The Cactus Trip Diaries

Angie had told me that she’d like to prepare a program of ‘Cactus and Succulent Plant collections around the world’ to contain images of cultivated plants grown in private collections, nurseries through to Botanic Gardens.

At ten o’clock we arrived at Miles to Go (S2350) where we added images of wet plants to our portfolio, as Miles was watering – I already had pictures of many of his excellent plants from 10 days ago when they were due to be watered – it seems to be a daily activity in the dry heat of Tucson. So it is OK to water and feed your Ariocarpus in March, provided that you grow them in 80% pumice and temperatures rise to 85 F plus and the plants grow in the semi shade, under shade cloth. Again, it was all too soon before the clock suggested that we should try to visit another nursery. Once again, thanks Miles for your time and interesting information about the plants that you grow so well. Wish we had a nursery like this in the UK.

Our drive through the Saguaro National Monument proved a photostop (S2351) in its own right as we drove through a forest of Carnegia gigantea. Thank goodness for fast food, as McDonalds stopped the stomach grumbling, so that by 3 p.m. we arrived at Arid Lands (S2352), the US equivalent of Ernst and Marita Specks’ Exotica nursery in Germany. That means a comprehensive range of  other succulent plants, although if you are determined, you can find some cacti as well. Now Angie has a major headache – how to select images from the huge amount taken. And that problem will just get worse / better as the days get on.

We finished the day with a quick dash back to Picture Rock Road (S2353) , into the Saguaro National Monument,  to add more sunset pictures to our hard drives. Did I need more sunset pictures? Can you ever have enough?

Another great day!