Love to see their winter home with some closeups!

People are just rude. Did you explain how happy your plants were? Or that you'd have to remove their fence if it blocks their sun?

On a more serious note, is there anywhere a bit more to the west in your yard that you can place them? This way the fence only blocks the sun for a little while instead of a few hours.

...or, build some bleachers...to have all potted plants on...

They really are very good neighbors. Their property is an old ranch that has shrunk over the years and they are very good about letting us encroach on their property (part of our back yard is actually their property) so I guess I'll have to live with it. I'm concerned about my vegetable garden too, but it will still get a lot of afternoon sun.

Rina, I was actually already thinking about how to raise up the pots...but I'm going to wait until the fence is up to see how much the sun is getting blocked. The sun may be high enough not to make a difference. And I may only have to trim some branches off the tree behind them to move the stands back a little.

The southern and western part of my yard is a large expanse of grass with no shade so it's not an option. "My" part of the yard is a narrow strip on the eastern part of the lot, but I try to make the most of it :-)

I'll try to get some pics of the crowded sunroom later.

I bought new plant stands this year--the shipping cost more than the stands, but I'm very happy with the quality.

Nursery table

Big guys--if I didn't have a "pot lifter" I would never be able to move some of these guys.

med pots 1

Noto - What do you use for a pot lifter? Great to see your sunroom!

I agree with Rina in that green tray looks nice and sturdy. Funny that it caught my eye as well. I'm also using the black plastic trays, but I stack them 2 or 3 deep to make them stronger.

Wow, that's a lot of columnar cacti, they look in very good condition : ) Even the chair frame in picture 5 looks like its made out of a cactus!!!

Gill UK

A really nice bunch of Cacti you've got there!

I see at least four Geohintonia mexicana in the first and third photo of 'medium' pots. Are they the same plants, or do you have eight or more of these rare cacti? I've had one for more 8-10 years and has double or tripled in diameter since I got it, but it's still in a 2-inch square pot. How big are yours?

Brad

Noto

I like to know what you use for pot-lifter too...Kevin, I cut up piece of plastic drain pipe (!) I was about to throw away today (left from some plumbing work...) into different size pieces to be used for pot lifting...'new' invention, haha.

edit: I am talking about having something under the pots so they sit higher, not a gadget to lift heavy pots...

Rina

Those green trays are very sturdy. I got them with a light stand over 25 years ago and they are still holding up as long as I take care of them. Outside I don't use the trays, but I use them in the sun room to catch the water then I use a vacuum to suck the water out. Speeds watering up immensely. The drawback is the plants don't get the one on one attention like when I used to carry them all to the kitchen sink.

I got my pot lifter at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002ECFFJ8?keywords=pot%20lifter&qid=1445822516&ref_=sr_1_2&sr=8-2

Sorry Brad, but none of my cacti are rare, except to me. They are all various Echinopsis or Trichocereus hybrids. Mostly of the Schick or Johnson variety.

And no, between the plants and turtles, pots, dirt, etc. there is no room for human activity in that sunroom :-) The table's only function is to hold stuff.

Turtles? In the plant room? Fun!

Yep, one runs loose and the other is in an enclosure--they fight if they are both loose inside. They fight a little outside too, but there are more distractions out there so the altercations don't last long. :-)

I request photos of said turtles!

You use a shop vac then to suck up the water? Does a pretty good job and the remainder evaporates out fairly quickly? Thanks!

Ah turtles! I had a slider for over 10 years, I still miss him!

That's interesting about the shop vac, but I am a little puzzled as to why it is needed. Do you bottom water (submerge) them all in a tray? Many of mind spend the winter in a tray, but there is never enough water in the tray to bother doing anything about. I water from above and give them a good soaking...

And for some reason, Noto, I though you were going to respond that you had a big strapping young person as a pot lifter! haha!

I water from the top--water moves through some pots faster than others so if there is too much I shop vac it up. I lost one of my early collections because I just let them sit in water. A mistake I know all of you wouldn't have made.

By the next morning I literally had trays of orange mush. Must have been something going on, but it's made me paranoid to have any water in the trays at all :-)

My 'boys' are gone, although the older one will help me repot some of the monsters if I ask and offer to make him spaghetti. I don't think I could afford to feed a big, strapping young person on a regular basis these days :-)

UPDATE

The fence was not the disaster I dreaded. The fence is up and the benches look like they are still getting plenty of sun. Really won't know or care until late spring when everything is back outside.

And for ewwmayo pictures of my turtles:

Iggy--hiding among the giants--still has pen mud on her. She's 35 years+ years old

Her boyfriend Ziggy fresh out of his morning bath