Cactus flowers bloom once a year

My sister and I have had a barrel cactus for almost 20 years. Two years ago, it had a flower for the first time, the bloom coming as a surprise one day when I happened to go out on our little patio. A year later we moved to a house and had to experiment to find the best location for the cactus.

Its skin turned red, probably from too much sun as all the rain we got made sure it got plenty of water. This time, the cactus surprised us with two flowers. A quick search of the internet yielded this information:

Flowers appear at the top of a barrel cactus only after many years; some don't bloom until they are more than 30 years old. The barrel cactus can live to be over 100 years old.

Barrel cacti bloom during the spring and summer, typically between April and September, no surprise there.

I also found out that, typically, cacti plants bloom at least once a year, although wetter years may lead to more flowering periods. With all the rain we've gotten, I will be keeping an eye out for more flowers.

Anyone who would like to share what is going on in their own garden, can send a short write-up and photo(s) to [email protected].