I. Trichocereus thelegonus x Pseudolobivia kermesina
This hybrid can occur in two different types which are both characterized by beautiful blossoms. The female parent is Trichocereus thelegonus, a type with characteristic, large white blossoms of the night-blooming Trichocereae. Once the plant is adult, approximately with a height of 2 m, and when the plant is set into the ground in a green house and does not suffer from malnutrition, it develops dozens of buds in the upper part during the spring time, more than it is able to feed and to develop to full blossoms. Similar as with Phyllo sprouts which grow too profusedly, the buds partly dry out and fall off. But 6 to 10 blossoms are often being developed at the same time and create a big, white bouquet. In a pot culture, with smaller, half meter high plants only single blossoms are to be expected. The picture of a plant which opens 8 blossoms at the same time, can be seen in “Monatsschrift der DKG“ (Monthly publication of DKG) 3, p. 178, 1931. The male parent of the hybrid is Pseudolobivia kermesina.
When this type was described by KRAINZ in the "Beiträge zur Sukkulentenkunde und -pflege", (“Contributions to the Botany and Care of Succulents“) 1942, p. 61-64, it was an event for all friends of cacti. The type is very similar to Echinopsis and it was believed that an Echinopsis with genuinely red blossom colour had eventually been found. Since this type is easily bred from seeds, it is nowadays rather famous and widespread. The blossoms appear easily and on larger plants there are numerous blossoms, the colour is crimson. The blossoms, however, have a disadvantage in the opinion of many cactus lovers: They do not open as wide as we would like to see it, not as far as the large flowery Echinopsis, whose largest blossom leaves are often sticking out almost horizontally to the blossom axis, while the external blossom leaves can even be elegantly folded backwards.
The hybrid is growing as a column-like manner in a similar way to the female parent plant. The stalk diameter is about 50% greater than that of the female parent plant. The prickles look like those of T. thelegonus. The hybrid has inherited from P. kermesina the ability to
Echinopsis Echinopsen,bloom very early. The form of the blossom can be seen in the picture, the blossom colour is the same as that of the male parent plant: crimson. Last summer, as an experiment, I placed 3 plants in the green house, 3 on a cold frame and in 3 a garden. They grew and bloomed at each one of these locations. As I expected, the plants in the cold frame grew best and developed the most perfect blossoms.

Trichocereus thelegonus x Pseudolobivia kermesina,
Approx. a third of the natural size.
Photo R. Gräser
II. Aporocactus f1agelliformis x Trichocereus candicans.
At first glance, it may seem to be a Misalliance from which one cannot expect anything good. The parent plants are well known. The female parent is Aporocactus flagelliformis, the well known snake or whip cactus with weak, often with branches that hang down, unspectacular prickles and very deep red blossoms. The male parent is the strong, upright-growing Trichocereus candicans with strong prickles and large white blossoms. In the March edition of the magazine (KuaS) the type was discussed and shown with blossom. What the hybrid would look like with such unequal parents was hard to predict. It is now, unexpectedly, so similar to the male parent plant that – for anyone who does not know where it comes from – it appears as some form of the varying T. candicans. Strange to say, the diameter of the column-like body of the hybrid is even wider than that one of the male parent plant. The Trichocereus candicans, used for breeding, has a maximum diameter of 12 cm, the hybrid can reach up to 15 cm. The prickles are just as strong but thicker than those of
candidans, only the particularly long prickles in the middle of the male parent plant are a bit shorter than those of the hybrid. The blossom, which was, of course, anticipated with particular interest, looks similar to the form of the T. candidans, but reaches only 13 to 15 cm in diameter. The colour is a beautiful, hard to describe red. In the colour atlas of the English Gardening Society, the colour is described as “Delft pink”. The largest blossom leaves are, as the displayed single blossom shows, slightly wavy and marked by small stripes of darker red at the rim. The filaments are also different from those of the T. candidans blossom, being that they are red. The anthers are partly missing. Where they exist, they do not have any pollen. On the other hand, the ovary contains fertilizable ovules, which create germinable seeds, as a pollination with pollen of other types of Trichocereus showed.
Since this hybrid is something unusual, I want to report about its creation and breeding in more detail.

Aporocactus flagelliformis x Trichocereus candicans, approx. a third of the natural size. Photo R. Gräser
Numerous hybrids of Aporocactus flagelliformis have become famous; that the cross-breeding with a Trichocereus would be successful, I did not myself expect at the beginning. Repeatedly, I had removed the pollen leaves of the blossoms of Aporocactus flagelliformis before they bloomed, and then I wrapped the blossoms in cellophane to protect them against unwanted pollination and treated the mature scar later with pollen of T. candicans or of T. schickendantzii. The fruits of A. flagelliformis need one year to mature. Normally, I got only puny fruits with underdeveloped, light brown seeds, which have proven not to be germinable. So far, I have only been once successful so far. After a pollination, with T. candidans pollen at end of April, I got a well built fruit, which I was able to take off during Christmas, not of the same but of the following year. The fruit contained a small number of healthy, black seeds which proved to be germinable.
My curiosity was enormous, of course. Already one week later, exactly on New Year’s Eve, I sowed some grains and left them at 20° C. After 3 weeks, the seeds started to germinate. The seedlings looked like genuine A. flagelliformis seedlings, with small germination leaves and a relatively long and very thin piece of stalk between root and seed leaves. I had already performed, some time ago seedling grafts with A. flagelliformis on Phyllo hybrids, and so I tried the same thing now with these seedlings. A rather large Phyllo shoot, which has been rooted already in the fall, now started now to produce sprouts. I grafted 6 seedlings onto it, one by one. The grafting did not cause difficulties, even with the seedling with such long and thin,
Hypokotyl
as long as the seedlings are cut right below the germination leaves and then the lower long and thin piece of stalk will be rejected. Only a few millimeters of the tips of the Phyllus sprouts were cut away, the little seedlings have been placed on top with a piece of glass, which was held, at the same time, set on an added label. The connation
followed immediately within days and soon the grafts started to grow.

Grafts of different ages on Phyllocactus hybrid, approx. a third
of the natural size.
Photo R.
Gräser
Take a calm look at the previous photo by Robert Gräser. How many seedlings are grafted on the Phyllocactus base? Exactly the six seedlings which Robert Gräser raised on his legendary cross-breeding of the century
This photo demonstrates in an impressive way the great garden knowledge and the abilities of Robert Gräser. At the time of this photo, or more accurately, at the time of the grafting, Robert Gräser was already more than 60 years old!

Single blossom, approx. half natural size. Photo R. Gräser
Then, the first surprise arrived. Between the germination leaves, globular objects broke out which soon developed strong, yellow prickles. The grafts could be seen easily as little Echinocactus grusonii. On the Phyllo base the seedlings could not remain for a long time. In the spring they were re-grafted. The largest graft was put on an Opuntia senilis, on a particularly strong, well rooted shoot. As is The typical of this type, grafting is made unpleasant by the numerous, very pointed prickles with barbed hooks; however, this type also has an advantage in my opinion. The minimum temperature is lower than for other bases that may be possible for use; this means that this type starts to grow during Spring at temperatures at which, e.g. Opuntia ficus indica does not yet show any life. I supposed, that the graft would also draw some advantages. At least, particularly the grafting on Opuntia senilis in particular developed extraordingly well, much better than the graft on other Opuntia, or Cerees, as well as on an already bloomable T. candidans. The consequence of this was, that the graft has then also bloomed first. In the late summer of the third year, the first blossom appeared to my surprise, and by the following spring it already had three blossoms. Since then, the graft had been taken from the base and is expected now to grow on a genuine root and offer an asthetically pleasing appearance.
But why the roundabout way of grafting seedlings and then the grafting on to the Opuntia, if the plant is later to be bred anyway on its own root? Why not immediately on its own roots? The answer is shown in the contribution about Trichocereus candicans in the March edition (KuaS), where the author reports, that the displayed plant was producing the first blossom after 20 years. A 60 year old cactus lover who is still occupied with cross-breeding and sowing of Trichoreceea, would have, if he wanted to breed the plant from its own roots, not much chance to see the blossom and be enjoy it.
This Robert Gräser article 'Zwei schöne Hybriden', was published in
'KuaS'
1957(9).
Printout of this article with kind permission of the editorial office of KuaS.
See also the article from Eckhard Meier about this legendary Robert Gräser cross,
" ´Gräsers Vermächtnis´, a hybrid of an extraodinary parentage. "

´Eine schönblühende Hybride´
made by ´Horsti´, Horst Osterwald.
