Echinocereus fitchii albertii     5/16/21
I have more than two dozen of plants that produce these stunning and huge flowers, more than 4" (10 cm) across. I think I may have wanted a lot because I read somewhere that this is really a type of E. reichenbachii. (I have hundreds of E. reichenbachii.) Not so. A very good observation made to me by my friend Steven Brack, the now retired founder of Mesa Garden in Belen NM, was: A species has it's characteristic growing behavior no matter what the habitat it grows in. That is, an Echinocereus engelmannii from Baja California, which hardly ever experiences frost, is as cold-hardy as the same species from Northern Arizona, which experiences annual severe frosts. (This is called "winter.") My hundreds of Echinocereus reichenbachii have survived being outside in pots for many years. The two times I tried leaving a few of these E. fitchii albertii outside for the winter, they died. They do just fine, and have for many years, spending the winter in an unheated cloche that shares a wall with my greenhouse. Incidentally, I think that the flower is not right for E. reichenbachii. Great flower in any case. I haven't yet tried crossing the two species to see what happens. Maybe next year.   (49/56)   

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