Clouds

It's been rainy and cloudy almost all summer so far. It's like we're being punished for having had such a mild winter. I'm aware weather doesn't work that way, but it's making my favorite season less fun so I'm complaining about it. Where I live it starts to get  cold in September, frigid by January, and only starts to get tolerable to be outside again by late April. That's about 6 months of cool to soul-crushingly cold weather. Compounded by the angle of the sun, it's also dark and gray a lot of the time.

Credit: Queenieacoustic from Wikipedia

So far, the majority of cactus blooms haven't opened up all the way because, of course, they opened on a cloudy day. Then it was cloudy for the next two days too. This is Parodia mammulosa with four buds. I was really excited about this one for no other reason than they are huge compared to the plant.

P. mammulosa

This is as far as the buds would open. We didn't get a sunny day before the flowers died, so that was the end of it. It's not putting out any more buds (yet?) so that might be it for the year.

Then there was Gymnocalycium baldianum.

G. baldianum buds

The flowers of G. baldianum are a dark red. Not only were they not, they weren't able to open all the way either. It's working on some more, so we'll see what the rest of the summer brings.

Close enough

Maybe July and August will be better for the rest of the cacti flowers and better for being outside, in the sun, like summer is supposed to be about.