Well, here's one of the appallingly badly packed ferocactus, in his new home in my front rock garden.
The other four are currenly in 4 inch terra cotta pots... which are probably slightly too big for them but I didn't have any other pots handy, so there we are... I'm sure they'll be fine, despite their ordeal in the envelope.
One other thing I should mention... someone once told me that if you write things down, it makes them happen... something about getting your subconscious to work for you, or guardian angels or higher selves... (some new age silliness... considering who told it to me, it could have been any one of those things, but I'm not entirely sure which it is now. Personally I think it boils down to "If you know what you want it's easier to get it.")
The point of this is that I mentioned a few posts back that I was making a list of winter hardy cactus that I wanted for the yard.
Well, I walked into Lowes, right after I picked up my truck, because I wanted to buy a little piece of nothing that I needed for a repair job... and I saw a cactus sitting on their plant clearance rack. In really beautiful shape... not at all like the others on the rack which were beat up beyond redemption... I grabbed it without even giving it a second thought... and after I got it home, I looked at the tag, and it's an Oreocereus celsianus, aka Peruvian Old Man Cactus. The tag said not to let it get below 45 degrees, but I'm pretty sure that's what it says on all the cactus tags at lowes.
Well, it's on my list. The first plant I wrote on my list... (erie, huh?)
I since researched a little more... conflicting info and all, and it's definitely hardy to 10 degrees, so I'll be putting him in the rock garden this weekend... and I'll take a pic of him in his new home. The real problem will not be the cold, but the heat... they are native to high, mountainous deserts, and summer heat may stress him...
Work was good. Air Conditioning is a wonderful thing.
And now I'm making a new list.
I want a new truck. I want a greenhouse. I want a house on five acres. I want 10 million dollars...
Hey, if it works for plants, why not?
Later.
And here's the Oreocereus celsianus that I got off a clearance rack for 3 bucks... he's 8 inches tall, and the plant can get to 10 feet! I'm not sure that he'll do really well here, but for 3 bucks, I'll experiment. With any luck, he'll survive and I'll get to see some of the red flowers soon...
And that's about it... a lot of the cactus on my list are considered rare in cultivation. The only way I'm going to be able to get them is from seed. After I've double checked hardiness on all of them, because I don't want to get a plant that doesn't have at least a fighting chance, I'll publish the list and see what y'all have to say about them... 
