My first cacti!

14 years ago

So, I stopped by Lowe's today since we're headed in to the end of the season here in Northern Florida and figured I'd see what they had. All of their succulents and cacti were on sale. Most were in pretty poor condition but I picked out four cacti that I liked and got them at a fair price! I also got a nice terracotta bowl to put them in that I got marked down because it was chipped and the last one on the shelf! Anyway, I ended up purchasing a mammillaria bombycina, mammillaria spinosissima, lemaireocereus pruinosus and a oreocereus celsianus. All told I got the four cacti, bag of potting mix to put them in, rocks and the pot for a little over $20. I don't think I did too bad!

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Comments (7)

chuy415
14 years ago
Not at all!! Great purchase and good luck! :)

Chuy
Marie Tran
14 years ago
CorpsmanCooper, congrats on your first cacti. Pretty soon you're starting saying..."I can't stop buying them"
I hope you enjoy them as much as all of us in this forum. marie
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pennyhal
14 years ago
"Collectoritis" is the term someone posted on another thread. You are probably going to get it too. Actually, I think you already have it.
sutremaine
14 years ago
Don't expect them to play nice in the same bowl for long. You've got two clumpers and two columnars, and if they like where they are they'll be competing for room pretty quickly. The bowl itself can be used if you hide a separate pot for each cactus inside it, and it'll make separating them easier as well.

What sort of potting mix do you have? Most of the stuff off the shelf is not good for cacti, though the ones you have are pretty tolerant as long as they're not overwatered.

Nice little starter pack you've got there though. Here's hoping you keep the four of them going throughout the rest of your collecting career.
CorpsmanCooper
Original Author
14 years ago
I do have the four of them in the same pot for the time being. They're all pretty small . . . at least for now. I fully expected and anticipated having to separate them at some point. Does the lemaireocereus pruinosus get pretty tall? I really want a cactus that will get tall. They are currently in a mixture of miracle grow cacti soil, perlite, sand and pea gravel. I hope it's porous enough. If not I can start over. Once I planted them I watered them really well because they were REALLY dry when I bought them from the store. I've really got the bug or "collectoritis" as it was previously called. Hahaha!
CorpsmanCooper
Original Author
14 years ago
Also, quick question! I hate the fact that the box stores glue those fake flowers on cacti. They only did this to the oreocereus celsianus. It irritates me to no end that they do this! Anyway, how do I remove the glue from it without doing too much damage to cactus? It doesn't seem to be attached to the main body. Just the hair and the thorns.
sutremaine
14 years ago
How big does L. pruinosa get? See for yourself. : )

O. trollii does clump, but it does so in sprawling stems 2' high.
M. spinosissima is half the height and forms more of a traditional-looking clump, and M. bombycina forms mounds.

As for the glue, it can generally be made easier to deal with by heating it until it softens.

Sand should be avoided unless it's grit-sized (consider what sandbags are generally used for...), so hopefully you can sieve it out of the mix.