Retaining water isn't always a bad thing

Micropuntia - top, Gymnocalycium - bottom left, ?? - bottom right

It's been a few days since we've posted anything. Ok, 6 days to be exact. But we're back! In our last post we promised some pictures of the cacti that we bought at our local nursery and here they are.

I find cacti fascinating. They come in many shapes and sizes but what amazes me most is the flowers. They are bright, large, and complex. Seeing a cactus in full bloom is a spectacular sight.

In order to provide the proper care to our cacti I started to do some research (Editor's note: Be a conscientious gardener and always research your plants). Cacti are succulent plants native to the Americas. Succulents have adapted to dry, arid conditions by storing water in their leaves, stems or roots which gives them a "bloated" or succulent look. Cacti usually have spines while other succulents don't. Identifying cacti is hard (at least for me). Flowers make identification easier but ours aren't blooming. An excellent resource for identification and all things cacti is the highly recommended CactiGuide.com. Based on the information available in this webpage I believe that we have a Micropuntia, a Gymnocalycium, and an unknown succulent (not a cactus). You may ask yourself why is this important. Why do you need to identify your cacti? Aren't all cacti the same? That would be no.

Each cactus has different soil, light, and water requirements. Knowing these requirements will allow you grow each cactus under its ideal conditions. As a good rule of thumb most cacti require 6+ hours of daylight, a fast draining soil and little watering. It is recommended that you water your cacti only when the soil feels dry. Overwatering leads to root rot so it's advised that you err on the side of underwatering. The proper soil is also important to avoid root rot. Soil recipes can be found all over the internet. Most recommend using a combination of potting mix, gravel or sand, and peat. We haven't made any soil for our cactus yet but we'll let you know what combination we use when we do. Placing your cactus on a south facing area (in the northern hemisphere) will maximize the sunlight it receives each day (Editors note: Unnecessarily geeky explanation will follow. You have been warned). This is because the sun doesn't move exactly from east to west in the sky. It actually "tilts" towards the south when it makes its travel across the sky. Only during the equinoxes does the sun move exactly from east to west. (End of geeky explanation)

That's all for the basics. Stay tuned for more info on cacti and all other plants in our garden.