Echinopsis candicans YELLOW flower! New release. UNROOTED plant E, 4" pot size

Description: About Echinopsis candicans Echinopsis candicans is a big, landscape style species that some put in the genus Trichocereus. I picked up my first clone years ago from the Ruth Bancroft garden in California. At the time I had no idea how good my luck was! The small plant I got there grew into a large, basally branching plant that has massive stems as thick as a football player’s legs. At first I thought the clone would be like one of my Echinopsis terscheckii—turning into a monster plant that flowers only occasionally. Instead, I was pleased to see that the stems max out at about thigh-high, that the plant was a clumper, and it flowers….oh, how it flowers…. OK…the flowers can be enormous—sometimes as big as the flowers on E. terscheckii or Echinopsis ‘Flying Saucer’. What’s also really wonderful about these flowers is that—in my cultivation—the flowers last for two to three days (instead of the usual one day for the Schick/Paramount hybrids). Second, they can be deliciously fragrant, and third (for the hybridizers out there) I’m finding this plant is interfertile with the various small Echinopsis hybrids. (Yeah, I’m hoping I can use it to magnify some of those colorful Schick hybrids, etc.) Be warned. Just as this plant has spectacular flowers, it also has impressive spines! About this selection I loved my white-flowering Echinopsis candicans so much I started looking around but the only other specimens of Echinopsis candicans I could find where the same clone...all white flowers. I saw that Mesa Garden had a few additional accessions, supposedly with other colors, so I ordered seed. This was in 2015, and Mesa had the plants listed as "Trichochereus pseudocandicans.") Of my seedlings from this batch, this was the most vigorous. And this week it flowered for the first time with beautiful enormous pale yellow flowers! Zowie! Interestingly, while the flower was lemon yellow on the day it flowered, on the second and third day the flower had changed to the slight creamy yellow you see in sale images #2 and 3. I have divided this plant and have some offsets to list. This is the first time I've offered this, and will probably be the last for several years until I have a big clump again! The sale specimen This sale is for a single, unrooted plant. The stem is in great shape, from a natural pinch point. Indeed, if I had been a bit more careful this probably would have been a rooted specimen. Oops. As it is, the stem is a hefty 18 cm (7 inches) long. You might think I might mark it down in price because it isn't rooted? Nah...I know it will root, otherwise I wouldn't list it. I'll keep it here on sale, and in a few weeks I'll lift the pot enough to see the roots, then change the details of the listing! I have a few photos of the stem, and also one of the plant in a pot so it doesn't look so forlorn. It's in an overly small 4" pot just during the rooting process. Background on these big landscape cacti These are not the dwarf plants that collectors of Schick or Johnson hybrids are familiar with. In character, these plants make stems that are usually knee to belly height. Once the first stem is established, it starts clumping from the base. And then, the flowers start to come. The flowers are usually pretty large, and on some plants they are AB-SO-LUTE-LY E-NOR-MOUS!!!!! The flowers also tend to have a receptacle that is more massive and fleshy. (Indeed, they are excellent tucker for my wife's desert tortoise, who adores them.) Some of them are pure species (like Echinopsis candicans, E. spachiana, or E. schickendantzii), which are usually white-flowered, and which used to be in the genus Trichocereus. Many are nice yellow or red-flowering plants, like Echinopsis huascha. And then, there are the hybrids. The heritages of these hybrids are not (to my knowledge) published, but I suspect they came from crossing the globular dwarf plants (like the Schick hybrids) with massive plants like Echinopsis candicans. (I'm working on testing this hypothesis by trying to repeat such crosses.) Prominent hybridizers working with these plants include Andreas Wessner and Mark Dimmitt, who have some particularly notable hybrids that have oversized flowers. These are spectacular plants. But don't think they'll fit on your shelf next to your little Schick hybrids. These will require room in order to be happy. You've been warned. Cultivation These plants are quite easy to grow, as long as you know a bit about cacti. I grow them in full sun, but they can take light shade. If you grow them in heavy shade they don't do well. I let the plants get well over 110 F (43 C) during the summer, so they can take a lot of heat! They can take winter temperatures at or slightly below freezing, but be careful. As long as they get below 40F (5C) in the winter, they flower vigorously in the spring and summer. Some of the plants can even take a cold, wet winter, but I recommend you experiment on spares before you risk anything very valuable. The plant is adapted to bright sun in central California. However, shade it lightly for a few weeks after receiving it. After about two years, in good conditions, a young plant will begin to branch, usually from the ground. (Stem branching usually only occurs in response to damage, like topping the stem.) You can keep these in place, or cut them free and root them (after drying them, etc.). I grow my plants in pure inorganic medium in 5g pots, so I fertilize lightly with each watering. But they'll grow well in any standard cactus cultivation system. Plants in my cultivation are treated with insecticides only if needed. The only insecticides I use on my landscape plants are spray-downs with isopropyl alcohol. If that doesn't work, I chuck the cactus. As such, I only grow landscape plants that are naturally very bug resistant. As such, this specimen should be considered reasonably pest-free. I will NOT sell a plant if I find mites or live mealy bugs on them. I occasionally have spine-mealies, which I control, and after they die they persist on the spines (dead) for years, so there may be a few carcasses on the plants. However, as always, suitable pest precautions should be taken in incorporating them into your collection or landscape. I do not buy plants to quickly turn them around and resell them. I know all the plants I sell---most have resulted from normal propagation of my collection plants. If you have questions about growing them, please do not hesitate to ask. I will provide a short care sheet with the plant, too. Combined shipping, and shipping in extreme conditions The plant will be shipped mostly bare root. I will not clean of all the soil from the roots, however. I think that can be a little excessively damaging. If you purchase multiple items from me, I will combine them into a single box. Invariably, eBay will overcharge you for shipping, but when I determine the shipping charges I will refund you ALL the overcharges. If you are local and pick up plants at my house, I’ll refund all shipping charges. Please ensure that your shipping address will not expose the boxed plant to extreme conditions. Mailboxes in full sun can become dangerously hot, and I will ship to cold climates at your risk. During winter months, I can include an optional 72 hour heating pad—see my separate eBay listing for that. I work to fulfill orders as soon as I can. If you want me to hold off on shipping, I will, but note that once you pay I must ship within 3 days, otherwise eBay gets mad at me. If you want me to wait longer than that, message me first so we can work out appropriate arrangements. Unhappy? If there are problems with the plant when it arrives, please discuss it with me so I can make things right with you (instead of giving my eBay account a bad review).

Price: 45 USD

Location: Woodland, California

End Time: 2024-11-25T23:00:01.000Z

Shipping Cost: N/A USD