My family did not plant cacti for their flowers. As a matter of fact, we did not even know that they produce flowers until about a week ago when we had one. A big white gorgeous flower measuring about 3 inches across. It must have been our lucky day. As the morning progressed, the flower began withering. By the following day, it has completely wilted. This seems to suggest that the full bloom must have been at night (we missed that since we did not know), a few hours before the picture above was taken.
I do not have any magic formula to make this particular pot of cactus bloom. I was caught completely by surprise. We did have some hot and dry weather in recent weeks. Perhaps this is what triggered this cactus to bloom as this desert-like weather must have made it feel at home.
To be honest, I did not give my cacti much care. They are quite hardy and do not require much watering and attention. Not much weeding to do either when you have dry sandy soil. I do not recall feeding it any fertilizer either.
My Dad started planting cacti about 20 years ago. If I am not mistaken, I think he had about 20 different species of them back then. All planted in cute little tiny pots. Unfortunately, only 6 different species are left with me today. The only significant thing that I did with these remaining 6 was to re-pot them about 10 years ago. Re-potting cacti is something that I do not fancy doing often. Their sharp thorns are not something that I like very much. And believe me, they are really sharp. I could not have completed the re-potting without the help of some newspapers. I used the newspaper as a form of barrier between the cacti thorns and my hand.
I am not an expert with cacti. So, does anybody know the name of this particular cactus with the blooming flower?
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