Cactus species range from low growing, small ground cover plants, to large shrubs and trees.
With over 2000 species and many cultivars, cacti can provide us with tremendous variety.
If you spend much time watching old westerns on television then you will probably picture them as Saguaro Cactus, the tall tree like cactus from the old west.
Increasingly popular with gardeners for the fascinating shapes and colours, these plants also fruit and some are edible. Most are fairly well behaved garden plants, others can be a little difficult to contain, the ‘prickly pear’ being one such species.
All cacti are succulents, and are members of the Cactaceae family, they are also mostly spiny succulents.
Cactus Varieties as Indoor Plants
The joy of growing these plants indoors is that they can be grown near a window, require little watering, some (most) have good flowers and many are just very very attractive as indoor plants year round.
The ‘Golden Barrel Cactus’, pictured right are Echinocactus grusonii, is one of the easiest species to regognise, and very popular with gardeners. It forms an attractive rounded barrel shape, an interesting addition to a dry garden.
Some species can also be small and delicate, with very pretty flowers. others are large, hardy tree like plants. Hylocereus undatus is a species that produces an edible fruit known as ‘Dragon Fruit’
Cactus Varieties Include:
- Astrophytum
- Cereus
- Cleistocactus – Monkeys tail
- Copiapoa
- Cylindropuntia
- Denmoza
- Echinocactus
- Echinocereus
- Espostoa lanata
- Ferocactus
- Gymnocalycium
- Lobivia
- Mammillaria
- Matucana
- Melocactus
- Neoporteria
- Oreocereus
- Pachycereus
- Pilosocereus
- Stenocactus
- Stetsonia
- Tephrocactus
- Trichocereus
- Turbinicarpus
For a complete list of CACTI NURSERIES visit our cactus nurseries page.