My big plant purchase includes one ariocarpus fissuratus and four astrophytum asterias rubriflora (red/pink flowering variety). I intend to breed the asterias to my other red flowering asterias varieties, so my base breeding stock is six plants total, including these four.
I have no idea what color flowers the three littlest have, but I did see their parents, and there’s a good chance they have nice dark pink flowers. For the price I got them for, it was a really good bargain. The fissuratus is also of flowering size, which is one of the reasons it was so expensive. It’s about a 7-10 year old plant.
If you look really closely at the flower you will see a tiny little pom-pom, when an insect lands in the centre of the flower, it triggers the pom-pom to whack the bug, transferring pollen to it. The insect is unharmed and buzzes off covered in pollen
amazing how a few cuttings I took this january quickly surpassed the mother plant in size and lush-ness! the big one has been in the same pot for decades and would very much need a repot, though I’m not sure how the vines would handle being taken apart again. she took some big losses when i tried to reorganize the vines around a new pole last year
Kihaku-Gato's Garden Blog (tumblr import) 