
8 THE STORY OF CACTUS 
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have seen gardens where the pots were buried out of sight and it would take a 
sharp eye to notice the cacti were not planted in the soil itself. This has the 
advantage that the pots can be taken up in the winter placed in a cellar and 
the: plants in no way disturbed. 
With a few cacti which take shade to do their best, such as Neomammillaria 
hemisphearica in shade, it would be advisable to have a large Opuntia arbores- 
cens (25) to plant them under or what is better, a Yucca (112) and as this 
is not a cactus, planting this would change your garden from a cactus garden 
to a desert garden. With a few cacti which take a lot of water, it would be 
advisable to plant them all to one end of the garden where they could have as 
much water as they need and not endanger the rest of the plants, as water 
which would make an Acanthocereus pentagonus (21) thrive, would kill an 
Echinocactus horizonthalonius (42) in a very few weeks. 
Placing rocks between the cacti after the bed is finished, will keep the soil 
from washing away and hold the moisture where the roots can get to it, also 
give it a. natural appearance. Colored rocks and weather-beaten rocks add a 
beauty nothing else will. 
PLANTING CACTI IN BOWLS 
Planting cacti in bowls (6) is an art and one can make a cactus bowl a 
thing of beauty or an eyesore, according to the way the cacti are chosen and 
placed in the bowl. The cacti should be of different sizes, shapes and colors. 
If a round bowl is chosen, (54) a tall species should be placed in the center 
and the others placed around according to size. The smallest at the outer edge. 
This in an oblong bowl (105) would spoil the looks as the tall ones should 
be at one end and work down to the other where the small buttom cacti will 
fill in nicely. The hardest are the tall and the square bowls. A tall bowl 
planted with squatty cacti will show up the bowl but not the cacti. So a good 
tule to follow is the taller the bowl, the taller the cacti. A square bowl will 
take fewer cacti. One can plant tall species in the back and small ones in front, 
or.a tall one in one corner and work to the other three corners but any way 
you plant a square bowl, some of the effect is lost. 
We have never approved of mixing cacti and other succulents in the same 
bowl but they go well together and make a pleasing dish-garden. Agaves, 
Aloes, Echeverias, Gasterias, and Sempervivum give a touch that no cactus 
alone can, but this must be called a succulent garden. Small figures of houses, 
animals and people add a certain charm and a old tray can be built up into 
a miniature garden (61) by using a few rocks, a handful of sand and a few 
small cacti. One of the finest we ever saw was made on a large platter, a toy 
hill was built of dirt, a shell walk led down to a looking glass pond where 
little pottery swans begged for food. A small clay dog lay on the front porch 
and horses and cows in the corral seemed to be so much at home that one 
almost expected them to knock down the fence and walk over the little cactus 
gardens scattered about. This garden well merited the blue ribbon it received 
at an Eastern Flower Show. 
DISEASES AND WHAT TO DO 
The Australian Commission gathered over five hundred different insects from 
Cacti in Texas and over three hundred of these were known to live on the plant 
or the juices of the flowers or fruit, so if there is an insect on your cactus 
kill it. It may be having dinner or what is worse, laying its eggs inside the 
plant and when they are hatched, the plant is lost unless the larva are killed 
by either gassing them or pouring quicksilver into the hole. We have been 
told this will bring them out in a hurry but have had no experience with it. 
The Asphondylia opuntiae or seed-midge is a minute maggot which bores 
into the seedpods and will usually cause them to drop off in a few weeks or 
else cause the seedpods to sprout and quite a number of small plant-like shoots 
will develop. 
The most harmful bug is the stink bug or squash bug as it is usually called. 
This is a black bug about one-half to three-quarters inch long and smells badly 
when crushed. It is called Coreidae anasatristis. This bug usually sucks the 
juices from the plants but has been known to eat the young opuntias to the 

48 Cactus garden at Radford School. 51 Cacti and rocks. 
49 Fort Worth, Texas cactus garden. 52 In the writers cactus garden. 
50 Mrs. Williams and her cactus garden. 53 Planting a Yucco in Hilltop Gardens. 
