Cold Hardy Cactus

Beautiful cactus for cold climates

I ’ve had a thing for cactus for a while … they ’re so unlike any other plant you could grow in the garden . But since I did n’t live in Arizona , I was jolly special on which types I could really develop . For yr , I only grow various species of prickly Pyrus communis ( Opuntiaspp . ) which are pretty and many of them very adaptable to cold-blooded climate , but they also have lilliputian fiddling pilus called glochidium that embed themselves in your hide if you touch them . Not my best-loved affair in the globe .

Which is why I now farm cactus in the genusEchinocereus . Yes , they are spiny , but they do n’t have the dread little glochids , but they are both implausibly beautiful AND cold-blooded hardy . Many species are native to Zone 5 or even 4 . The secret , I found , to keep them alive , is giving them perfect drainage . dusty winters do n’t kill them , but cold WET winters will cause them to molder . I ’ve had big luck growing them in raised bed filled with sand and gravel , or just growing them in container that I move under the eaves of the house ( and thus , out of the rainfall ) for the winter .

Claret cup cactus ( Echinocereus triglochidiatus , Zone 5 – 9 ) . My works of this is still tiny , but someday it is go to look like this incredible specimen from the Denver Botanic Gardens ! How unbelievable are those flowers ?

prickly hedgehog cactus ( Echinocereus dasyacanthus , Zone 6 – 9 ) . Not quite as cold hardy as claret cup cactus , but just as beautiful in jaundiced . This is another dearie of mine .

lacing hedgehog cactus ( Echinocereus reichenbachii , Zone 5 – 9 ) . This specie has Brobdingnagian Battle of Magenta flowers that much beam , they are so bright .

lacing hedgehog cactus is also beautiful out of peak ! There is a lot of version in spine colouring material and shape in the mintage , and this is a particular nice word form with sullen spines .

In the wintertime , frigid hardy cactus lean to await a little sad … to invalidate damage from the cold , they enfeeble most of the water out of their stems , so they shrivel up and take care like wrinkle old sacks . But come bound , they start pumping up again , and go right on produce !

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