More!

Ariocarpus fissuratus

Ariocarpus fissuratus var lloydii

Astrophytum asterias

Cintia knizei

Mammillaria hernandezii

Pygmaeocereus biebii

Sulcorebutia rauschii violaceidermis

...and you have some nice ones Pagan :)

I was surprised, Rina, since I dislike most cacti. But you'll notice a loose theme here: someone can not find a Pelecyphora aselliformis so they're accumulating vague look-alikes.

Anyone else has non-stabby cacti recommendations, please show and tell!

Pagan, what did you decide about the Mamm. Plumosa?

Oh I just got both. They have not arrived yet. Also, I found two more cacti, not sure about the ID of this one but it's been in this mug since 2014. It's about 2 inches in diameter.

And this was from bikerdoc, if it had a label I have since lost it. No clue what it is either! And no, neither of these are L. williamsii.

It's doing well, doc!

OMG!!!! Yours looks nicer than mine!!!! GREAT GROWING I think I sent you L. diffusa

I think the one I got from eBay (labelled "Lophophora species") is also a diffusa, doc. They are both extremely stoic. So I put them on the same spot year-in and year-out. I'm waiting for some puff to grow but so far, nada.

Anyway, these have arrived:

They look somewhat loose. They are about to find out what hard growing is.

Nice acquisitions, Pagan. Are they non-stabbiuosious enough for you?

Where will you put them? I’m not for sure on this but my strong suspension is that with more (direct ?) light, the “feathers” become more dense in order to protect the globe underneath. No proof of that & just a feeling. It could be genetics but with mine, I can’t see any hint of green such is the denseness of the spines.

I’ve not done anything special for mine. Just treated like all the others with the exception of a tad more water in the winter than I would normally give other C&S. By that, I mean more often.

M. plumosa flowers easily. I don't know how much you water but they might like a potting mix that holds more water than scoria. However, try what you like and keep an eye on them. If they are in trouble it can be a bit tricky to observe that they need help. Their dense spines can make it hard to see what is going on underneath. I've had a couple shrivel away because of under watering and I didn't notice until it was too late. Fortunately they pup easily and are easy to propagate.

I'm curious if your Cintia branched without having an injury first. I have a couple of them but they refused to pup/branch until one split its side and the other was chewed on by rodents.

I’ve never used scoria. I have one in pure pumice and 2 others that are roughly 80% pumice/20% C&S mix. The one in pure pumice seems to flower more often. The one that flowers more has white flowers. The others are pink. Maybe the flowering frequency is just the difference in the varieties.

Pagan, it looks like your blooms will open in a couple of days. Enjoy the fragrance.

@SoCal Stewart (San Diego, Ca Zone 10A/10B): scoria looks more visibly porous than pumice to me, actually. And just typing that sent me into the rabbit hole of differentiating between adsorption and absorption. Gaah. Hang on, I'm going to look for my tripod and I'll get back to you with a side-by-side.

But it sounds like this is going to be a balance between water and more intense lighting than I am providing right now.

@Polypompholyx: I don't think it was ever injured but it's plausible some bug tried to bite and I didn't notice? But I got three of these in 2016 and only this one sprouted this way. Here it was in July 2017:

Then in 2018: