All the information and photos in cactus art file are now available also in the new the Enciclopedia of Cacti. We hope you find this new site informative and useful.

Photo and © copyright by Razvan Diaconescu (Romania ~ Targoviste)
http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/AlbumList?u=4118219
Cleistocactus winteri are the best
of all cacti for hanging baskets.

While most of its relatives tend to be more upright, this particular species has stems that have a pendant or trailing habit. The individual stems can reach 100 or so cm in length. It has very attractive golden spines and flowers are a vivid orange or salmon-pink colour and can last for several days.

Description: It is a branching cactus of fairly rapid growth that resembles a very robust version of the popular peanut cactus (Lobivia chamaecereus) it forms soon tangled mounds of long stem.
Stems: spreading, arching, pendant, or trailing that can grow up to 1m long and 2.5cm wide with many branches.
Spines: It has many short bristly golden spines  that literally cover the surface of the stems.
Flowers: upturned tubular vivid orange to salmon-pink, 4 to 6 cm in length, 5 cm across and very showy. They are repetitively and freely produced on mature plants in spring and summer and can last for several days..
Fruit: Green fruit 1 cm.

Cultural Practices: Cleistocactus winteri are of easy culture, which makes them good cacti for beginners. Require filtered bright light, but not in full sun that will sunscald it. It need a well drained soil mix. Water regularly in summer but allow to dry fully before watering again. During the winter months they should be rather kept dry. Since they are rapid growers need plenty of space for their roots, repotting should be done every other year or when the plant has outgrown its pot.
This cactus is sensitive to mealy bugs that find a lot of hiding ground among the spines. Hardy to -2°C.

Propagation: From cuttings in spring (let them dry till the ends callous well. Then replant them in fresh cactus soil that is ever so slighty moist, and keep it that way till they root) or Seeds (Seed should be sown in a well-drained soil mix. Surface sowing is the best; seeds germinate in 14-28 days at 20° C .
 

Hildewintera hybrids: Hildewimtera aureispina (now renamed Cleistocactus winterii) is an old species that has been intensively hybridized with other cacti (especially Echinopsis and Lobivia sp. but also Matucana, Akersia, ecc) giving rise to some interesting intergeneric hybrid.
Hildewintera hybrid develops really amazing flowers of different colours on the original pendulous "hildewintera" body and many of these hybrids have cultivar names. This plants form soon spectacular clumps with several flowers at a time and are quite a sight.  They are often thicker, stronger, larger growing than H. aureispina and tend not to have the typical thin stemmed offsets. The offsets produced being more strongly attached to the main stems.
 

Origin: Argentina to Uruguay

Synonyms:

• Hildewintera aureispina (F.Ritter) F.Ritter 1966
• Winteria aureispina F.Ritter 1962
• Winterocereus aureispinus (F.Ritter) Backeberg 1966
• Loxanthocereus aureispinus (F.Ritter) Buxbaum 1974
• Bozicactus aureispinus (F.Ritter) G.D.Rowley 1975
• Cleistocactus aureispinus (F.Ritter) D.R.Hunt 1987 (n.v.publ. not Fric 1928 (C. baumannii).

Etymology: Named after Hildegarda Winter (1893-1975) the sister of Friedrich Ritter prominent expert and discoverer of lot of cacti.
 

The very popular crested form

All the information and photos in cactus art file are now available also in the new the Enciclopedia of Cacti. We hope you find this new site informative and useful.