I got this one about a year and a half ago and already on the very first year it bloomed for me. Since then it grew so much! Yes, it is still a rather small cactus and it will stay small, but considering that I had to throw away a lot of the largest heads due to rot and split it to few smaller pots after that - it did amazing!
All the little pots are blooming this year and what you see here is the largest one.
Mammillaria prolifera
This specie is growing natively in Mexico the USA (Texas), Cuba, Dominican Republic and Haiti. It is an easy to grow plant in regular come conditions on the window sill as long as enough sunlight is provided. Being easily accessible in regular shops and supermarkets (I got mine in Lidl and it was quite a big plant already) makes it one of the more common cacti.
The plant likes a lot of sun! The thick spines protect the plant from sunburn. The spines can even change the colour a little bit and will grow stronger. As long as it gets sun, not too much water, some fertilizer in the growing season it will be happy.
Propagation is also super easy with this one as it produced multiple little offshoots each year. With time they will grow their own roots and when repoted they can be split.
I did manage to grow a few of those from the seed as well. Even showed one not so long ago HERE. They are slightly different (the flowers are not stripy) and I have another little one also grown from seed that is more green and the spines are very yellow. Didn't bloom for me yet though.
The flowers are not super big but I find the adorable. Little petals with stripes that will show continuously for many week. This one is blooming for well over a month already and doesn't look like it is planning to stop anytime soon. After the flowers little red berries will show up filled up with very tiny, black seeds. Just for the look of the red fruits sticking out from the plant it is worth keeping it.
As I mentioned this is the biggest one of the 3 or 4 that I have (saved from the rotted big plant I got). The photo below is from almost exactly a year ago. It fits nicely in the small 5 cm pot.
May 2019
In the beginning of the year I was repoting most cacti and so this got a bigger pot too. Now it grows in a 9 cm pot and it is slowly starting to touch the sides! Of course it is nice to see it grow so fast, but I was hoping the pot will last at least 2 years! Often repoting is not good for my fingers. And even though the spines look cute and gentle, they are mean!
April 2020
And this is how I bought it. Beautiful looking plant. But I only managed to save a few smaller ones. It is growing now it the very same size pot (photo above and below). I am almost sure by next spring I will get it to this size again.
November 2018
My other blooming cacti:
 Chamaecereus hybrid |  Sulcorebutia Canigueralii |  Mammillaria camptotricha |  Mammillaria Glassii |
 Gymnocalycium baldianum |  Mediolobivia mudanensis |  Lobivia Arachnacantha |  Rebutia hybrid |
 Mammillaria Bombycina |  Mammillaria Gracilis Snowcap |  Mammillaria haageana |  Mammillaria backebergiana |
 Chamaecereus silvestrii |  Mammillaria prolifera |  Rebutia Fabrisii var. Aureiflora |  Lobivia Wrightiana |
 Aylostera Flavistyla FR756 |  Parodia concinna |  Mammillaria Copper King |  Gymnocalycium Brushii |
 Mammillaria backebergiana |  Gymnocalycium damsii |  Echinopsis subdenudata |  Rhipsalis pilocarpa |
 Mammillaria Prolifera |  Lobivia arachnacantha v. vallegrandensis |  Mediolobivia atrovirens |  Mammillaria magnimamma |
 Sulcorebutia langerii |
Shot with Nikon D5500 + Sigma 105mm lens
All photos and text are my own.
