A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The House Plant Forum Cacti and Succulents Indoors What type cactus is this and blooming question?

I have had this cactus for over 25 years. It has been repotted once in that time. Also during that time it has only bloomed once. What kind is it and what must I do to get it to bloom again?
Thanks for help.
[img]IMG]http://i297.photobucket.com/albums/mm208/haggis_011/DSCF0001.jpg[/img][/img] [img][IMG]http://i297.photobucket.com/albums/mm208/haggis_011/DSCF0001.jpg[/img][/img]

I'm trying to get it to show up. New at this. Have it on photobucket and tried to copy the IMG code

the picture didn't come through.

wow 25 Yaars!! IT looks familiar,, give it a couple of days someone will have an answer for you,, some catcus require a " dark resting period in order to bloom,, do you keep it in the same place all year??? Do you recall anything different you might have down the year it did bloom???

ok, the picture is through now, and it looks like the cattail cactus my grandmother has. does the pieces get long and flexible?

also, can you resize the picture? you can do it in photobucket without having to edit your post. we limit the size to 640x480. thanks!

oh, and the pieces of gramma's are about as big around as my little finger when it is happiest. thinner if i don't take care of it right (i have some of it)

What a healthy looking cactus - beautiful!!!

This is the closest I could find for yours,, IT is in this family , I believe if yours was in ground it would meet it's growth potential as listed here,,,
Because you never said what color bloom yours did have once I"m not sure this is correct, I do think we're on the right track with the family tho,
When you click on this link. you'll have to scroll up to the top,,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echinopsis#Species :wink:

This is Haggis. I resized the picture to the 640X480. Sorry for the oversite. I am new at this. Will remember in the future.

When this cactus bloomed one time. It was covered with very tiny pink flowers.

thank you! it is a beautiful plant.

Ohhhhhhhhh Great,, thanks for answering that question,, it may help in id'ing it!.// I've seen lots that are similar to yours I don't know if yours isn't bigger( longer in length) because it's in a pot or not,, But we have a member here that is well versed in cactus,, I was hoping she'd pop in,, in the mean time I'll keep looking for ya!

I went through my archived pictures and located a picture of the only time it bloomed

very nice

it's definitely from the mammillaria elongata varitety,,

Family: Cactaceae
Genus: Mammillaria
Species: elongata
Common Name: Pink Nymph
Blooms spring (sometimes winter)
zone 9
the pink nymph tho has more of a silvery spines tho as yours look to be more golden'/copper http://www.mammillarias.net/gallery/EF/0578_63a
http://www.mammillarias.net/gallery/EF/elongata_015
the cactus on the right in this picture is the pink nymph, the only picture I cold find of it,,
http://www.mammillarias.net/gallery/EF/mammillaria_elongata_01



it could be the pink nymph or lady finger - lady finger has yellow to pink blooms,,

well one thing I know for sure is that it is,,, a Mammillaria
I hope this has helped!! :wink: I lighten your picture for you ,,you can right click and save it,,

It looks like a rat tail cactus if it is treat it like a chrismas cactus to get it to bloom it should bloom at least 4 times a year.