Ive had this cactus for some years, it's actually the first cactus I've owned. The anthocyanins in this species are amazing. It never grows bigger or produces pups but produces flowers from early spring to late fall. It always looks like it's about to die in the summer with its firey pink hue, but often rehydrates and fully recovers over the winter months and reverts back to a dark green. I love this cactus and can't wait to collect more in this family.

Obviously, you've made your Gymno happy or it wouldn't bloom all the time. They do grow pups but off the ribs, not up from the soil.

Nice job!

So where is the second cactus? Even if you stick with Gymnos, there's a huge variety out there just waiting for adoption.

Very pretty! However, it is extremely dehydrated.

I think the reason it never grows bigger or produces pups is that it is being grown too hard (and this particular species is not one that offsets prolifically). Plants that are grown hard will often still produce flowers, but tend to not grow very much nor have resources available to make offsets.

Here is one of mine that is probably the same species of Gymno:

It is also dehydrated, but nowhere near as badly as yours. Most of that dehydration was due to a couple of months of neglect (and no watering at all) in late spring - early summer because we had just moved to a new house and I while I moved my collection I lacked the time to take care of them like I should (I am still sorting through the victims of that). However this picture is just after I repotted this plant and it is now looking really nice and plumb, despite still showing its beautiful coloring (I will try and gate a picture tomorrow).

I do not know your watering regime, but in summer (assuming you keep it outside) when it is warm to hot and the plant sees a lot of sun, it needs to be watered pretty regularly. If you are doing that and the plant still looks like that I would see about checking out its roots.

Since the title suggests appreciation of Gymnocalyciums in general here are some others that I grow:



In the first picture below the gymnos are in the back. The one on the left is the same plant as in the first picture above, while the one next to it, is my crazy off setter that has never ever flowered:

I too have a few gymnocalyciums




Only ones that bloom, anyway...
I have 3 more, but no blooms/interesting size on them then

I tend to grow my cacti hard for fear of rot. Will water this one more than I have been. Thanks for the advice and pictures of your own.

Thanks and completely understand your caution. Obviously do not start hosing this plant down. You have kept it alive successfully so far, so you probably do not need to do too much to maybe improve its situation. During the warm/hot months, either a little more water per watering or just a slightly higher frequency of watering.

GraceHazel said:I tend to grow my cacti hard for fear of rot. Will water this one more than I have been. Thanks for the advice and pictures of your own.

I too was like you. I still am...but i quelled my fears by using mineral soil.

I had the same kind of cactus (gymnocalycium mihanovichii) I found dehydrated and pink, almost dead. Eventually it became healthy and is a plump green now and flowers white.

I know grafted cacti are super common but this one I found has partial white offsets; true albino coloring!

I got a bloom today ❤️

[Edit: Some of these Gymno's appear in a different post above, but all are different pictures.]

When we were talking about Gymnocalyciums on one of the other threads, I figured I'd try and get a picture of all the ones I have (I know all their names, but just not right now for all of them - as for a number I will to need to go down a deep dark path of many many photos ago when I added names to the info of pictures I took) and then I also remembered there was a thread that was started specifically for posting Gymnocalycium pictures so I figured, I'd find it and try and re-invigorate it.

Here my collection of Gymnocalyciums, some are among some of the earliest plants in my collection, while others are brand spanking new (having arrived last week), in order of them getting photographed:

One my blooms all summer with about one flower every 1-2 weeks (I think this is G. (sub)denudatum cv. 'San Juba'), then a big multiheaded G. monvillei, and a sunburn after my move victim (G. baldianum), which has been hiding in the depths of my shade structure. Notice that this one is still solitary, my two other G. baldianums are decidedly not solitary:


Two recent acquisitions with labels (the second one is labeled: G. stenopleurum ssp. occultum) and a couple that shall remain nameless for now:


G. anisitsii 'multiprolifera' and G. pflanzii ssp xxxx the bad sun burn victim, you can see how moving it to almost 100% shade has essentially meant it has stopped growing spines, I am going to try to bring this out into more sun over the winter, and another that shall remain nameless for now, but does the same a bloom or two thing every one or two weeks throughout the summer, more on the way:


G. saglionis, which lost almost all its roots and since then took on a somewhat unideal shape, but is slowly recovering from that (also one of my early cactus acquisitions after I moved to AZ). It actually bloomed this year after a 5 or 6 year hiatus. One of my two decidedly not solitary G. baldianums, also very floriferous, but not when it gets too hot. It did really well in the afternoon full sun. The third one in this row is a very old specimen (spegazinnii) that I picked up about 5 years ago when the local arboretum acquired a collection of a collector in CA who wanted to put his collection in a good home. They funded some of the transportation costs by selling off multiples of the same plant in the collection. It still grows, but very slowly:


One of the G. friedrichii/mihalovichii complex this does well in the sun, but not in too much sun as can be seen lower on its body. And another one. This one has remained much smaller (unfortunately the photo does not provide a good sense of scale, but the pot the second one is in is about 40% of the diameter of the hanging basket the first is in) though I got these first two about the same time. I had a few more but gave those away to people who helped with my plant move. And a pot with two recent acquisitions, the label on the plant on the right will be visible in the next picture:


As promised the second plant with the label better visible, and another recent acquisition as is the next one:


Another consistent summer bloomer, and my second multiheaded G. baldianum with flowers from earlier this year and a portrait of my five Gymno hanging basket, with another G. monvillei and G. cardensianum, showing of the diversity in size and spinage. These started out at about the same size when I got them some just grow a little bigger:


And to finish off a little overview of previously shown plants again to show off diversity in shapes and sizes, some of these will grow quite a bit, but very few will get to the size of G. monvillei or G. saglionis shown in one of the earlier pictures:


[Edit: One should not try and write a longish post after dealing with a three day migraine and associated insomnia, clearly my typing and ability to observe spelling and grammar issues suffered... Hopefully I have cleaned up the worst stuff in there given that I am still trying to catch up on sleep.]

Nice plants everyone and some stunning flowers
I only have 4 gymnos (and one is a baby ) but i will end up with more looking at some of the amazing flowers on this thread



one more tbc
Steve

The Gymnocalycium flowering season has just started here in AZ:

G. saglionis, that has had a pretty hard live, but has pulled through, basking in a lot of heat on my front porch, but little direct sun.

Figured I'd give this thread a boost, first Gymno flowers of the season. On a G. bruchii from the Huntington's ISI program:
Last week:

This week:


I have a baldianum that is working on some flower buds too.

Just aware of this thread.. Out of all cactuses, gymnos are my no. 1 favorite. I have more than 30 of them. Love the shape and color, and especially they can tolerate more sun than others. But mine can hardly flower, happy enough can enjoy their shape and color.. These are some of them...

Some more Gymnos in flower this spring:

Kaktus said: Just aware of this thread.. Out of all cactuses, gymnos are my no. 1 favorite. I have more than 30 of them. Love the shape and color, and especially they can tolerate more sun than others. But mine can hardly flower, happy enough can enjoy their shape and color.. These are some of them...

Those are my favorite! I collect the highly variegated forms.

@Kaktus
TJoe finally found a rooted orange gymno I always wanted . Not sure if the variegation is legit or chemically induced . If I had to guess I would say the later . When I pushed the seller he was defo unsure of himself 😀 we will see what happens

The gymno is so beautiful Steve @ketsui73 , I think it is a true variegation, have you check the roots? I hope it is a seed grown, not a de-grafted cactus.
I am also still looking for an orange and yellow variegated gymnos. But no rush..

Show is incoming


Steve

Try to hand pollinate them @Steve, then you can have seeds to germinate..