Recent Activity - Plant Opinions

Great annul to add bright vibrant color to your full sun beds.

Voice of experience - While they can be transplanted they do not take well to moving as other plants do. Good idea to be sure where you want to plant them before doing so.

I am in Z8 and I add this plant to my Water Oak Tree bed where it is in full shade. The plant just thrives there. I also have a coconut lined hanging basket on a Sheppard's hook off my patio where it gets partial shade from a crepe myrtle tree. This basket requires watering twice a day in July and August, but it is just a stunning plant and worth the effort. If I miss a day the plant looks dead but within a few hours of being watered it pops right back up. My supplier carries 3 colors but I tend to stay with the red blooms.

It is pretty if not forgotten about, but in my experience it needs to be dusted regularly.

This is a very hardy plant. We have a number of areas throughout our beds and they all came from a few plants we discovered when we cleared out an overgrown weed bed that was there when we moved in. It was the only surviving non-weed in the bed. It takes to transplanting very well, spreads out easily and will continue to bloom as long as you keep deadheading.

Can be brought inside in Zone 8 or colder and treated as a houseplant for winter.

USA - near San Rafael Swell, Emery County, Utah. The plant SB1014 in the photos is from the type locality.
Listed in CITES Appendix 1
accepted name : Pediocactus bradyi ssp.despainii
In habitat, this sp. has only two localities with a total of about 6000 plants, it is endemic to Emery county in central Utah, at altitudes 1450-2080 m.
Encounterability in collections: Extremely rare
Cultivation tips from the Cactus Art Nursery, Italy :
rot prone and difficult to grow on it's own roots in cultivation, better and easier if grafted. It needs regular water in late winter, early spring (the short main growing season), and also in Autumn, when flower buds are produced and it starts growing again.
The flowers buds stay dormant on the plant apex all winter. They will then open in spring when the temperature rises. To avoid any damage to the buds, don't let grafted plants that stay in the heated greenhouse completely dry out. Some light watering in winter is useful for keeping the flower hydrated and healthy.

USA - Texas.
synonymes: Ancistrocactus scheeri, Echinocactus scheeri, Ferocactus scheeri, Pediocactus scheeri, Ancistrocactus megarhizus.
Globose to cylindrical short stems
Encounterability: Extremely rare in collections
Water in spring and autumn only. Avoid overwatering, has big taproot that rots easily.
This sp. is frequently encountered under the name of Ancistrocactus.