These plants are among my all-time favorites. Most are very cold tolerant here, taking temperatures well below 0 F. And they can develop into wonderful clumps with dozens of heads. I grow most of mine outside all year. Give them lots of sunshine and they can be reliable bloomers.

Lucky CP.

Happy growing.

Al

How pretty CP. I don't have one of these.....yet. I love the flowers.

Dawn

Very pretty. A Claret cup is on my want list for my outdoor garden. My plan is to find some to mail order in the spring.

WindsurfGirl

I just love the rich crimson colour of the flowers, thanks Al for that snippet of info, they should do well here in Tassie then. Here's hopin'

CP

CP, I just had to share these pictures with you. Claret cup cacti are among my all time favorites. I grew them outside, unprotected for about 25 years and I had some huge clumps when the day came to sell my home and relocate to what I thought would be a more hospitable gardening location near the beach. I dug up, split and potted about 60 big clumps Of a variety of hardy Echinocereus species and varieties.

Here is a picture of some of them after the move:

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I had to dispose of the vast majority and many that I kept didn't do well. Not enough sun and I did not have the proper soil in my beds sothese plants now live in BIG pots, troughs and tubs but still outside unprotected. Here they bloom in late May and early June.

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Some that I kept are E. coccineus v. inermis:

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Flowers on the inermis do not appear to differ from those on plants with spines.

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I hope you enjoy seeing one of my passions.

Al

CP and Al, thanks for the great pics!

Those are beautiful Al. Thanks for sharing them with us.

WindsurfGirl

These are one of my favorite cacti, too. I love the red flowers with the contrasting green stigma in the center. I want to give some of them a try outdoors in the future as landscaping plants. But that's not going to happen here in town. I'll wait till we move back out to the country. ~ Amy

Al, you work some real magic with that camera of yours, I really like your pics and appreciate you sharing them with me... not hard to understand why they're a passion of yours. I like the coccineus v. inermis, might just have to try to get that one...

Shalom, CP

Wow!! I know why I was so pleased to find an E.triglochidiatus plant now!!
I just hope I can get it to flower this season...it's not small (approx 7 - 8 inches tall and quite fat!!), but it was only potted up about a month back and will get it's first water in 2 days time (my cactus mix is slightly damp, so I don't water for 3 to 4 weeks after potting a plant). Maybe that will spur it into action?
As always, am looking forward to more pics of your flowers CP and thanks for yours Al.
Wazzimodo