From Maine to Nevada

New to the forum? Use this section to introduce yourself!
Post Reply
User avatar
opiliones
Posts: 23
Joined: Thu Apr 13, 2006 6:34 pm
Location: Henderson, Nevada

From Maine to Nevada

Post by opiliones »

Hello Folks, I'm a Mainer transplanted to the Mojave Desert. (I don't like being cold). I always assumed growing cacti was hard, until I tried. Now, I end up giving loads of pieces away every year, because the dang things grow so well. I'll have to see what the Nevada rules are for shipping cacti, so I can join in the plant swap. Now that I garden with cacti, my pain tolerance has definitely increased. I've also discovered the bane of Styrofoam peanuts. One time, though, I did find a five-dollar bill caught under one of my chollas. I'd like more debris like that!

The big cacti, and the ocotillo, were already there when I moved in about eight years ago. In fact, you folks helped me ID the fellow in the middle (a.k.a. Bob) as Echinopsis atacamensis. He grows about a foot a year, and I'm concerned that he's too spindly. I keep waiting for a good wind to blow him over. Plus, he developed a nasty crack at his base last winter. Oh well... if Bob bites the dust, that will just give me more room to try something else.

Cheers.
Image
peterb
Posts: 9516
Joined: Mon Aug 07, 2006 4:19 am
Location: Chandler, Arizona, USA

Post by peterb »

Beautiful, and definitely NOT Maine! :-) welcome and happy growing.

peterb
Zone 9
User avatar
Melt In The Sun
Posts: 340
Joined: Wed Mar 23, 2011 6:00 pm
Location: Tucson, AZ

Post by Melt In The Sun »

Bob is awesome! How cold do you get in the winter there?
User avatar
opiliones
Posts: 23
Joined: Thu Apr 13, 2006 6:34 pm
Location: Henderson, Nevada

Post by opiliones »

Glad you like Bob! (The name is from Sideshow Bob on the Simpsons, because of his spiky hair.)

The Mojave is one of the toughest places in the country to grow things, because it gets BOTH hot summers, AND cold winters. Most plants can handle one extreme or the other, but not both. We get plenty of days over 100 degrees, and winter can get below freezing, even into the 20s.

Folks who own saguaro often wrap them in burlap against the cold. A few years back, a hard freeze killed about a third of the branches on each of the two big apple cacti near the house.

In case you're wondering we also get less than 4 inches of rain a year, and humidity levels are routinely in the single digits.

It's quite a place. I love it!
peterb
Posts: 9516
Joined: Mon Aug 07, 2006 4:19 am
Location: Chandler, Arizona, USA

Post by peterb »

I love the Searchlight area, beautiful Echinomastus johnsonii 'lutescens' there as well as purple flowered forms, lots of amazing other cacti. The road from Searchlight over to the lake is a great drive, fantastic Echinocactus polycephalus along there and dense forests of Cylindropuntia.

Another challenge of growing in the Mojave and Sonoran is the biseasonal rain. Many cacti are adapted to dry winters. The winter rain can play hell with those cacti.

peterb
Zone 9
User avatar
Arjen
Posts: 4213
Joined: Sun May 17, 2009 7:12 pm
Location: vught, the netherlands
Contact:

Post by Arjen »

welcome! although it seems you've been here for a while
With apologies to the late Professor C. D. Darlington the following misquotation springs to
mind ‘cactus taxonomy is the pursuit of the impossible by the incompetent’ - Fearn & Pearcy, Rebutia (1981)
daiv
Site Admin
Posts: 23625
Joined: Mon Aug 16, 2004 10:15 pm
Location: Long Prairie, MN
Contact:

Post by daiv »

Hi! You are not that far out of Saguaro Habitat really. I think the lower rainfall prevents more species in your area than does the cold.

Great looking garden!
All Cacti are succulents, but not all succulents are Cacti
User avatar
opiliones
Posts: 23
Joined: Thu Apr 13, 2006 6:34 pm
Location: Henderson, Nevada

Post by opiliones »

Ohhh, the low rainfall definitely doesn't help! I was thinking more of garden plants, which get irrigated. Even then, it's tough to grow things here. My back yard is a no-cactus zone, and the list of things I have tried to grow out there, and failed, is far larger than the list of things that have succeeded.

There are some saguaros planted here and there. Many of them have frost damage. Some folks wrap theirs entirely in burlap for the winter.
Tony
Posts: 10770
Joined: Mon Sep 26, 2005 2:56 am
Location: Chino, Ca, USA (zone 10)
Contact:

Post by Tony »

Hello and welcome!
When I saw that first image I immediately thought to myself, you were never going to see the front of your house again after a few more years when those two Cereus really get going.
But it sounds like the cold will keep them in check.
Beautiful yard! :)
Forget the dog...Beware of the plants!!!

Tony
User avatar
opiliones
Posts: 23
Joined: Thu Apr 13, 2006 6:34 pm
Location: Henderson, Nevada

Post by opiliones »

Glad y'all like my yard! If yer ever in Vegas, let me know....
User avatar
*Barracuda_52*
Posts: 2519
Joined: Wed Sep 10, 2008 5:53 am
Location: Harrietta, Michigan
Contact:

Post by *Barracuda_52* »

:hello2: Hi opiliones and WELCOME to CG, hope you enjoy it here STUNNING yard you have... :wink:
Image
A rescue dog is never to old to learn to be a real dog. Image
User avatar
Peterthecactusguy
Posts: 8862
Joined: Fri Feb 19, 2010 7:49 am
Location: Black Canyon City, Arizona

Post by Peterthecactusguy »

I think that Nevada is a little too far north for saguaros to be happy. The northern most saguaros in Central AZ stop growing about 7-8 miles from where I live. The cold is an issue in the mountains.

Nevada I am sure is different then Maine as well. Maine in the summer is humid. I have been there in August where it was 95F in the day time with humidity, then storms came through and at night it was around 30F. I realize it was a strong cold front but still.

Good growing.
(edit) BTW I dont know if Nevada is any different then AZ but I have sucessfully shipped many pads through the mail. The guys at the post office laughed when I told them I was mailing some Opuntia through the mail.
Here's to you, all you insidious creatures of green..er I mean cacti.
Post Reply