HOME OF CACTUS
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HOME OF CACTUS
“A garden isn't meant to be
useful. It's for joy.”
There’s a lot more to these striking houseplants than just Which are the best varieties for beginners? Moon
their prickles! cacti have very colourful tops, usually red or yellow. These
Are they indestructible? No, if you’ve ever killed a aren't flowers so the colour is there all year round. Bunny
cactus you are not alone. The easiest way is by over ears, also known as polka dot cacti, have spots of golden
watering, poor drainage and using the wrong compost. bristles against a green background so they look modern
Ordinary potting compost holds water well, which is a
huge bonus for most plants but not for cacti, they need
very good drainage. If you want to keep them alive it’s
and geometric. Probably the most common variety is a
tiny 'pin cushion' cactus, it's easy to grow and has lovely
little pink flowers.
best to use specialist cactus compost instead. How do you handle them? Carefully! Either with very
Do they flower? Cacti are all flowering plants, but some thick gloves or use folded newspaper to loop around the
have more prominent blooms and there are a few, such top.
as Mammillaria, Gymnocalycium and Parodia, that will Are all cacti prickly? No. What we usually think of as
flower quite easily with impressive, colourful displays. cacti are desert cacti, but there are also forest cacti with-
How do I get them to flower? Cactus flower on fresh out the bristles, however the range available as house-
growth, so if your plant just sits there, unchanging year plants is quite small.
after year, it’s very unlikely to flower. What you should How long do they live? In the wild cacti can live for
do is to get the plant to follow its natural growth cycle. hundreds of years. Indoors they may survive for 10 years
It needs to go dormant in winter and then wake up in or more. The trouble with old ones is that every single
spring. So, put it somewhere dry and cold, but not dark, knock, scratch or blemish they get stays with them, so
over winter, and stop watering all together. In spring give
it as much sunshine as possible and start to water it.
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they tend to look less appealing as they get older.