If you've read some of my earliest posts, you'll know by now how important the flowering of a cactus is for it's owner. Since the very moment when you see the tiny new growth that looks kinda suspicious and up to the final realization it is, indeed, a gorgeous flower on it's way... All throughout that initial excitement and the culminating blooming, you sort of "root" for those amazing developments of nature.
Every day is a constant check-in of their status, wondering if they'll continue to the end or if maybe some of them will never reach their final destination and perish sooner than they should. This time one of my most productive cactus managed to pull SIX flowers at the same time. They started growing fast and strong, every day they got bigger in size and man... it is an amazing thing to see.
Now the sad part comes in... The last weeks we've been having frequent rains. Which in part is nice, due to the high temperatures. My cactus got well hydrated and nothing better than rain water for them. But last few days it got quite excessive. Up to the point of even butchering one of my babies. You see... it rained, then the sun came up, and then rained again, and then the sun comes back and so forth... Lots and lots of humidity which is a delight for fungi to spread. And so one of my cactus got infected... I was able to save most of it but still it sucks to go through the process of cutting and waiting to see if the infection hasn't already spread way too much...
I don't know the ID of the tiny fella... All I know is that I had to remove some rotten pieces, check for any more signs of putrefaction, spread with a systemic fungicide and then put some cinnamon over (which helps healing of the roots and acts as an anti-fungi).
Anyways... back to the damn rains. Last night was the gala. The opening. The majestic display of flowers. During the afternoon they were getting all pink on their ends, just hours before blooming... And then the sky decided it was time for another rainy night..
Here below is a picture of how a flower from this cactus actually looks like when it can fulfill it's destiny lol
Petals wide open, chin up and facing towards the sky. A true beauty. If that picture looks amazing, just think how gorgeous it would be if there were FOUR more flowers on! That was what I was looking anxiously forward too... But this is what happened...
I know... it has it's beauty still. But they all look so "sad" and down. Not fully open. Not a blasting display of power... Just there, sitting like saying "Hey... we don't like it when it rain WTF MAN"
Not to mention that other plants in my collection were located right below the ceiling gutter, and they got like beams of raging water. Almost like getting punched in the face by a million of water droplets. F***ing H2O army.
Don't get me wrong... I FRIGGIN LOVE RAINY DAYS. They are my favorites, but man... Did it have to rain JUST EXACTLY at the blooming moment...
But oh well... There's nothing much one can do about it. Let's just hope that next time it find me more prepared (I sent for some shelves to be made, with sort of a gadget to protect my plants from this exact situation: undesired rains).
Stay safe people, bye!
