The Cream Pincushion Cactus grows from solitary stems having several thick roots, which, however, are not deeply implanted. In outline the stems are hemispherical or depressed globose and have a deep green color. There are many angular tubercles, all spirally arranged, and as many as thirteen white radial spines with brown tips. The central spines are about a half-inch long and red-brown; one is directed upward, and the other downward. The flowers are bell-shaped and are formed in a circle about the center of the head, having white margins and pink or pink-tan centers. Like Mammillaria MacDougalii, the tubercles when injured exude a thick white milky fluid.
How to grow
Plants may be grown out of doors where temperatures are not lower than twenty or twenty-five degrees below freezing; where the winter weather is colder than this, the plants should be grown in conservatories. They grow from seed in clay loam in pots with enough water to keep the soil moist, preferably with part shade. Large plants transplant quite readily if the roots are not injured. They grow well in gravelly soil or among rocks and should be watered once a month.
Sunset Cactus; Common Pincushion Cactus (Mammillaria Grahamii)
(Named in honor of Colonel J. D. Graham of the United States Corps of Topographical Engineers)
How to identify and how it grows
The Sunset Cactus, or Common Pincushion Cactus, is one of the most popular of the Pincushion Cactus species, perhaps because of its wide range from Texas to California and into old Mexico. It is quite symmetrical and small. It grows as a stem from two to ten inches tall and as much as two and one-half or three inches in diameter, in single stems or several together in a clump. They are cylindrical or globose and bear the tubercles closely set in a spiral arrangement of twenty to twenty-three rows; these tubercles are about a quarter-inch long and gray-green. There are about seventeen grouped radial spines a half-inch or so long, of a dull white with darker tips, and one or two central spines which are longer and stouter, whitish, with purple-brown or red-brown tips which are curved sharply upward. The flowers are formed in a circle near the tops of the stems and are about an inch long. The petals are rose-pink with pink or white margins, while the sepals are purple-brown with pink or white ciliate edges. The fruit is club-shaped and scarlet, about an inch long.
How to grow
These plants are not injured by temperatures of twenty or twenty-five degrees below freezing, and where the winter temperatures drop as low as zero they grow easily in warm, sunny conservatories. Plants grow readily from seed in pots or flats in moist clay loam, with part shade, and transplant easily at any season, growing well in sandy or gravelly soils with watering once or twice a month during the dry periods.