Quick, name a houseplant that you don’t have to water much. Right! The Cactus. My son loves cactuses. He kept one for years and we weren’t sure if it was alive or not. Then all of a sudden it just started blooming! Incredible.
CHAPTER XXV.
CACTUSES
For singularity and grotesqueness of form, as well as for the exceptional conditions under which they grow to the best advantage, no class of plants is more remarkable than the Cactaceæ. Of these, about a thousand species have been described by botanists; nearly all are indigenous to the New World, though but a small proportion are in cultivation. Cactuses delight in a dry, barren, sandy soil.
They are naturally children of the desert. It is said by travellers that many of the species bear edible fruit, resembling somewhat in taste the gooseberry. So much for the peculiarities of the Cactus family in its native localities, but how can we succeed in cultivating the plants with satisfactory results in the window-garden?
There are two simple methods of treatment that Cactuses should receive, namely: First, keep the soil about them constantly dry, and keep them in a warm place. Secondly, the soil should be of a poor quality, mixed with a little brick dust, and they should never be allowed too much pot room. If either of these two points are observed in the treatment of Cactuses, there will be no difficulty in keeping them in a flourishing condition all the time.
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