Echinopsis 'Flying Saucer'
Echinopsis 'Flying Saucer is a popular hybrid Echinopsis grown above all for its flowers: enormous, flat-faced, many-petalled blooms in soft shades of pink that can span most of the width of the plant. Like most modern Echinopsis hybrids it pairs an easy, forgiving nature with a spectacular seasonal display, which has made it a long-standing favourite among hobby growers.
Being a named hybrid, its care follows that of the parent genus; see Echinopsis for full cultivation details.
Description
'Flying Saucer' forms a globular to shortly columnar green body that clusters freely with age, building up a mound of offsets over time. The ribs carry closely spaced areoles with short, unobtrusive spines, so the plant itself is modest — the whole point of the cultivar is what happens when it flowers.
The blooms are the defining trait: broad, flattened and fully double, packed with numerous overlapping petals that open out into a wide, ruffled disc rather than the simple funnel of the wild species. Colour runs through shades of pink, often paler toward the centre and deeper at the petal tips. As with the genus generally, each flower is short-lived — typically opening for a day or two — but a healthy clump can throw several flushes across the warmer months.
Cultivation
Grow 'Flying Saucer' as for the parent genus (see Echinopsis). In brief, it wants bright light — good sun encourages the heavy flowering the cultivar is prized for — in a free-draining mix. Water generously during the growing season once the soil has dried, then keep the plant cool and dry through winter; this dry winter rest is the single biggest factor in producing a strong spring bloom.
The plant is vigorous and tolerant, making it a good choice for beginners. Keep an eye out for the usual pests such as mealybugs and red spider mites, and avoid leaving it wet in cold weather, which invites rot. See Repotting for potting on the expanding clumps.
Because it is a clonal hybrid, 'Flying Saucer' is maintained vegetatively — every plant grown from an offset flowers true to the named form, whereas seed from it will not come true.
Propagation
The easiest and most reliable method is to remove rooted or unrooted offsets (pups) from an established clump and pot them up; this keeps the cultivar identical to the parent. Sections can also be treated as cuttings, left to callus before potting. See those guides for technique.
See also
- Echinopsis — the parent genus overview
- Watering · Soil and potting mix · Propagation — offsets · Repotting · Pests and diseases