Three Basal Pups Forming in Ten Photo Slideshow
I’ve never seen the eight-rib variety of wooly blue cactus generate pups, so this was the surprise awaiting me as I weeded around the base of this plant late this Summer. Basal pups sometimes form on stressed cacti but he main stem on this one is extremely healthy and still putting on height. We’re looking forward to a beautiful candelabra shape by late next year.
jvfreeman
James V. Freeman is an established visual artist (oil painting) with a deep interest in natural history, plants and farming. He has had numerous solo shows, a solo museum show, an upcoming museum show and his work has been featured in many publications to date. He currently has a studio in Williston, Fl at the family farm and homestead, "Cactus Island", and as a farmer, specializes in growing columnar cacti of the Caribbean and Gulf countries as well as the aquatic Madegascar Lace Plant. James and his mom Sharon manage and develop the permaculture homestead.
4 Comments
Suzanne Lindsey
How far apart in time were these photos, roughly? Fascinating time lapse sequence!
James V Freeman
This was a fun side project between shifts of work. I found the budding pups on August 23rd and photographed them every three to six days. As soon as the Harrisia Fragrans fruit out on the East pasture turns red and I harvest for planting, I’ll put the bud-to-fruit slideshow of that on here too.
Linda Bergman
Looks like it is thriving!
James V Freeman
Pups are now angling up at a diagonal angle. Just before Hurricane Irma this cactus fell over and rotted at the base from one of my early mix recipes and the 19.5″ of rain that fell the week BEFORE the hurricane. A day or two before evacuating to TN I replanted the top eight inches of sickly cactus…….and now three years later it’s really bolting. This was the one $1 K-Mart cactus out of six that straggled way behind the rest, but it’s the only wooly blue adult that wasn’t permanently planted and so made the move to Williston.