not sure if it’s the seed, the coldhouse environment or sheer coincidence, but in addition to the deviating growth forms described in an earlier post one of the Lophophora williamsii (SB 854; Starr Co, Texas) seedlings turned out achlorophyllous.


Achlorophyllous Lophophora williamsii

The seedling lacks chlorophyll and will not survive on its own roots for long so I grafted it on Pereskiopsis spathulata – hopefully it will survive and prosper.

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Seedling grafting on Pereskiopsis - II

Well, my first experience with grafting on Pereskiopsis spathulata was a limited success – limited by a combination of stupidity and clumsiness. I ignored the advice of experts and watered the Pereskiopsis plants heavily before grafting. As a result the small seedling scions were soon sailing away on a sea of cactus sap. When trying to correct this I managed to knock off half of the scions. Despite this treatment two of the grafts took (one each of L. williamsii, RS 428A, Cuatro Ciénegas, Coahuila and L. diffusa RS 1193, Peña Miller, Queretaro). Especially the Lophophora williamsii graft is doing great – in 11 weeks it’s grown to a width of 1.9 cm (0.75’’).


Lophophora williamsii seedling grafted on Pereskiopsis spathulata

The Pereskiopsis spathulata plants are easy to grow. I planted the ‘waste products’ from the graft, and along with the plants where the graft didn’t take, they now make up a shrubbery that would make even the Knights who say ‘Ni’ happy.


Pereskiopsis spathulata ‘shrubbery’

The hardest part of growing Pereskiopsis is to remember to give them a generous treatment with plenty of water ;-)

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Sowing in the rough - II

Some of the Lophophora williamsii (RS 268; Huizache, San Luis Potosí) seedlings are developing interesting growth forms. One is clearly dichotomous (a simple type of branching in plants where the apical meristem splits at various intervals) and another shows signs of an extension of the apical meristem into a ridge - I'll watch it closely to see if it develops a crest.


Dichotomous Lophophora williamsii seedling


Lophophora williamsii seedling with a crest meristem?

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Winter-hardy Opuntias

This post is slightly off topic, but many of the Opuntias in my winter-hardy cacti bed are flowering right now and I would like to share a couple of photos of the beautiful flowers.


Opuntia polyacantha


Opuntia 'Claude Arno'


Opuntia fragilis (Butte Co, Nebraska)

The plants are growing in the northwestern parts of Denmark, only a couple of hundred meters (yards) from the North Sea. I bought the plants two years ago at Benny’s Cactus.