Moxie Gardener

Cold-hardy cactus growing in Minneapolis.

It’s amazing what you find on a leisurely stroll through an urban neighborhood. Imagine my surprise when I found the cactus in the photo at right spilling over the retaining wall of a neighbor’s front yard.

So enchanted was I that I didn’t even see her dogs until they startled me. They turned out to be friendly, but their barking brought the owner of the cactus out of the house.

She told me that she had brought it from Phoenix last spring. She had simply dug it up out of her yard there. When she got here she plopped it into a perennial bed, which is where I found it.

There are many cold-hardy varieties of cactus native to the mountains and high deserts of the southwestern United States and Mexico. Many are hardy to 25 degrees below zero.

I know that our winter temperatures were not colder than that this past year. We also had a consistent snow cover, which no doubt helped to protect the cactus from extreme temperatures.

If you want to try to grow hardy cactus in your urban garden, you’ll find several sites online that offer small plants.

Cactus need good drainage. They prefer to grow in poor, unimproved soil where the water drains away quickly after it rains. If your soil is a heavy clay resign yourself to the fact that it will be difficult, if not impossible, to successfully grow cactus.

Plant them in full sun. They do best in raised beds or at the edge of a retaining wall that faces southwest. That’s exactly where this cactus is growing.

Gently shake off any soil that is clinging to the roots. Plant cactus like you do iris, in a shallow hole just barely below the surface of the surrounding soil. Spread the roots out evenly and backfill so that the crown is just above the surface of the soil. Gently jiggle the plant back and forth to settle the dirt around the roots. Do not firm the soil with your hands.

Wait a day or two after transplanting before watering. This gives it a chance to callus over.

In early fall stop watering, although natural rainfall is OK. Cactus need a dry period before winter to toughen up. This helps them more easily survive winter’s freezing temperatures.

Don’t write them off too early when spring comes around. This cactus didn’t break into bud until late May. My neighbor had given it up for dead. She said it looked shriveled. Then suddenly it sprouted new growth.

I think the buds look like the tips of asparagus.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 4th, 2009 at 8:06 PM and is filed under Perennials. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.