Nature has ways of showing you it's beauty in many ways, but sometimes if you blink an eye you'll miss the best nature has to offer.
This ball cactus is an example.
This is how it looked on 8th May.
This is how it looked on the 9th May.By 10th May the flower had wilted and died.
When I saw it on 9th May it was top heavy and leaned over. One of these cactii had flowered last year and the same thing happened then, the flower died overnight. So this year I thought I'd cheat nature by plucking the flower off and putting it in a glass, but that didn't work, the flower still died the following day.
However, as opposed to last year, this year these cactii have lots of buds on them, so I'm looking forward to a display that is likely to be astonishing. The only problem is that I have to monitor them on a daily basis. Miss a day and I'm likely to miss the show!!!
5 comments:
What a gorgeous flower! So delicate and fragile to come from that prickly environment!
Beautiful flower Sarmad - just some thoughts; but when it dies does it wilt or go brown? If it wilts you might try putting silver thiosulphate in the water (people who grow carnations will know this chemical) - there are alternatives available too but I would have to look them up - if it goes brown it is running out of nutrients and you might try some sugar or 'plant food' from a flower shop in the water - unfortunately, sometimes such measures do not lengthen the show!
Hi John... Thank you for your comment and tip. Last year the flower stayed attached to the cactus. The petals just went soft and bent inwards. It didn't go brown. I'm not sure, but it seems like the flower closed during the night and then didn't have the strength to open up again the following day, it just lost strength and rigidity.
This year it didn't have the strength to stay erect, when the flower opened it lent over. I had to manually handle it and lean it against one of the spokes for support in order to photograph it, then I took it off and put it in a glass of water. Same result, it wilted and died the following day.
interesting! - I know nothing about cacti but my guess is the flower stem is 'dying' at the base (common in some flowers) and once it starts you can't stop it - but if you catch it before it starts and treat the cut flower with silver solution (in the 'vase' water - timing is everything if they behave like other flowers) then you might be able to stop the flower dying and preserve the delight - but I'm only guessing - I will investigate further
Ever notice how the briefest blooms are the most spectacular? That one is so delicate and so spectacular!
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