It's fall again

As a grower and collector of cacti, my two favorite times of the year are springtime (April to May) and fall (late August to early November). These periods see the most abundant production of flowers from a whole slew of cactus genera and species.

While we really don’t have a fall season in our mid-equatorial tropical country, technically we are still part of the northern hemisphere, and our “fall” corresponds to a general lowering of temperatures and lengthening of night versus daylight hours. Even though our temperatures don’t get anywhere as cool as that in the temperate countries, our plants know the difference and behave accordingly after a period of adjustment to our climate. They flower over here as well as thousands of miles north of us as if on some magical cue. I must say Mother Nature never ceases to amaze me.

The burst of flowering in the fall is triggered by the shorter day length and also cooling temperatures (just as in the spring, it’s the other way around, with the increasing day length and warmer temperatures triggering the outburst). Certain species will flower at both of these junctures, particularly Mammillarias and Astrophytums. Others continue to flower off and on beginning in spring through the summer and ending in the fall, while others only flower either in spring or fall.    

I have to admit that I prefer the fall flowering season over that of spring’s for one simple reason: my favorite cactus group is the Ariocarpus, those living rocks of the succulent world, because many of them mimic rocks in their natural settings (some, like certain Ariocarpus fissuratus, are almost as hard as rock at certain times of the year that stepping on them will cause little to no damage … of course, I’m not about to try that experiment on my wards!).

Ariocarpus species only flower in this fall period, starting around August and lasting through December/January at times. When you see an Ariocarpus in full bloom, you should be amazed (I use the word “should” here because quite a few non-succulent fanciers just “don’t get it.” I can’t blame them, though … when some of them start raving about their antique beer-bottle collection or their valuable spoon cache, I must say I find myself blankly nodding at them, too, but oftentimes missing the point entirely.

Fall is indeed a very special time for Ariocarpus and Ariocarpus lovers. But many other genera will be flowering at this time. Parodias, Gymnocalyciums, Mammillarias, Turbinicarpus, Astrophytums and many, many more will gladly oblige given the right growing conditions during the year. And it’s always heartening when these plants are in flower, because flowering is one of the key signs of a healthy plant. And if you have the right growing conditions, your cacti and succulents will never cease to please and amaze you with their fantastic blooms.

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E-mail the author at succulentophile@yahoo.com.