picked up some new cacti at lowe's

found myself at lowe's a few days ago and they had these for $5 ea. couldn't wait to get them out of the plastic 5in pots and into new terracotta homes

Excuse me folks, have to go to Lowe's. Oh wait. I was there a couple days ago and they didn't have any cactus at all.

What do you have? #3 looks like a young Ferocactus and #4 looks like an Old Man - Cereus senilis. Cool!

I'm thinking they just got a shipment when I showed up. I did get this too... :). $16, over a foot tall with a bunch of pups growing at the base. they had 3 lamerei this size

Very nice! I had a Pachypodium lamerei once. It never had pups but it was about three feet tall. My husband and I went on vacation and left Grandma to take care of the kids and the plants. I put a big note on it saying "Do NOT Water". She took this to mean "Water Daily". Thankfully, the kids fared better than my plant.

I just bought several plants from Lowes too. My question is can these smaller cacti handle full sun? I am new to Arizona, in the west valley, and it seems that everything is burning up, which is why I decided to buy the cacti.

I would be careful putting them out in full sun right now. Depending on species some will take full sun here in Arizona, but almost all plants from Lowes and HD, and other big box stores come from southern California and are usually grown in less extreme conditions that the summer full sun will give them so if you just put them out in the sun straight from the store they will likely burn to a crisp pretty quickly.
If you plant them out and they get full sun you should get some shade cloth and cover them till at least mid September and then slowly uncover them as things get a little cooler and the sun gets a little less extreme. Even then some might get some serious discoloration from the sun - depending on species.
But if you get that done then they have the whole Fall, Winter, and Spring to adjust and they may be OK without cover next summer. Even then some may not be.

That sounds like very good advice. Even here where heat is not a factor, too much sun can be quickly lethal. Your plants may do okay in the sun but only if you give them a gradual adjustment period. Remember that they came out of a greenhouse where they grew up in a very protected environment.

The most conservative adjustment would work like this, a couple of weeks or months per step: first bright shade, then a bit of morning sun or filtered light, then a bit more sun, then some mid-day sun, and only then a more exposed position. Make use of walls and especially overhead protection this time of year.

Even cacti that can handle full sun (defined as more than half a day of direct sun) in the ground will be easily killed in pots, especially very small ones. The difference has to do with whether the roots are being cooked (a feature of container life in the sun) or not (the ground is relatively cool).

There are various tricks you can use to minimize the casserole effect. By clustering pots, you minimize the exposed surface area. By using larger plants to shade smaller plants you can take advantage of even a little bit of shade. By using clay pots, you allow water evaporation to cool the pot. Just remember that unglazed clay pots will dry out much faster than plastic pots and so they require water more often, especially in low humidity. Once the water is gone, the cooling effect of the medium also disappears.

This message was edited Jul 6, 2015 10:32 AM

Thank you both for you great information. I don't want to burn up anymore plants.

Even in Sunny Massachusetts, I would ease my cacti and succulents into the full sun over a period of a couple of weeks. It is especially important for flat leaved succulents like Jade plants. Sun too soon,they will scorch. The light intensity from indoors {even in a garden window} to outside is vastly different, not to mention your heat. I live in Florida now near Orlando and my garden area is shady until afternoon. I repotted everything to terra cotta to make sure the monsoon season here wouldn't drown them.
Martha

Nice find Kursplat, love that avatar name. ☺

Some nice pups on the lamerei, I have one my brother bought me years ago, I've never actually seen any in the stores. No pups on mine. It is only 3 years old now and has doubled in height.

I came from S. Calif. hence my love for succulents and cacti, but I learned very fast that rain can cause more damage than sun here in FL. I've lost many to root rot.

My Lowe's had lots of new cactus/succulents last week, I tried so hard but some new babies followed me home. I have never seen a variegated Aloe like this before, on the right of first photo. The second photo in my Madagascar Palm, gets half sun and then filtered sun through an overhead tree.

This message was edited Jul 15, 2015 10:30 AM

Love your aloes sunkissed. I just bought that little crassula in the back last week at the Lowe's in Oviedo. I also brought several aloes with me from Massachusetts which are in bloom right now including 'Christmas Carol' which gets pretty red edges and is one of the bloomers.
Martha

I took a trip to Lowe's today. Not a cactus in sight.

Daisy

Daisy, isn't that interesting, go check another one, or Home Depot. I have at least three Lowe's no more than 20 minutes in any given direction.

Martha, I saw that Crassula lycopodioides and just had to give it a try, something new to me. The Lowe's in Oviedo is constantly getting in new plants, the one in Lake Mary/Sanford across from Walmart on 17/92 gets a nice selection also. I looked up the Christmas Carol aloe, that is a beauty, have not seen one around here like that.

I didn't get Christmas Carol from Lowe's. I got it from a grower at a cactus and succulent show back in MA. I divided the babies off and rooted them and then exhibited the mother and one of the babies at the Boston Flower Show about 3 years ago and won a blue ribbon for them.
But my Lowe's aloes and my MA ones are blooming away right alongside one another and one of the MA ones has never bloomed before.
Martha

Congrats on the blue ribbon.

I was back at Lowe's yesterday and they had some nice looking aloes with the red trim, one looked very similar to the Christmas aloe. Although these were in a ceramic planter with other succulents, priced at $16.00. They had a layer of glued rocks on top which I couldn't even pry away with my fingers. I could tell some of the succulents were rotting already. Too bad they don't sell those cute little aloes single. At another Lowe's in Lake Mary I saw the same planters on the 50% rack and there were only two of the four succulents left, the aloes were gone, you could tell they had been picked out, probably rotted. They still wanted $8.00.

You would have to chip those glued stones away with a hammer and chisel. Carefully, so as not to kill the plants. I got one of their tiny sago palms the other day that they market as an indoor bonsai. the pot was missing and it would have been half off of 9.00 had the pot still been with it. someone had stuffed the plant into a leftover plastic pot. When the guy came back out, he only charged me 2.50 and was apologetic that the decorative pot was no longer with it. I didn't have the heart to tell him that I would have smashed the pot and repotted it anyway, but he was ever so nice about it so I left him with his illusions.
Martha

I got 3 cactus from Walmart about a year ago. No labels of course but they were just too cute to pass up. I was watering the other night and noticed one of them (the one I had stuck by the 30 year old Melocactus) is growing a cephalium! I don't know if its just trying to emanate its elders or I really stumbled on a Melocactus at Wally-World. It makes me anxious to see what the other two might be.

My camera broke a couple days ago. I will send photos as soon as it is fixed or a new one arrives at my front door.

Daisy

I just took these pictures this morning. All of my aloes, the larger ones, are in bloom right now including one I have had for over 20 years {2nd picture} and got as a cutting from a friend who is gone now. Call this "Rose's Aloe" because she had the mother plant growing in her bay window and it was 2 feet tall and covered with rosettes. This one never bloomed until now.
The big silver one is from the Lowe's markdown rack. I found it languishing back there at half price with a flower bud starting on it. Naturally, I had to bring it home.
The last picture is Aloe 'Christmas Carol'. love the red edges.

I'm so glad Wal -marts keep the garden center off from the rest of the chaos, makes it easy to stop in and check out what new plants they have.

Martha, very nice collection and the one you found at Lowe's marked down sure was an excellent find. I'm glad you posted the Christmas aloe. that sure is a nice looking aloe.

I got this lifesaver cactus at S. Seminole farms in Winter Springs last week, I had one a long time ago and lost it to a freeze, so I was pretty excited.

One of my favorites: Huernia zebrina. Its in constant bloom.

I was just at S. Seminole last Saturday and saw one of those on the counter. I spent all my cash on a Dancing Bones cactus {Ripsalis} and didn't have enough leftover to buy the Huernia {not Stapelia, I guess, but certainly a cousin}
Martha

I borrowed my daughter's camera for the day.

The first picture is the 35 year old Melocactus sitting with its protégé. The second is the two cacti that came with it. They have not distinguished themselves yet (with a bloom or a cephalium).

If anyone has knows what they might be, please share your thoughts.

Daisy

Martha, I bought the plant on the counter, LOL. They did have another one hanging in the register area though.

Daisy, how nice to get a bloom, bet that makes your day. Nice collection. If I didn't have house cats I'd probably have a collection like that if I had a place to put them.

Do you all know what this one is? I thought it was so cute and they had a taller one in a planter on display, so picked it up at Lukas nursery in Oviedo.

That's called Eve's Needles: Austrocylindropuntia subulata

Thanks for the ID Daisy, guess I'll need a bigger pot. Didn't realize it could get that big. Here is a photo of the plant they had in a large planter with other plants. Looked nice.