Ok, so here are the cacti I bought today. First, there is this pre-made cactus garden:
There are 4 different species total and they're in a very attractive cross shaped pot. The rocks surrounding them were oddly stuck together, so I had to break them apart with a butter knife.
There was no information on what species these were, and the company site didn't provide any useful information either, which was kind of annoying.
With my minimal knowledge of identifying cacti without any reference point, I can tell that this is most likely some sort of
Parodia. I was really pleased wit the way this one looked, it is a really nice green color and there are no obvious holes or flaws on the surface. The flower is a really bright pink and has a nice papery texture. The spines are soft enough to lightly touch, but could probably prick if you touched it too hard.
Unlike the flowered one, I can't guess the genus at first glance. It looks like it could belong to a lot of different ones, and I haven't bothered to look up which one it exactly is. Anyways, again, this cactus looked really healthy. The spines grow inward so it's difficult to poke yourself on one. Easy to handle, and a lovely green color.
No idea what this little dude here is. It has tiny spines that are spaced out quite a bit, and there are minuscule leaves on the ends of the spines. You can grab it pretty easily. It has a really cool pattern of green and light green.
This thing is a prickly son of a bitch. Poked myself on it and got about 4 spines caught in my hand trying to handle it. Some of the spines are hard and slender, but some of them are soft, fat and green. Once again, never seen one like this, not sure what it could be. Healthy and green like all the others, I was really pleased with how all of the cacti looked in this garden. Sometimes you buy a garden and some of them are healthy and others aren't so much. I'm fairly sure that all of these will live.
This was the garden I built myself! Replanting cacti is a complete pain in the ass, they are super root-bound to their starter pots, and are really really hard to handle. I got poked many times replanting (even with heavy duty gloves) and spent about a half an hour picking things out of my skin. I think it turned out nicely though! I tried to put 3 contrasting cacti that worked well with each other in the same space. Unlike the premade cactus garden, there is lots of space between each plant. This gives them a lot more room to grow in their pots and get bigger, I won't have to replant these anytime soon.
The pot on this said "Catterpillar Cactus", but I'm not so sure. This thing is a complete and utter devil, by the way. Hardest replant I've ever had to do, it was responsible for 99% of the thorns in me today. It looks fuzzy, but don't let it fool you, each of the spines stick immediately to the skin. Because of these tiny little spines, a lot of sand and dirt got stuck in it, and it was difficult to clean off. Anyways, it looks healthy, and it has 3 nice yellow, papery flowers on it.
These are called Fairy Castles, or
Cereus Tetragonus. This was a really nice looking individual, and it was under 5 USD. They look intimidating, but the spines are too small to pierce the skin and they are easy to handle. They are slightly frail, however.
Last, we have the very attractive Moon Cactus. The red growth on the top does not occur naturally, and it has to be grafted onto the stocky green cactus on the bottom. You have to be careful handling them, because the top can fall off easily. I really liked the combo red-yellow coloring on the top of this one, but getting it home was a complete pain because it wasn't stable in its pot. Sorry it's a little dirty!
Hope you enjoyed!
