I'm a novice. Help a brother out.

#1,3,4 cactus
#2 stapeliad
#4 Opuntia microdasys?

1 Mammillaria
2 maybe Caralluma
3 Mammillaria
4 Opuntia

@HunterSThompson

As you can see, we're a pretty helpful bunch around here.

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Thanks!

Thank you all!! This is super helpful!!

You've got excellent advise hope the growing goes well.


The prickly pear also known as bunny ears can grow 3 feet and has yellow flowers.

the stapelid genis has blooms which while exotic and colorful are foul smelling they are also called carion flowers.


the mammarias are as a whole a nice challenge rot prone though.

Mammillarias are easy to grow once you figure out that they really don't like to be over-watered and will react badly quickly if they are.

Not all Stapeliads have foul smelling flowers. The name Stapeliad refers to plants within the tribe of Stapeliae and includes lots of different Genera, including Stapelia. Stapelia are the ones with the reputation of smelling like rotting meat. I suggested this particular plant might be Caralluma sp., also a Stapeliad, but we really won't know until it blooms.

Thanks, plantsmylove and Daisy. The prickly pear is my fastest growing cactus. The mammillaria, on the other hand, is growing quite slowly.

The two are in the same pot. Is that a bad idea, given that the mammillaria is rot-prone and that only the prickly pear seems to need a pot of that size?

I've been giving them quite a bit of water for the past couple of months and there have been no negative reactions. I'll cut down on the watering.

Also, I accidentally took off some of the mammillaria's hair a couple months ago during reporting. The hair hasn't grown back.

You might want to pot them separately sense the cacti are different

Or enjoy as a rock garden

Hi Hunter,

Not sure if anyone told you about those nasty little glochids on prickly pear.
Here's some helpful tips.

If you get those glochids in your fingers rub them vigorously for a minute in dirt. NOT potting soil or grass. I'm talking good old fashioned, dried out, useless dirt. That should do it.

Make sure to do the same thing with the gloves you wore. If they're cotton gloves wash them and then wipe out the washing machine for obvious reasons then buy some leather ones that cover your wrists or higher.

If you are transporting the p.pear around the yard use a cheap tiny rug like the kind you put in front of the stove or in front of the toilet (about 2' by 3') or an old nasty piece of carpet. This keeps glochids out of your hands and helps steady the plant when putting it in the ground. If you still have a few glochids in your finger get a sewing needle to get them to the surface and and a pair of tweezers to pull them out.

The carpet trick works well for barrel cacti or any type of pole cacti with long spines or vicious agaves.

Forgot to show you an idea on how to incorporate both a rock garden and Mammillaria and other tiny plants like Parodia and Ehinopsis. This is what I chose to do with mine.

Thanks, Agave! Another Opuntia I had got sick and I was dumb enough to use my bare hands. I hadn't read your advice then and rushed to the bathroom and ran cold water through my hands. It worked. I'll keep an eye out for cool ways to make a rock garden.