This plant was already in the greenhouse when I started my (now-former) job in August 2007. I think it's a Cereus peruvianus, though it doesn't look exactly like my plants at home so I've gone back and forth on that. Obviously it got cut back at some point before we met, but I don't know when or how that happened.
So for the year and a half I was working there, I kept waiting for it to do something, to sprout some new growing tips and grow again, but it never did. So then maybe a month ago, I go back to visit and see it doing this:.jpg)
My first thought was that maybe it was resprouting, like they're supposed to when you cut them back, which is what I'd been expecting it to do all along, so I was kind of mad at the plant for waiting until I was gone and denying me the satisfaction. But upon closer inspection of the photo, I think it's actually getting ready to flower.
Can anybody confirm whether those are flower buds or stem buds? (Picture is clearer/larger if opened in a separate window.) If flower buds, then what, exactly, is it going to take for this plant to create a new growing tip? Was I wrong to expect it to? Can these not be cut back? What is going on here?
Monday, October 5, 2009
Random plant event: Cereus peruvianus buds of some kind
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
3 comments:
those definitely look like flower buds to me...
I've always found that most cactus, but these big guys in particular, need to be outside in natural sunlight to grow better. The one grower that I know of who does well with cacti inside and/or under artificial light suppliments them with UV lamps.
Any new growth on these generally begins in the spring, (as a general rule, but they seem to have minds of their own and tend to do what they want when they want...) They usually start blooming mid summer and put out several flushes throughout the fall... mine just finished a flush and has some more buds forming now... probably the last before it begins going dormant. That's general stuff, but I hope it helps.
And I forgot... you can definitely cut these back for new growth. They tend to put up a branch or two just below the cut and a branch or two from the base... the ones on the base almost always show up on the south side of the plant, where they get the strongest light... but again, these are general rules and not hard and fast...
I firmly believe those are flower buds, but that is where my knowledge stops for this cactus!
Post a Comment