Nature Diary... Flowering in the summer

 Rebutia Muscula

I love this little cactus which asks so little yet gives so much. I’ve had it for many years and for quite some time it remained forgotten in my garden and yet it survived. When I recovered it, it was a poor little thing but I brought it indoors, cleaned the mud etc off it, re-potted it, and kept it in the porch where it’s sheltered and in the sun on a south facing window ledge. It’s watered occasionally and re-potted only when it seems to be too cramped in the existing pot. Left to its own devises otherwise, it just gets steadily a little bit bigger and every summer it produces these beautiful bright orange flowers. These are just the start of this year’s blooms as this robust little plant is producing new buds almost daily.