This right here is exactly why I go to the effort of growing cacti. They have such lovely flowers (like those of these native barrels above).
Every Fall, my outdoor cacti have to start getting ready for the rigors of winter, with a little help from me. I've written about this in a previous blog post.
As Fall approaches, it's time to cut off water. If it's an especially wet year (a rarity on the Plains of Colorado), this may even mean having to cover them because sometimes cacti have no restraint when it comes to water.
This dehydration strategy is one way of helping them survive the cold. When water freezes, the crystals have a nasty habit of piercing cell walls and turning tissue to mush. Just think about what happens to frozen berries when thawed.
Once the cacti sense that Spring is coming, they'll start taking on water; they plump right back up, going from the deflated-balloon, wrinkly look to their usual pert and perky selves.
We had a lot of rain in quick succession this last couple weeks followed quickly by a cold snap. Cacti (like these potato cactus pictured above), have little restraint when it comes to water and I've seen them take on water til they burst--they're adapted to living in areas where it's feast or famine. These guys needed a hastily-made trash bag cover.
The two pictures below ought to give you a sense of what I mean. The prickly pear I have deflates over Winter (as well as going kind of red just like a leaf does before falling, and it's due to the production of a special pigment). Come Spring, as they start to take on water again.
Don't forget that many cacti lack any sort of lignified (woody) structure, so it's mainly the water in the tissues that provides the structure. So in addition to plumping, many cacti "rise up" in the spring. Quite apparent in the photo above: all of those paddles were as flat as a pancake all Winter.
I thought you might enjoy some pictures of the cacti around my yard as they start to wake up. They're below with some captions containing some descriptions and factoids about cacti. Take note especially of the flower buds on the barrel cactus. I can already tell that one of those guys will have a banner year for flowers coming up.
As we get closer to May, I may have some cuttings for sale, trade, or share. I'll put out a message when the time comes.
A local mammallaria cactus starting to plump up. Taken in the fading afternoon sun of a late winter morning. As it takes on more and more water, the buds with the spines will start to spread. Note also the colony its creating out around its base. This is how you get those giant groupings of cacti.
It's always funny to me to watch "the sap arisin'" in the snow leopard cholla here (a wonderful yellow flower that bumblebees love). It goes from its droopy, flaccid state to a more , shall we say, erect posture.
These guys don't have a real catchy name, but they have wonderful scarlet red flowers that grow from little arms out to the side. An interesting tidbit about cacti is that they're actually stem tissue. Anywhere you see a spine is a growth bud just like it would be on another plant (say a tree). So when a new appendage grows, it will come out at the spines. Clearly these guys like to form colonies too.
Took a trip to Southern Colorado late last Summer. While there, I took some cuttings of a local cholla from a friend's land. Overwintered in pots and ready to go in the ground this Spring. One of the ways that cholla can manifest that they're taking on water is the (for lack of a better word) "braiding" along the stick. When dehydrated, the hollows between the spines sink in. This guy is maybe not fully filled out, but getting there!
This is similar to the cactus from a couple pictures up. No special name, but also a wonderful red flower. Two things of note here. This guy is a veteran of a pretty punishing hail storm. You can still see the scars. The other is to look at the top of the cactus. That's how they grow. Think of it like inflating one of those long thin clown balloons: the cactus will push out new ribs and spines from the top center. As yet more new ones emerge, they push the ones at the top out and to the side. This picture shows a cactus maybe 8" tall, but this kind can grow to 18" or so.
And we're full circle to the little barrel cacti again. These guys are not in full summer like at the top, they're just emerging from Winter. The cactus in the foreground has already started to put out some flower buds (the red nibs at mid height). If they all bloom, going to be a banner year for this little guy!
