Thursday, September 12, 2013

Don't Hug Your Cactus

Cactus need love too. Just don't hug them or love them too much. In my garden, love generally means fertilizer and water.  Since cactus don't need much of either, I suggest fluffing their gravel or just saying a friendly "howdy" as you walk by on your way to water some other more needy potted plant.


As we've struggled with the drought here in Central Texas, I've satisfied my desire to collect plants by adding more cactus.  I started thinking about growing cactus in all those tough spots where other plants just couldn't cut the mustard.

One of those tough spots is the western exposure of my house.  The space provides the harshest of environments; full on sun against a brick wall.  I've tried lots of different plants in this area over the years and nothing can quite stand up to the reflected heat of July and August.  Nothing until I planted cactus.  Even in pots these guys don't flinch.  I could have planted them in the ground, but the pots will provide some flexibility to move them out of the way when the AC repairman comes a calling.


Just a few feet from the AC unit temperatures moderate thanks to some nearby trees. These plants have it much easier.  In the pot pictured below, horse crippler, silver dyckia and echeveria are growing happily.  I added plenty of perlite to the potting mix to keep the soil well-drained and topped the pot with decomposed granite to make them feel right at home.


Until I recently met Mr. Bunny Ears, I would have said the dyckia was the most unhuggable of all the cactus-like plants. Dyckia are actually bromeliads with barbed hooks on their leaves that catch you both coming and going.  The spines are so sharp that a little routine maintenance will leave you looking like you just fought off a herd of wild felines.


One of the things I love about cactus and agave is their ability to add interest when combined with soft leaved plants. On the left, two agave parryi pups consort with the very slow growing Queen Victoria agave. The cool blue of the agave striata on the right works well with evolvulus glomeratus 'blue daze' in the tallest pot.


On the edge of a bed where sprinkler coverage is hit or miss, I added this little berm of gopher plant. While not exactly a cactus, euphorbia rigida is very drought tolerant and needs little water. Now if I can only keep the vitex trifolia 'purpurea' growing behind it from swallowing it whole.


My latest exciting acquisition is this manfreda 'silver leopard'. Sometimes called false agave or spice lily, this plant is very drought tolerant.  I purchased two of these little lovelies to replace some ill-fated bottle brush shrubs that never had a chance in this drought. 

Considerably more hugable than most cactus, silver leopard, also has more to love. Spreading by underground rhizomes, this colony forming plant will provide plenty of little friends, so you can spread the love around.


I know this drought is tough, so maybe it's time to embrace cactus in the garden.  Just don't hug them, and a little eye protection would probably not be a bad idea either.

7 comments:

  1. It looks great!! I like the combos!

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    1. Thanks for helping me at Vivero Growers Nursery a couple of weeks back. You may recognize the octopus cactus, horse crippler, silver dyckia, and echeveria that I purchased during my visit. Everything is doing great. The echeveria got a little nibble from the birds, but they haven't been back, so hopefully the taste did not appeal.

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  2. I continue to embrace (not literally!) more cactus and succulents as well, esp. for pots because I can't stand to have to water every day. I like your collection!

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    1. Thanks Pam. Now that I've added more cactus to the garden, I can definitely see the benefit. They look especially great in pots and are so easy to maintain.

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  3. I'm going in that same direction, more cacti, succulents, agave and yuccas. I just know it will be more normal one day and they will all rot from too much water.

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    1. That is definitely a concern I have heard voiced several times. I keep thinking back to the days when we used to get our normal rainfall and there were places on my property that stayed pretty wet. If we start getting our normal rainfall again, I don't think I will have to water my potted cactus at all. That would be nice. I'll look forward to that.

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  4. Great virtual tour of your garden there. Glad that you've managed to maintain those plants while keeping your A/Cs working right. There's a place for both those things and a time and opportunity to balance those concerns out. Kudos to you!

    Shelley Coday @ C & C Heating & Air Conditioning

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