Hardy Cactus…thoughts

We’ve got a thing for hardy cactus in the garden, but haven’t propagated many to offer yet. One of our many favorites is Notocactus apricus.  Above is our 17 year old clump in the garden, which is 4″ tall x 15″ wide.  We’ve grown a few from seed, but are curious how many folks might consider purchasing one?  We’ve only been to 7F since 2000, so we don’t know if it will take colder temperatures or not.  

Visitors to our spring Open Nursery and Garden this year got to see the amazing Trichocereus ‘Irridescent Watermelon’ (bred by local cacti specialist, Mike Papay) in full flower (hardy so far to 7 degrees F).  Offsets are almost non-existent, so we decided to grow some from seed. Each plant will be different, but all should be quite nice.  So, if we offered these as a seed strain, would you purchase some, knowing each will be slightly different?

17 thoughts on “Hardy Cactus…thoughts”

  1. You got a trichocereus to grow in the ground here?!?! I’m in the western part of NC (6a/b) and a few years ago got into the trichocereus species (pachanoi, macrogonus etc) because of their gnarly spines. Grew out quite a few from seed. Then I realized I probably wouldn’t get the thick columns (or huge flowers) here. So I started collecting the smaller echinopsis this past year (even made a few crosses which I have yet to sow). It can be a lot of work during the spring and fall moving pots in and out of the garage and protecting them from the rains that can cause rot since I don’t have a greenhouse. Probably shouldn’t have selected non cold hardy varieties. Every time I try to thin out the collection, I come up with reasons not to get rid of certain ones (cool spines, grew from seed myself etc.)

  2. Having bought numerous suc.’s ( actually 100’s) and of course, many from PDN I would welcome new intros. Don’t forget Yucca Doo has called it a day. Go for it Tony and let’s see what happens!

    1. We are also very sorry to see Yucca Do close, but we continue to work closely with them to get their new introductions to market. We are very blessed to have them as friends and have many exciting plants from them on trial. It’s hard to say enough great things about their contributions to horticulture.

  3. I love hardy cacti, but have a small garden. I have a spot right now that I am now considering for your Notocactus.

  4. Jeffrey Bryson

    I grow a lot of cactus, hedgehog, pincushion, cholla, prickly pear and many kinds of yucca and agave. I live in Pennsylvania ( zone 6), and I am always interested in more and different items for my three flowerbeds in particular items from foreign countries. I currently grow items from South Africa, Argentina and Mexico. To everyone who has posted that they can’t grow cactus prickly pear will grow everywhere from Florida to Central Canada as long as you purchase the right verity. I have been a regular customer of Plantdelights for years and I would be very interested in buying any cactus that Plantdelights would be willing to sell.

  5. Would love to purchase some hardy cactus and some offsets or propagated cuttings from your cholla cactus too!

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

The maximum upload file size: 20 MB. You can upload: image, video. Links to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other services inserted in the comment text will be automatically embedded. Drop files here

Discover more from Juniper Level Botanic Garden

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading

Scroll to Top