Spike's First Blossom... EVER!

I'm SO excited!

About 25 years ago I "inherited" a beavertail-type cactus that was left behind by the previous owners of a house we bought. We named him Spike. After all, he was covered not only with tiny fine hairs of thorns, but with great woody thorns from 1" to 3" long. Spikes, indeed!

We bought a new redwood pot for him and, with painful and painstaking effort, transplanted him to his new home. (Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!) We bought a brass plaque with his name, Spike, engraved on it and mounted it to his pot. He sat on the front porch as our guard plant with us telling folks that he wasn't aggressive, merely territorial. Get too close and he will bite.

When we moved to the east coast, Spike went to live with my mom. But, when Mom and crew got him to her place, he bit someone and got dropped in the middle of her rock and gravel front yard. And there he stayed, not just for the two years we lived on the east coast, but for some years beyond that.

When I bought my current home, Spike finally came home to live with me again. But, after all those years of living in a redwood tub, dropped from a fair height, left to the elements and ignored, he was in rather sad condition. And I didn't really have the time, energy, inclination to really pamper him and make him feel at home.

So, there's he's sat for twelve years, in far too much shade for his species (whatever it is), with a great insufficiency of soil, and probably more water than he should be getting, but since he's nearly soilless, I figure he's not drowning.

And now he's gone and rewarded me with his very first blossom in 25 years! I'm so excited!

Now to go look up *which* species of beavertail cactus he is. :-)