1 June 2008
Late magnifica
Posted by Stuart under: Cacti .
This plant of Mammillaria magnifica is usually in flower by now, but the gloomy weather we’ve been having seems to have held it back.
It’s one of only four large (ish) members of the genus that I grow, the others being karwinskiana ssp nejapensis, zeilmanniana, and a plant that may either be marksiana or canelensis.
This one was bought at about half the size it is now, as an impulse buy from Badger Nurseries in Studley. At that time it consisted of just the main head, without any offsets. The offsets began to show a couple of years back.
When it gets growing it really goes for it. It’s a pig to repot with those enormously long hooked spines, but I can forgive it for its statuesque appearance. The flowers are tasteful rather than loud but go really well with the colouring of the spination. It shouldn’t be long now before all the buds open, and there are quite a few of them.
