Cacti did not bloom - an experienced cactus grower taught me how to get the long-awaited flowering of these peculiar plants

In flower shops, I always could not pass by blooming cacti. I dreamed that one day there would be pots with these exotic handsome men on my windowsill.

My husband noticed my looks at the windows with cacti and gave several pieces at once for the next birthday. Among them are Astrophytum, Mammilaria, Rebutia, Cereus.

But after a year and a half of flowering, I could not wait from them in any way. I decided to contact a cactus grower to tell me what I was doing wrong.

They, of course, have different flowering times and periods, but there are some general rules.

And it turned out that the biggest mistake in my leaving - watering cacti in winter. This period is their hibernation and they do not need watering. But I was sorry to look at the dry soil and from time to time I still water it. Now I don’t do that.

The case when you can slightly moisten the soil is cracking. In winter, cacti begin to lay buds, and this happens as much as one and a half or a month before flowering.

During hibernation, these exotic plants love coolness. Therefore, you need to remove them away from batteries, the sun. In autumn, let them stand on the glassed-in balcony.

With the first frosts, you can make a kind of greenhouse for them on the balcony and leave it in it. And only when it gets completely cold will real frosts come closer, it will be necessary to bring the cacti into the room, so as not to freeze.

That is, it is important to create such conditions in winter so that the cactus goes into hibernation. If this does not happen, he will not be able to bloom later.

But in the spring you need to slowly start to "wake up" the cacti, pouring warm water. Now you need to put it in the sun on the southern windowsill, increase the ambient temperature.

If buds appeared on a cactus and children at the same time with them, some inexperienced housewives, like me, they think that it is necessary to help the plant, to tear off the children, so that it spends its strength exclusively on flowering. But this is a misconception.

Since the normal course of "life" in a cactus in this case is disrupted, and he drops the buds.

During the appearance of buds, you cannot rearrange the pot to another place, it is better not to touch it at all and not turn it in the other direction.

It is necessary to take into account the age of the cacti. Babies are not yet capable of flowering and, on the other hand, very old ones are also unlikely to bloom. Flowering most often begins at the age of 3-4 years.

The size of the pot in which the cactus grows also plays an important role. It doesn't have to be big.

In fact, caring for cacti was not at all difficult, you just need to consider what they love and what they don't. I managed. This year they finally bloomed. And that's all!