I enabled my messaging--I was going to pm you, but couldn't find message on your profile. Why is this so difficult?

It will be a few weeks before I send you plants (if we ever get this figured out :-)

They're lovely. I was thinking this spring of writing the Huntington and getting some plants, but upon further reflection, I think I'll stay with winter bloomers for the windowsills, and not add summer blooming (but lovely) Echinopsis.

I've grown them before and loved them, but I had more room then, due to less high windows.

dbarren:

One of my fellow Echinopsis fanatics informed me that the Huntington has stopped sending out the hybrids for now. The plants from the last few orders I got from them were extremely small.

They do take up a lot of room for something that blooms for one day. I have about 150 of them now and I think I'm at the saturation point. So I'm slowly going back to acquiring old favorites like Mammillarias and Notocactus. But those darn 'Rainbow Bursts' at the BBS are tempting me now.

Schick 'Sorceress'

Schick 'Desdemona'

Schick 'Sasquatch'

Rainbow Burst (I call it Miss Darcy since Altman can't be bothered :-) It's very lovely, but I can't take a picture to do it justice. It's orchid and white/first time bloom.

How absolutely lovely. Do you grow them in pots outdoors or are any in the ground? They really are quite amazing -- for some reason, it always amazes me that something as prickly and drought-tolerant can put out such a lush and gorgeous bloom. Just wow!

It gets very cold here so they are all in pots. The only pig plants I have are Opuntias and Echinocereus. My sunroom bursts at the seams in winter.

http://echinopsis.com/ This site may be helpful to you. I believe that Greg lives in NE Florida so you may be able to get some tips from him. He is a total fanatic and very nice.

Flowers for the day:

Rainbow Burst (I call it Palest Pink):

Trichocereus 'First Light'

Echinopsis hybrid 'That's Gold'--it's hard to take pictures outside, but I didn't want to move it. And it was in a most difficult spot--I'll have to remember that when the next buds get big.

Today's flowers:

Schick 'Traumerei': the bud fell off so I put it in a vase and it opened this morning. It was a first time bloom so I had to see what it would look like. The flower is only about 2.75"

Schick 'Maria Piazza' I took this flower off and put it in the vase, too because it was too heavy for the plant to hold it up. This flower is about 4" wide.

Schick 'High Noon' This one is in my top 10 favorites.

I've had this plant for about 10 years, first time flower, but let me tell you I'm over the moon about this one. It's an unnamed hybrid from Poot's House of Cactus. My pet name for it is Crushin Orange. I name my plants just for me since I did not do the hybridizing. The stem this flower was on was only 8" tall.

This is an Altmans 'Rainbow Burst'--I've had this plant for about 3 years and it would always drop it's buds. It wouldn't bloom until it filled the entire pot. I call this one Big Maude--does anyone know who that was?

The flowers are a shade I've never seen, the closest I can think it to be is a dusty coral.

This one is from Mexican Hat Nursery--I call it Desert Sun. It has never bloomed as well for me as when I brought it home with a bud on it. I guess it misses its Riverside, CA home. But it is still very beautiful.

Here is another 'Rainbow Burst'--I call it Mariah

This is an old Paramount hybrid 'Atomic'--flower is much smaller than those above, but still pretty.

All great stuff, noto. Thanks.

tj