Noki,
How "well" glued are they? I've found some aren't all that well glued on and come off with a simple tug. You might lose a needle "set" or two, but this seems to outgrow that kind of damage easily. If it's really "good" glued on there to the point you'd rip off a hunk, I'm sorry, as I don't know how to remove that.

Planto

I asked this very question last summer. I found that with some gentle tugging with forceps, going around the circumference of the "flowers," mine just popped off. Be determined, but gentle. I was lucky that the dollop of glue came off too, but it might stay on the plant. I'd continue the same treatment, and it might just weather off.

Thanks for the tip about hot water. I'll try that with the next straw-flower decorated cactus I have.

From the little I've seen of painted succulents (photos here and plants at a BBS a year ago), the paint has a tendency to split and peel. I'm not sure if the splitting and peeling is caused by the plant growing, or if it might have to do with the properties of certain succulents' outer layers, or some combination of both.

As it happened, I was at WM earlier today buying tomato seedlings (having been unable to start my own this spring due to major time constraints). And what did I see there but -- painted succulents!

Including a lovely Haworthia zebra, which unfortunately seems to have been gold-plated.

And I bought it, because I pitied the poor thing.

Now, the inner leaves show an inch or so of green, so obviously they've been growing, but surprisingly there's no sign whatsoever of splitting or peeling paint. Also no sign that the plant likely to die or is suffering from more than the succulent version of embarrassment.

I'm afraid that's all I can add except that the tag says Rocket Succulents, Half Moon Bay, Calif. Sorry: no photo.

I suppose the painted ones will grow new green leaves, but does the paint act like sunscreen keeping the plant from getting sunlight? You can probably save that Zebra, those can put up with a lot.

Mine was a stupid purchase, it was glued on very well, had to rip it off. Got a bald spot. Got real flowers now thou. I guess that is why I got it, I thought it was so stupid that they were going to cover up the real flowers.

This post was edited by noki on Sat, Apr 12, 14 at 14:19

Noki,
I had a 'Scarlet Ball' too and pulled some seed pods off that ended up taking a hunk of flesh with them. I was devastated by the damage as it healed over white and I had these large white patches on the cactus. Needless to say, a year passed and you couldn't tell where the white bald patches were. So, the damage will be outgrown before you know it and you won't even be able to tell where it was. :)

Planto

Cheap plastics do not like bright sunlight. Pick what you can off and whatever is left will eventually be destroyed by the sun in a month or so to remove the rest.

omg I just wrote a post on this, but didn't get any feedback so eventually the easy ones I just gentely pulled off the harder one I heated up a knife and put it to the glue and it melted the glue enough to remove most of the actual glue and the fake flowers!!!- of course some where harder then others so unfortunately someone decided to glue those stupid things ontop of a cactus that grew to be very very very very spikey ontop so now he looks like a sad balding old mad because it was physically impossible to get the glue unstuck from the bunch of needles they hot glued together! I was almost in tears!! why would they do this? and better yet why is the only places around where I live that sell little cacti only have ones with those stupid things on them.

Hi,
Those straw flowers actually accomplish two things.
The first one is eye appeal to get a shopper to buy a cactus that would not normally do so.
The second purpose is to boost plant growth. When the plant is outside insects and more importantly hummingbirds visit the flower. Of course they don't stay too long because its fake.
But just the visit stimulates the cactus to grow quicker.
I leave my glued flowers on and I get some really good growth.
I'm in the process of trying to find fake flower for my cacti that don't have them.
I hope this helps.

dirt farmer,

DON'T let anyone say you're wrong.

It doesn't help when the real flowers are trying to grow but the stupid fake ones don't allow them to flourish cause the glue is on so thick and not easy to remove on some plants that it actually takes away from there natural Beauty an stuns there growth....asks when you remove the glue an flowers it rips these delicate needles out!

LOL. missingtheobvious, Oh No! Painted succulents! Well, glad you saved it. Hope it gets over it's embarrassment, soon. Agree, WHY would some seller place paper flowers over real ones?
noki, nice real flowers are definitely prettier.

I love he fact that most cactus will forgive and heal given time. Years ago, had some neighborhood dogs raid the yard and bite one of my cactus in half! I was so mad, but set it back into it's pot instead of throwing it out. Just like Planto's Scarlet, over the next year it scarred over, then grew and pushed the scar down and continued to grow until it was a reasonable shaped cactus again. I admire these plants for their resilience.
I like the growth stimulatorâ¦effect. I wonder if different colors have different growth rates. ;]