If you go to the gardening department at Home Depot or Lowe’s or visit your nearby gardening store, you may stumble on some cacti that are having flowers on top of them.
At first, you may think, what a nice plant with a beautiful flower blossom on its top. However, when you take a closer look, you found out that they are actually not the real ones, instead, they are just fake flowers that have been adhered to the cactus with hot glue. They are fake flowers that cactus farmers glue on them.
How do you feel when you figure out the flowers are not real? And why do they want to do this? Well, they try to glue some good-looking flowers so that people will find them to look more attractive. This trick sure has been proven to them that it will increase sales.
Many people buy those cacti with flowers because they think they are real. However, this is just a trick played by the plant sellers. It can be quite deceiving, in my opinion.
I always think the natural cacti without fake flowers are much nicer. I can’t understand why they want to glue stuff to the cactus. I found some gardening stores even spray paint on the plant. I feel so sick about it.
Generally, farmers will use strawflowers or dye flowers and apply hot glue to the flower to adhere to the cactus’s spine. For me, these types of flowers are just artificial cactus flowers and cannot be considered flowers.
Are Cactus Not Able To Flower?
So, you may think: is it that all cactus don’t flower, and they need to adhere to the fake flowers to make the cactus look more attractive? Well, not really. Actually, all cacti are flowering plants. Depending on the species, some will bloom faster than others.
However, even cactus can bloom, but it is not an easy thing to make them bloom. Usually, people have to take care of the cactus for at least 2 or 3 years, and the blooming depends on the cactus species. Species like Parodia, Mammillaria, and Gymnocalycium will flower quite fast and easily. Some people may even not see any flower bloom on their cacti after 5 years,
So, if you want a cactus to bloom, it’s best to grow the cactus on the balcony or close to the windowsill to allow it to absorb the sunlight effectively. By doing so, it will not take long for the cactus to bloom miraculously.
All you need to do is you must learn to take good care of your cactus patiently. Don’t give too much water to the cactus, or it will die due to overwatering. And for sure, you won’t see it flowering at all.
But for most cacti, the flowering life span is concise. Some of the flowers on the cacti may open for a few days, and some may even open for a few hours and then fade away.
Therefore, to keep the flower blossoming for a long period of time, the farmers have come out with the idea of applying hot glue to the cactus plant. But they didn’t realize that they have done damage to the plant when they are doing this. Because when they apply hot glue to the cactus, their skin may have gotten burnt by the hot glue.
Identifying Fake Flower on Cactus is not hard at all
After all, it is straightforward for anyone to identify whether a cactus flower is real or fake. They can check on the spine to determine whether there is a hot glue between the plant and the flower. If you found hot glue, then you can be 100% sure the flower is fake.
Other than using hot glue, some farmers may use other methods to adhere the flower to the cactus. I once found out at a gardening store that they have pinned the flowers through the whole tiny body of the cactus—poor cactus for getting pinned on the body like this. But the good news is it is easier for you to remove the pin from the plant compared to those that adhere with hot glue.
Don’t Make a Mistake By Identifying a Real Flower to be a Fake One.
As I have shared with you how to identify fake flowers on cactus, you should have some ideas on observing by yourself.
The most important thing is not to treat the real flowers as fake ones. It will be a mishap if you pull them off your plant. But you shouldn’t worry too much even if you make a mistake. You will have the cactus flower again next time as long as you take good care of your cactus. It will reward you for your hard work.
How to Remove Fake Flower From Cactus
If you have cactus in your house and you never check out the flower to see whether they are real or fake, then you better do now. If you found out the flower is fake, you can save your plant by ripping the fake flower off the plant in time.
Do bear in mind that even if you managed to save the cactus, it may leave a permanent scar on the surface.
How to Do So?
There are a few methods you can use to remove the fake flowers from the cactus.
Remove By Hand
At first, you can try moving the fake flowers gently and slowly to see how the glue is on the cactus. If you found the glue is rather loose, you can use your hand to move the flower back and forth a couple of times.
Remember not to move too fast as it may damage the spine. Just move at a slow pace, and you will be able to keep the damage of the cactus to a minimum.
For me, I think of the flowers are hideous looking that stick to my cactus. If I figure out the hot glue attached to the plant is not too hard, I will pull the flower off. This will not do any damage to my plant.
Use a Hair Dryer
If you found the hot glue is adhering to the spine of the cactus, then you can try to get a hairdryer to blow hot air on the cactus. Sometimes this will work if the glue is not hard on the plant. However, if it is too adhesive, even using the hairdryer will not rip off the flower.
And remember not to blow too long. Because if you blow on the plant for a long hour, you might damage the plant because the cactus cannot withstand 100 degrees of hot air direct blowing on it for a long time.
Using Scissors and Brush
If there is no way for you to remove the fake flowers because the hot glue is adhering very hard to the plant, you will need scissors to cut them off. Then use the brush to clean the spine surface.
You need to cut them very gently and carefully. You may lose some spine, but you won’t do terrible damage to the plant. Nevertheless, it is worth your effort as the cactus will look more beautiful without the fake flower on the top.
Leave It As It Is
If you have a tricky cactus and wonder how to get rid of the fake flowers where the glue is really stuck to the skin, you may leave the glue. They will eventually go down with the growth of the cactus in 1 or 2 seasons without the need for you to do anything.
But you will need to tolerate the fake flowers for some time when they are still staying on top of your cactus.
Of course, some people are caring less about fake flowers. What they think is as long as the overall cactus that they have offers them a lovely look, then they are okay with it. It doesn’t matter whether the flower is real or fake. They would say even though these cacti are fake, they still look very beautiful.
However, I need to remind you to take some concern for the health of the cactus. To attach the fake flower to the cactus, most people will use hot glue. The hot glue will do damage to the plant. And some people even use a stapler to pin the flower on the cactus which will also damage the plant.
After all, I think we can’t blame everything on the farmers. Sometimes it is not the farmers that carry out this trick. Rather, the plant sellers apply hot glue on the cactus when they receive the plants from the farmers.
No matter what, this is just not right for me. We should appreciate nature. Cactus take a long time to grow, and we should just let them grow the natural way.
Did you find this post useful? Would you like to get back to it later? Save THIS PIN below to your succulent and cactus boards on Pinterest! Thanks 🙂
