As you know I'm not in the DFW area, but thought I'd bump this up by giving my 2 cents. When planting cactus, agaves, yuccas and other succulents in the ground or in a pot I mix in a lot of bagged decomposed granite, meaning about half. It has some nouishment in it. In the limestone/caliche soil we have here they tell us not to use sand because sand and lime make cement, but your soil may be different. Also I've had good luck with mixing in bagged compost. It's lighter than the clayish 'dirt' we have in some areas of San Antonio, and holds less moisture than peat based potting soil, and as it slowly breaks down it provide nutrients. Maybe someone from your area will see this and correct it for growing cactus in Dallas. Wishing you the best with making a cactus bed.

Thanks roselee. I wish I had known that last night before I filled the bed with a combination of sand and white rock. Ours is a caliche type white rock.

The Lowes and Home Depot stores around here have a lot of cactus now. I don't know anything about the varieties they have though. Lots of mammillaria, but not very cold tolerant.

We are south of DFW about thirty minutes. Along the fence line we have the cow toungue as well as prickly pear in unmodified soil. In the front bed where the cacti are some of the more exotic varities we have decomposed granite as ragna has suggested. None of our desert trees have any soil amendments either. I've posed in other threads the trees include mexican blue oak, desert museum, and chilean mesquite. Agave dont seem to need anything special either. Id stay away from the varigated ones that seem popular in the nurseries. They are more cold sensitive. We lost some last winter. Also lost a few cacti with too much water this spring. I've just planted some Dyckia also so we will see how they do.

tjayars1, we're probably neighbors. I'm south about 30 minutes too. I would have preferred cow's tongue but they didn't have it. I bought a barrel cactus. I've got prickly pear in the backyard, but dh keeps mowing it down so it's not pretty when it grows back.

Probably, you must have all the white rock on your soil like me. I've got extra cow tounge sitting in a cooler with rain water. I'll try to get some going in some small containers for the next swap or if you really want it you are welcome anytime. The yellow barrel? I've thought about that one, and a fish hook. I was told if you stick the cow tounge in soil they will root, I just never got around to it.

Marti, Yucca Do is having a sale now and you can look at the zones and pix to see what you want.

I guarantee all the west tx ones grew in the pastures of Abilene and one of my jobs was keeping them out of the pastures. They were so beautiful and I hated to have to toss them, but had to

I decided when I was an adult, I would grow all of them, I tried but with pets and kids, I had to give them away years ago

Maybe I should try again, LOL

http://www.yuccado.com/all-plants/cacti.html

Thanks jolana, they have some great prices too.

Marti, I have cow tongue if you want some. I have no idea how I'll get it to you, but I do have extra. The chollas do pretty well for me too and I have enough to share. I have one that I bought out near Benbrook and another that friends brought me from Arizona. I have some seedling sized manfreda variegata too. Want a yucca or two? I have some that are getting way too big for where they are.

I had some sweet small barrel cactus that were dug from a friend's field nearby. They died from the rain, I guess.

Thank you Pam. The cow tongues I've seen take up quite a bit of room. Right now, I have a really small contained area around the mailbox. If dh likes it after I finish, I'm thinking of doing something similar for a bigger cactus on the other side of the drive. The cow tongue would work there I think. I have a neighbor with chollas and it grows in their front yard. I also have a variegated manfreda, but it's still struggling after the rain. If I lose it, I would like another. Where do you grow yours? I have a couple of yuccas, red and maybe twisted leaf. My red is doing great, but the other is rather limp right now. I moved it after the rain.

My cactus garden is out by the mailbox where I don't water. It's a slope, so I pinned old garden hoses to hold the mulch on the hill. My area is pretty big (20 X 20 with plans to expand back another 20 feet), but was just an ugly weed patch when I decided to turn it into a cactus garden. We scalped it with the weed eater and covered it with landscape fabric and just cut holes for the plants.

Something to think about is spring cleanup. It's dangerous to clean out the fallen leaves. I use a combo of the blower and tongs.

I have a boatload (17) of red yucca, lots of mexican feather grass (11) , color guard yucca and some upright 'tree' yuccas. One big agave and some smaller ones, the manfredas and another smallish agave/yucca that Ragna sent me years ago. And the cactus :-) I am propagating some spineless that I got at the spring swap. I want to trade out the cow tongue for spineless.

Contrary to popular belief, cacti do not grow well in sand, only a small amount would and the ones that do would still grow better in soil. cactus mix that you buy at the store has no sand, it is very earthy. the wood and large bits of moss they put in the there is a nuisance and most people take it out, especially if you are trying to grow from seed because of the high humidity in your plastic bag or whatever you are using. in my opinion %33 sand %33 seedling soil mix no wood %33 perlite or somewhere around there is the best option for the columnar cacti i have worked with if you are growing from seed (you then cover the top with a very thin layer of sand if you want to completely avoid fungi issues). if you are not growing from seed then normal soil mix would be best probably or seedling mix because there won't be large chunks of wood near your roots holding moisture and causing the threat of rot

if you sieved out the wood and moss in cacti mix and added perlite or pebbles this might be best for grown cacti compared to what i just said