Big box hardware store

[BarryRice]

Hey guys

This guy's 25 cm (10") tall and kind of cute!

It sure isn't cardon, as the pot tag says. Watcha think?

[CactusFanDan]

Oreocereus celsianus.

[BarryRice]

And what kind of winter temperatures can it take?

[sundanz]

Very cold hardy, into the teens for several weeks! Other plants die but this one unscathed! This is good news for people who live in cold climates! I live in a hot summer climate and it does just as well in the sun and heat!
Karin

[greenknight]

Yep - it's native to the high Andes, so it can stand both low temperatures (if dry and dormant) and very intense sun. Of course, a plant in a pot can't take as much cold as one in the ground.

[Peterthecactusguy]

yeah, plants in pots don't handle cold nearly as well as plants in the ground. The soil in the pot can freeze before the ground ever would, for instance. It's one of the reasons I have to bring my plants inside. Another reason is the winter rains..

[iann]

No rain in winter. Hardy, but it will rot.

[greenknight]

I lost a nice Oreocereus to freezing, why I brought it up. Not this species, it was an O. leucotrichus, about 3 feet tall. It was sitting out on the porch, I was going to bring it inside if very cold weather threatened. In the middle of the night one night the temperature suddenly plummeted. By the time I woke up it was too late, I wasn't able to save it. That was only about 20 degrees; it could stand a light frost but, growing in a pot, couldn't take a hard freeze.

Like iann said, no rain in the winter or it will rot. Where you are, in Northern California, it can't be planted out; it has to be under cover in the rainy season.