Hello nes, I put them out in summer, but have to bring them in for winter as it's too cold and wet to leave them out. They sure have liked all the sun we had this year.

Like the plastic flowers they glue on with hot glue. I bought one last fall, there were 4 stems in the pot so I figured if I killed the one trying to remove the "flower" I would still have a cactus. I was happily able to amputate the "flower" without damaging more than a few spin...

Saw an article at indefenseofplants.com called "Shady Spines - In Defense of Plants" which discusses formation and purpose of spines. It answers most of these questions

This is the Cereus aethiops I mentioned.

I was stationed in Hanau, near Frankfurt. Sp4, engineers. We built floating bridges. A lot of people didn't like it, but I would rather be on the river than sitting in the motor pool. Sure got cold in winter though!

Hello, around here it's best to bring shorts and a raincoat, good weather is good until it changes

Hi Jerry, had an aunt and uncle near newark back in the day, got to visit once. They had fireflies, something we don't have out here. Had them in tulsa when very young, saw them in Germany when stationed there. Spanaway is ~45 miles. Summers here might be the best anywhere. I'm biased

I have some mixed seedlings, started memorial day. Yes, there is some algae, seems to be mostly attracted to the larger bits of pumice in the soil. Doesn't seem to be a problem, yet

Corrected rainfall, 41" is more accurate. Had to fact check myself

Thank you. I'm going to have to double check the rainfall, it's what someone said the other day, might not be accurate. I don't actually see my cacti growing, but I brought back from South Dakota in May some Opuntia fragilis that put out new growth within about two weeks of starting from cuttings an...

Forgot to mention, I assumed spines were formed out of something like fingernails

Hello all, new guy here. I'm with you, I like the aggressive appearance of big spines. I picked up a Cereus aethiops at beginning of July. I put it outside, and it has gained a solid half inch in height at close to 7 inches overall, and the spines up and down the plant are all longer generally than ...

Hello Everybody, Just joined yesterday although I've been exploring Cactiguide since May. We get around 60" of rain here, I think... Mostly during the winter. My cacti like being outside during summer, and so do I. I live in forest, with lots of birds and critters and tall trees around, which l...