Allen,
I am going to try the cactus pad you sent me out in the garden this spring. A true test for cactus is to survive in North Vancouver. Where I live it is only 6' above sea level and right by Ambleside beach so it is very mild (lowest temp this year -6.7C) but man does it rain. Just North of me is the Capilano rain forest full of Douglas firs, Western Red Cedars, White hemlock, Arbutus to name a few. I am probably in the driest area of the North Shore but that is like saying I am in the lightest shade of black.
It will be a true test of how a cactus can survive in a wet climate. I will put it in very gravelly soil and put a rain cover over it in the winter. But still the air is moist.
Wish me luck.

Good luck with it.

It will grow in moist conditions but the soil has to be very well drained. The canopy in the winter is a good idea. You will have to make sure that there is good air flow under the canopy.

Allen

Cactus outdoors in Edmonton? Now I've heard everything. Good for you, Allen.
6 feet in 3 years, Barrie? Jeez, you guys have perfected gardening to an art.

BTW, does anybody know what mine is called? I doubt it had a label years ago when I bought it.
I think they look stupid with a pole to keep them upright.
I'll put rocks around the base when I plant it outside. That way the neighbour's cats aren't scratchin' in there either.

Wes, the gravel sounds like a good idea. Are you on sloping ground (down to the beach...Ambleside is lovely, you lucky fella). Then all the water would drain away versus if it's located on flat ground (where water tends to sit anyway), it'd have to be a big pit of gravel with all the rain on the North shore.
Yes, good luck with it...what will you plant with it?

And Jay, OK, although I haven't seen cactus planted around homes in Vernon...didn't have my glasses on obviously!
Barb.

No I am on the flats. I have to build a mound to put it on. I probably will put ice plants around it or a drought tolerant annual in the summer and pansies in the winter.
I am also considering putting it on the south side of the house under neath the soffits right against the house. It is bone dry there most of the year. It means however moving a skimmia japonica and I am worried about killing it during transplanting. Does anyone know how well Skimmia transplant?

Wes, iceplant will look good with cactus, so would portulaca (though I've never had any luck...they just "disappear" a year later). I think mice or birds must eat them.
Barb

All I could find was a pic taken one year after planting of my O. linguiformis (Spring 2003). All the growth above the first pad was in one year, and three years after the initial planting it collapsed under the weight. Even at this point I had a bungee cord in place to support it. I wish these things would stand on their own.

Cheers, Barrie.

Barrie, sheesh what a ton of growth...funny the ones down south don't need support.
Maybe we need more gravel so the roots don't tip.

I'm smilin today 😀 got rain overnight.
Haven't got the raingauge out yet ('coz they always freeze and crack) so don't know how much, but any and all is welcome on this bone-dry slope.

I'm off to plant my cactus and other succulents outside! Grow or die...
Barb

Didn't get the predicted -5 last nite.
It was 0 at 6 a.m., and then an hour later it SNOWED....SIDEWAYS for about 3 hours. The snowflakes must've landed in Winnipeg, it was so windy.

Today we're burning our prunings pile. An hour after pile was lit, wind changed direction and I had to hose down a row of pines at the fenceline. As soon as I stopped watering the branches, ice formed.

I thought we'd ignite the dry leaves under the pines at the fence...I was sweatin' buckets worrying. But seems OK, though pile is still burning (a couple of old Lombardy Poplar stumps...good riddance).

Man oh man, weird. Now it's sunny but colder than... 😐
Barb

It's back to longjohns again... 👿

Cold, cold wind howling around the building.
Anything not nailed down is moving.
And it's all of 7 C...woopeeeee (NOT!)

I must be a lizard...I'm freezing!

Barb