Pediocactus simpsonii

Seed

2005  I have only tried once to propagate a mountain cactus from seed and was not successful. I took what I thought were seed pods from the cactus that I had transplanted in 1987 and scattered them in a part of my rock garden. Nothing germinated. So, I have a lot more learning to do about propagating mountain ball cactus from seed.

2008  This is my large mountain ball cactus some weeks after it finished flowering. Notice the ring of what look like seed pods. The little hard capsules come right out of the plant with no resistance.

These are the dried seed pods with one split open. Unfortunately, I lost these seeds so I will have to wait another year to try propagating mountain ball cactus from seed.

Transplant

1987  When my husband and I first moved into our house, we had to move the lower part of our driveway to be within our easement. In December of 1986, we hired a contractor who made a cut into the hillside for the new part of our driveway. Later, in early spring of 1987, I was walking along the driveway and noticed two mountain ball cactus hanging at the top of the new cut. They were surely going to die there.

I dug these two small cacti out of the cut and planted one on a sunny hillside just above a big, buried rock and one closer to the house by some rocks. Both survived!

This is the cactus planted in the sunny hillside in 1987. It bloomed so I must have done something right.

2005  The cactus I planted closer to the house never did much in its initial spot. When I was creating the big rock garden, I even trampled it for a whole summer. It just sort of disappeared. But, in 2005, I noticed that it appeared again albeit very small. I dug it out and planted it in a sunny spot in my big rock garden. It's doing fine now, even bloomed in 2008.

2006  I moved two more mountain ball cactus to my big rock garden. One was very small and grew right by a deer path. The deer would probably have eaten it before it got much bigger. The other cactus was from a steep hillside where there were about 6 other cacti. Both survived the transplant. The cactus at the top of this page is the larger cactus in 2008 when it bloomed.

I noticed that buried portion of a mountain ball cactus is the same width as the top. In other words, when I dug the bigger cactus this year, the part buried was not a collection of roots but a whole cylinder-like underground stem. I wonder if this is how the mountain ball cactus stores water.

Future Plans

I would like to try growing mountain ball cactus from seed. Next year, I hope to have more time to observe my cacti after they bloom to see how the seeds develop. Then, I'll be more careful about where I put collected seeds. Rather than scatter the seed pods outside, I will germinate them in pots where I can control the amount of water and light.

Related Links

Colorado State University Extension Demonstration Garden - Mountain Ball Cactus