CactiGuide.com

Hi all, you can call me Papa D and I'm from New Jersey, although am currently going to school in Boston. I recently got my first cactus (pilosocereus azureus) and really like it so far! I hope to get more soon, cacti just seem to have a lot more character than some other plants (although my exposure to plants in general is probably much lower than many here )
here it is:

and if anyone has any suggestions for growing a cactus in a dorm room during the winter, I'd be glad to hear them

welcome from another east coaster. i noticed there arent many of us on this site so im glad to see another join it Nice plant by the way

Hi! Glad you joined and happy to see you make an introduction. That is a pretty good choice for a first cactus. Who knows? Maybe 15 years from now you'll have it growing in an outdoor garden somewhere and it will be 20 feet tall!

Anyay, for the here and now, you are going to have a challenge to keep it happy over winter. Do you have a windowsill you can put it on? What direction does it face? Hopefully the heater doesn't blow up through the windowsill either?

Welcome! Hope you enjoy yourself and learn a lot!

Welcome to the cactus forum from the edge of Texas. I am afraid I cannot supply you with a lot of information about growing these kinds of plants in New Jersey. I did grow a few cacti in Northern Germany when I was growing up there. We had to place them in the south facing window, to prevent etiolation - a growth response, resulting in thin stems due to lack of sufficient light intensity - or we could also grow "Jungle Cacti", which do not require as much light. Examples of those are Schlumbergera (Christmas & Easter Cacti), Epiphyllum spp., and similar kinds of plants. You will be able to learn a lot of growing skills from the British members of this forum though.

Harald