HOUSE AND GARDEN 
August, 1912 
central plant. The loose bricks and a quantity 
of sandstone rocks, together with broken 
pieces of granite, were built up around the 
central plants, taking in the whole piece of 
earth. Every pocket of earth was set with a 
plant and the whole rockery was made to carry 
a variety of the freest bloomers. Nowhere, in 
the flower-decked city of New Orleans, has 
there been a floral feature more admired. 
The kinds described in these notes were 
grown upon this rockery. The common 
Opuntia, known everywhere as Indian fig or 
prickly pear, has nothing to recommend it 
for garden culture. Yet it is as hardy as the 
mosses, lichens and cryptogamous plants that 
grow upon sterile soils beyond the boundaries 
of vegetable growth. There are many unique 
and beautiful species that are almost as heroic 
and hardy as the 
type. Opuntia 
basilar is is one of 
the handsomest. 
In striking con¬ 
trast to O. candc- 
labriforrnis, it oc¬ 
cupied a place 
upon the rockery 
in question. It has 
broad, oblong 
ovate leaves in a 
large head around 
a low stalk ; hence 
it enjoys the 
name of cabbage 
cactus. The leaves 
are rosy-lavender 
exquisitely col¬ 
ored, and the bold 
velvety flowers 
are royal purple. 
Stapelias are 
closely allied to 
the cacti and are 
so called. The 
flowers of Y. sulphurea 
are superb in yellow- 
shaded bronze and cardi¬ 
nal. They are large and 
showy, freely produced 
all summer. The well- 
known Rat Tail, the Old 
Man and the Honeycomb 
cactus filled pockets here 
and there, adding spice to 
the variety. 
The crowning gem of 
this, or of any other bril¬ 
liant array, is the Echino- 
cactus radicans. It de¬ 
rives its common name. 
Rainbow cactus, from the 
splendor of the flat-lving 
spines, clustered in me¬ 
dallions encircling - the 
elongated, oval, upright 
plant. These shining 
spines are lovely in cream. 
Agave Virginica is allied to the cacti 
but resembles a palm 
The great advantage of the cacti in the garden lies in the fact that they flourish in hot, dry loca¬ 
tions which would be fatal to other plants 
rose and gold color. Rainbow flowers con¬ 
stantly in hot dry weather, without water. The 
blooms are brilliant, large and in construction 
and texture are like the improved strains of 
hollyhocks. 
Amateurs with a piece of hard, clayey or 
gravelly ground, a corner or any waste place 
exposed to the sun, may, without expensive 
use of fertilizers or water, have brilliant 
flowers every day of summer, by planting the 
varieties of cactus that produce flowers. Some 
unique and striking forms of growth are not 
florescent. Numerous varieties combine every 
good quality. The bold barrel cactus, tall and 
classic in columnar form, is one of the best for 
the center of a cactus bed. Isolated specimens 
are handsome and very well adapted to the 
purpose which we are considering, as the bril¬ 
liant blooms rap¬ 
idly succeed each 
other throughout 
the 1 o n g es t 
drought. The 
barrel or camel 
cactus carries its 
own supply of 
water. One form 
of barrel cactus 
sends the column 
up from broad, 
spine-edged 
leaves, not unlike 
those of the cen¬ 
tury plant. Cereus 
grandidorus, the 
true “night 
blooming cactus’' 
and the almost 
equally beautiful 
Phylocactus lati- 
frons, albeit the 
choicest of con¬ 
servatory plants 
and cherished in¬ 
bloomers, with- 
! rought with the 
characteristic endurance 
of the class to which 
they add such distinctive 
loveliness. Isolated plants 
of these two exquisite 
nocturnal bloomers even 
in one summer will attain 
handsome proportions and 
bloom profusely. In rock¬ 
eries as components of 
beds, these two, C. gran- 
diflorus in long, curving, 
t w i s t i n g , cylindrical 
stems, and P. mtifrons in 
broad, flat, wax-like 
branches, produce both 
harmony and contrast. 
Obviously, to succeed 
with any class of plants, 
door 
stand 
A rocky corner that would otherwise be waste ground may be well adapted to 
the successful culture of cacti 
some knowledge of the 
( Continued on page 67) 
