I looked up Echinopsis fuzzy navel and found out that it's an Echinopsis subdenudata cv. "fuzzy navel." Also I learned it will probably drop its buds because I've been watering too much. You're supposed to stop watering completely after the buds sprout. Thanks much for the guidance.

If you can't work it off without damage now, I would wait until new growth works it off some more. Sometimes, they're glued pretty lazily and it's easy to work off by wiggling/ jiggling. Sometimes not, and then you risk ripping off some spines or even worse, tearing the skin and causing a wound. You can clip some of the spines to free the glue if you're feeling impatient. Since the spines on this pilosocereus are pretty straight, you can wiggle to see which spines are holding most fast and clip those. OR: The flower itself is pretty easy to remove. Once the flower is pulled free, you can see better and cut the gob of glue into sections with respect to the spines and try to wiggle free smaller sections. The glue itself isn't going to damage the plant, but will alter the direction of spine development temporarily. I'm personally usually too annoyed by the glue and the ersatz flower and feel eager to remove the glue, so I do the latter. Ideally, I test wiggle at the store to see which I can easily remove. Yoh don't have to remove all the glue chunks at once after you cut into the gob. Usually, a couple days or a week or two of leaving it alone will loosen them as the cactus grows and the temperatures are high enough to soften the glue. I think it's so strange that large commercial growers do the straw flower glue trick. Especially since the cactus looks so impressive without. It must work for sales, though because they keep doing it. I completely shudder at it- though not as much as towards the recent 'spray painting' that I've seen. I never buy the spray painted stuff but the glue can be worked with and I 'rescue' these victims at least a couple times a year. I have a large Parodia herzogii that I bought about 4 years ago with a straw flower glued on. Because of its curved spines, almost like fish hooks, I had a terrible time freeing the glue. I ended up ripping quite a few spines off and creating a wound. I winced so hard. Today, it's a foot tall and 6" wide (vs 1.5" tall and wide- a tiny thing). It bloomed for me the following early spring and you wouldn't be able to tell today where the damage occurred. If you do create a wound, give it a good two weeks for a callous to form over the wound before watering. Since it's a Valentine's Day gift, and I do respect individual circumstances, I would, personally, allow it a good deal of time for it to begin to remedy itself in homage to my beau and his affection, dealing with the flower and glue in a month or two once he's noticing changes less... Plus, by then it may be blooming on its own! And you'll foster that type of love and consideration- someone who will buy you plants is a rare breed. And the care you provide and the progress of and attachment to the plant will encourage more of such sweet thought= more plants:: yay! Maybe I should get a boyfriend ;)

Whitney My plant is just a little bigger than yours. I would dare to say that it is Austrocylindropuntia, most likely subulata. You can google photos of each species (about 10?-11? 12?) and compare. Color will vary a lot depending on light succulents get - so the color alone will not be sure way to correctly ID any plant. In low light, plants will also grow skinnier, longer/taller and often spindly stems. If they have leaves, they are usually too far apart. So the plant could look totally different than it should (I am not saying yours does). Even old/mature plant grown under not-so-suitable conditions will not look as it should.

Many succulents often change color depending on different growing conditions, time of year etc. Many succulents will put on more, warmer, color when exposed to more light. I imagine it was either inside or in low light conditions when you bought it and exposure to more light along with maturity have caused the color change. That chalky stuff you are talking about could be a glaucus leaf coating which is also normal on some plants. I've seen a bronze graptoveria go from a bright pink to a deep green because it was moved into a low light condition (color change caused by stress.) I've also seen stapelias turn from green to pink/orange when moved into higher lighting conditions. Sempervivum hens and chicks change colors year round depending on the season which is one of the things that appeals to many collectors of this spieces. I'm assuming the last picture posted is probably a better representation of what the plant color is more likely to look like. It doesn't look like a Crassula to me. It looks more like some kind of cotyledon reminds me a bit of cotyledon mint truffle but it does have a margin closer to a kalanchoe millotii. It looks a lot like a kalanchoe of some sort actually. There are a lot of kalanchoe's that have a fuzzy coating on the leaves. Hope this helps get you started on a Google search. It's still early though I'm sure someone will be able to ID it here for you.