296 



THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



[October, 



Greenhouse and House Gardening. 



COMMUNICATIONS. 



CACTUSES. 

 BY WM. F.'VLCONER. 



I am much pleased with Mr. Siler's article, p. 

 231, on Cactuses at home. Mr. Siler's name as a 

 botanist and collector in the far West has been 

 familiar to me for years, and I read his communi- 

 cations with much interest. In Eastern gardens 

 we are unable to give Cactuses similar conditions 

 of growth to what they enjoy in their native wilds, 

 but happily for us Cactuses are easily grown, and 

 cheerfully respond to love and good care. 



Hardy Cactuses. — Apart from Opuntia Mis- 

 souriensis, O. Rafinesquii and O. vulgaris and 

 their varieties, we have very few hardy Cactuses. 

 I have succeeded in wintering safely O. pescorvi 

 and some others, but with uncertainty. I have 

 found Echinocactus Simpsoni very uncertain; it 

 would live through one winter all right and rot off 

 during the next one. Echinocereus phoeniceus 

 and a form of Mamillaria vivipara I have known 

 to survive several winters, but not in my garden ; 

 and Mr. Menand showed me in a neighbor's gar- 

 den at Albany a bunch of what he called Echino- 

 cereus Krausei, which had been growing there 

 out of doors for several years. As a garden plant 

 I have found Opuntia Missouriensis the hardiest 

 and most accommodating of all Cactuses, and I 

 never knew it to miss flowering ; with me it al- 

 ways blossomed copiously. In the case of hardy 

 Cactuses I have found they must be grown where 

 water shall not lodge in winter, as for instance on 

 raised ground, and if they can be covered over 

 by some leaves, thatch, or better still, snow, in the 

 winter, they come through with less injury in 

 spring. My old neighbor, Mr. John C. Hovey, 

 an ardent admirer and grower of Cactuses, gave 

 me the following list of Opuntias which he found 

 to be hardy in his garden, ordinary level clayey 

 soil : Opuntia vulgaris, O. Rafinesquii, O. R. 

 grandiflora, O. cymochila, O. stenochila, O. hys- 

 tricina, O. Missouriensis, O. M. macrosperma, O. 

 M. albispina, O. fragilis, O. fusiformis and O. Pes- 

 corvi. Among those mentioned by Mr. Siler I 

 have tried Cereus Englemanni, Echinocactus cy- 

 lindraceus, Opuntia rutila and Mamillaria chloran- 



tha, also Agave Utahensis as hardy plants, but 

 all died. 1 would say here, that 1 have grown 

 some fifty distinct species and varieties of Agave 

 and have found A. Utahensis the most difficult of 

 all to grow. Dr. Edward Palmer, the eminent 

 botanical collector, sent me plants from their na- 

 tive places, and 1 have raised it from seeds and 

 coaxed it in many ways, but without avail; the 

 plants appeared unhappy. And this is the only 

 species of Agave 1 have failed with. 



Tender Cactuses. — I regard all Cactuses not 

 absolutely hardy as being tender and treat them 

 accordingly. While a few degrees of frost may 

 not hurt some of them, still it does not do them 

 any good. Epiphyllums, Phyllocactuses, Rhip- 

 salises, Melocactus and the more tropical Cereuses 

 as C. grandiflorus, C. Jamacaru, C. nycticalis 

 and C. cosrulescens like warmish winter quarters. 

 The general run of " cushion " Cactuses, Opuntias 

 and the like, if kept in dry airy places and inac- 

 active, may be wintered safely in a moderately 

 low temperature, but under 40° is unsafe. All 

 Cactuses delight in being set out of doors in sum- 

 mer. Cereuses, Echinopsis and Opuntias enjoy 

 being set out in open sunny places ; but Mamil- 

 larias, while they like being planted out, very 

 much dislike moist foggy weather, heavy rains, 

 warm weather immediately succeeding wet weath- 

 er, and cold or heavy night dews; all of these 

 cause " rust," and " rust " is incurable. I have 

 always grown Mamillarias and all other delicate, 

 weakly, new, rare and valuable Cactuses in cold 

 frames in summer, and covered them over with 

 sashes as a preventative against the above evil 

 conditions. In propitious weather they were fully 

 exposed. 



I I prefer planting out even in frames in summer 

 ' to keeping them in pots, because I thereby have a 

 I good opportunity to see that my plants are thor- 

 ' oughly cleaned twice a year — at planting out and 

 lifting time — and the plants grow much better and 

 bigger and bloom more copiously when planted 

 out than when kept along in pots. If Mr. Robert- 

 son, p. 171, had much to do with Opuntia exuviata, 

 I shouldn't wonder if he did say something 

 naughty ; but that species excepted, what in earth 

 is there in other Cactuses to incite an evil word ? 

 There is a knack in handling Cactuses. For a 



