Astrophytum asterias variegata flowering. Perfect specimen. Looking for pollen!

[hostilis]

Oh yeah. Haha. Totally got them mixed up. I guess i shouldn't try to think after a day of golf and beer driking.

Edited April 30, 2015 by hostilis

[hostilis]

I have a question for anyone experienced with astro flowers. Do they like strong light when flowering or should it be more shady? It's almost like the flower on this plant burnt. I have a flower forming on another asterias and it's almost starting to look like the last one did before it died.

[Berengar]

Not sure, but last year none of my astros wanted to open their flowers on even slightly cloudy days. I'd say they need at least 4 hours of direct sunlight.

[zelly]

Do they like strong light when flowering or should it be more shady?

Most all of mine except two larger ones are inside the green house & not near any glazing & they flower just fine. Bright, indirect light does the trick for them.

Collected more A asterias pollen today if you still need some & tried my hand at crossing the asterias flower with pollen from 4 myriostigma flowers.

[AZS]

These are grown outdoors under 30% shade in phoenix so they are a little stressed but doing well.

- sorry but I did not see the need for pollen until after these closed up.(H, would be happy to send you some seeds if these set)

I crossed all the asterias with each other then hit the myriostigma with some as well.

[mutant]

Hostilis>

Like with many cacti when young but even when older, buds might be aborted because the plant could not carry it out for some reason.

IME if the flower is to be made, it will need direct sunlight or very bright spot to fully open the flower to its most beautifull and perhaps pollinateable.

But perhaps many hours of direct light might cause soil to dry up too fast not allowing the plant to support some buds.

Larger established plants seem to not have problem with this even in extreme light conditions.

Mealie bugs some times hit asterias flowers IME causing them to abort, but mealies should be visible at the tip.

[hostilis]

There are no mealies on them thankfully!! Hopefully these two flowers will open this time. I am hoping the variegated plant flowers again soon. It has almost doubled in size since the bud showed up. I'm wondering if maybe it just said, "Screw flowering, I'm just gonna grow more vegitation." or something.

[mutant]

I'm wondering if maybe it just said, "Screw flowering, I'm just gonna grow more vegitation."

that's what I usually think when it happens

[zelly]

thought ya'll might enjoy some pics of fruits that magically appeared after crossing two variegated astros...

smallish fruit on the right, flower was crossed with the asterias below

[hostilis]

This beautiful variegated asterias finally decided to open a flower up for me and it was quite the spectacle! I also had a few other non-variegates flower for me. Here are some photos.

I crossed it with the plat on the left in this photo. It should be an interesting hybrid!! I also crossed those two plants in the photo with each other. Unfortunately those flowers were done before this one opened. Otherwise I would have use pollen from the variegate to pollinate them.

[Master B]

Wow mate !!!

That flower looks so beautiful and delicate...great shots