FYI...YOU DIDN'T DO ANYTHING WRONG. THE NATURE OF THE HUERNIA IS TO GROW THE FLOWER AND THEN DIE, LEAVING THE AFTER AFFECTS OF A TERRIBLE ODOR.

Jeffery. Sorry you are having this trouble with your huernias! But they are not Easter Lily bulbs or Pointsettia plants. They don't grow, bloom, and then die. They grow and bloom and grow more and bloom and keep doing it for years. If yours do die after 1 blooming...you are doing something VERY wrong. I HAD hundreds of varieties of huernias/staplieas, until they got wiped out by a hurricane 3 years a go. Now I only have a couple of dozen, and I am trying so hard to get cuttings of Stapelias, like Gigantea, to rebuild my collection. They last for decades,if you grow them correctly,and you will have blooms several times a season. If your die that fast...it sounds like you over water a lot of your cacti. I have NEVER heard of a huernia that grows and then blooms 1 time and dies...as being natural. If there is a variety that does it, I don't want to grow it.:)