The thing I love about cacti is that you never know if you've cared for them properly until a year or more down the road.
After careful nuturing, all of a sudden, if you're really lucky, they'll suddenly throw out a bloom - but blink and you'll miss it because some only last a few hours.
Take the one shown here - I saw signs that it was about to flower last week and watched it closely every day, multiple times a day. And then the morning that it was ready to open, it rained!
I dashed out to capture it as best I could - isn't she glorious?
Several gardening friends have remarked how theirs have never flowered and that my garden must be a "happy garden". The birds, butterflies, bees and bugs - there are lots of those - seem to love it!
The cactus under the broken red pot is a year old, the larger one about 2 years old. I nearly missed the older one flowering last year so, like an anxious parent, I kept a close watch this year!
The fabulous thing about cacti is that they don't need a lot of space, they'll grow vitually any where and they're very forgiving, even if you forget to water them. So have a go at growing one.
They're perfect for the beginner gardener - but watch out for their spikes, some of them can be really brutal!
