Going Native - with cactus

Think "desert" and you think cactus.  Yet when we roam around the desert, unless we go to particular spots like the Cholla Garden in Joshua Tree National Park, we rarely see cactus.  I like to drive Camp Rock Road in the Spring when the Beavertail Cactus is blooming.  Cactus is easy to overlook until it blooms and then it is wonderful.  Las Vegas has several botanic gardens with colorful cactus displays in the Spring.  And the cactus garden at Huntington Gardens is superb.  I want a garden that looks like that!

Since native plants grow best in an area, here are the cacti native to the Mojave Desert:

Desert pincushion/Coryphantha chlorantha            [I have no experience with this]

Beehive Cactus/Coryphantha vivipara                   [I have no experience with this]

Buckhorn Cholla/Cylindropuntia acanthocarpa      [I have no experience with this]

Gold or Silver Cholla/ Cylindropuntia echinocarpa               

comes in two separate colors

     

     


Pencil Cholla/Cylindropuntia ramosissima                            
harder to start from pieces than others
minimal water
grows on vacant lots in my neighborhood

Cottontop Barrel/Echinocactus polycephalus                       

do NOT water

identify by: 11-25 ribs
clumping
red spines
yellow flowers
woolly fruit

 
Englemann Hedgehog/ Echinocereus engelmannii                 
do not water
 identify by: clump of 6"-8" columns
 pink flowers
juicy red fruit



Claret Cup Cactus/Echinocereus triglochidiatus              These do not do well for me

     


Compass Barrel/ Ferocactus cylindraceus                
reliable







California Pincushion/Mammillaria tetrancistra         [I have no experience with this]

     

Beavertail Cactus/Opuntia basilaris                                       

identify by: magenta flowers
triangular bluish pads

very few short yellowish spines

Engelmann Prickly Pear/Opuntia engelmannii                        

identify by: round green pads

white spines

apricot-colored flowers

grows on vacant lots in my neighborhood but looks better with water

Mojave  Prickly Pear/Opuntia phaeacantha                          
easy to clone
identify by: bicolor long brown spines along top
1-3 spines per areole
ovoid pad, red fruit

     


Grizzly Bear Cactus/ Opuntia polyacantha var. erinacea
slow growing       
identify by: very long flexible white spines

 Beehive Cactus/Scelerocactus johnsonii                    [I have no experience with this]

 Mojave Fishhook/Scelerocactus polyancistrus          [I have no experience with this]

The opuntia and cylindropuntia grow well for me, but I have lost more small cacti than I care to remember.  The problem seems to be that growers grow the plants under shade cloth, so they need to be acclimated to our hot sunny days, not just planted in the ground.  I start my opuntia and cylindropuntia from pieces given me by friends so do not have that problem. However that means that often I do not know what species I have and they are not easy to identify.  Also, some of the smaller native cactus are hard to find in a store as nurseries tend to carry the more popular, showy varieties.