Something for the bees

The succulents are putting on quite a show at the moment. In previous years I have focused on the echeverias, but the cacti are the stand out plants at the moment.  It's not that the echeverias are under-performing, the reverse in fact, but the flowers are not really much to shout about.

The cacti on the other hand tend to go a bit over the top on their flowers. The most dramatic so far is the echinocereus melanocentrus I posted last week

While it is the stand out flower it is not the most over the top, this chamaelobivia 'milky whey' is over compensating.

Sadly not all plants have such showy flowers, mammillaria are great plants but you don't grow them for the flowers. This is mammillaria carmenae jewel

Can you spot the flowers?

They still don't stand out, with the white spines. They do come in other colours, mallillaria bombycina.

Thankfully for every dull flower there are more over the tops ones. In terms of flower for your buck, you can do a lot worse than the rubutias. They are a promiscuous lot so you find a lot of hybrids, mine all seem to be x aylostera.  rubutia x aylostera 'Krainzina'

The other buds have opened since I took that photo and there is now a ring of flowers around the plant. When the plants grow and effect is a mass of flowers, this one is rubutia x aylostera 'bo jangles'

My OH is just pleased to have something that doesn't look like a daisy flowering at the moment.