Great tip Bubbles ... and oh so true ask me how I know.

Uh huh! I think we've all been there, done that at one time or another.

Yep. Ask me sometime about Stictocardia beraviensis - Hawaiian Bells vine. It grows three feet a day in the summer!!

I bought some lavaterra becuase a neighbor had a well-behaved thing that went 6-7 feet straight up in about one square foot.

Then I planted two that sprawled out to a radius of 6-7 feet, 13 feet accross, and looked like day of the Triffids.

I guess that was "erect vs sprawling" more than it was size, but I had to move those monsters before they highjacked my house!

Size matters!

Always a brilliant reminder!
That is one healthy looking cactus!

I wouldn't know. I somehow manage to kill mine before they get there!

My goodness that is a very impressive cactus.
I am ever so guilty of not paying attention to that tip. : (

I'm guilty of knowing checking the full size and spread and still putting it where I want anyways

Defying nature are we, Steven?

I have probably 30,000 lbs of water in my front yard in the form of three huge cactus, Organ Pipes and a Saquaro. To think they were just babies about 20 yrs ago. And the original owner of the house is long gone. I just had these specimen trimmed and the arms they cut off were SOOOOOOO heavy. Beauties.

Susie I fell in love with the saguaros when we drove to Phoenix a few years ago. What neat and HUGE specimens and how the birds hollow parts of the trunk to nest!

If I had a dollar for every plant I've stuck in a too small space, I'd be a wealthy woman now. I'm stubborn, I guess. (I guess???)

Sandi, which Opuntia is that? Fabulous. I'm planting cold-hardy Opuntia here and hope to have a "spread" like that one day. Not all over the place, just one sizable Opuntia garden. I'm planting Opuntia humifusa, the Eastern Opuntia.

I don't know the type of cactus, Tee, but it is very cold hardy and lives across the street from us!. Our neighbor planted a small one about 6 yrs ago in a space that the sprinklers wouldn't reach. He also planted a century plant (Agave americana) in the same spot. In March the agave bloomed and began to lean toward the street. He had to have it removed. If the bloom stalk had fallen, it would have blocked the entire street. He also planted the agave offsets across the front of his property. It looks kind of like a fort, only with St. Augustine grass. All went through the freezes we've had just fine.

It's an Opuntia of some sort. I wonder if it's cold-hardy here in zone 6b. Not all of them are.

My Saguaro is about 20+ feet tall. About 20 years old or so. There is soooooo much bird activity in it. Here is a baby Starling. Starlings are bad invasive birds. I don't like them much. They take over the Gila Woodpecker nests. The GWP actually does the nest creating, digging the pith, burrowing etc., has it's babies then the Starlings take over.







There were two baby birds in that cactus in my frontyard. Some how they made it to the backyard without being eaten by the neighbor's cats.


Gila Woodpecker on my Organ Pipe

Cool photos Susie. Thanks! Yes, the Starlings are invasive birds. I like to relate this story which the actor michael Caine told in his book. Starlings are so much of a pest bird in Britain that they have long had a bounty on their heads. When Michael Caine was a kid he hepled the family finances by shooting Starlings & collecting the bounty. I can't remember exactly but I believe he said it was 6 pence & that was back around the time of WWII.

There are some types of prickly pear that are definitely hardy in zone 5. I have a prickly pear that's growing in my back yard that I have NO idea on how it got here. Last year it wasn't there. This year, it's about 3' tall w/about 10 paddles. Definitely don't want it, so I gotta dig it up. I hate cacti.. I backed up into one when I was a kid & got spines in my thighs & butt pretty badly. Super bad thing was that I had a 1.5 hour bus ride home (we were at a school field trip) and so I stood the entire time. Then my mom, giggling the entire time, had to spend like an hour pulling spines outta my butt and legs and then dousing me in hydrogen peroxide, which burns me pretty badly. Thereafter: no more cacti for me for ANY reason.

A couple of years ago I bought a "hummingbird mint" (agastache) that the tag stated that it got to be 18" tall & 18" wide. So I put in an area that gave it a 2' radius. Damned thing grew to be over 4' tall and about 5' wide in less than a year. Took over half of my mini-rose bed. TAGS LIE.

Nice photos, Susie.

Susie, is there any research into a way to discourage the starlings from taking over the nests? It sounds as if the starlings are taking over the resources and limiting the reproduction of the GWPs.

Carey - It's actually legal to shoot/poison them. I hate starlings. We used to have painted buntins here in Colorado. I've never seen one due to Starlings & Sparrows (sparrows are an invasive bird as well). Here's Starling control: http://icwdm.org/handbook/bird...

OT: here's how Starlings & other invasive birds got here to the US.. stupid stupid STUPID reason: http://news.nationalgeographic...

yes, I try to fight nature sometimes and it usually ends up either I accept the plant as it is or it ends up on the other side of the fence.