During our family travels, we frequented the deserts of the Southwest, with Arizona as one of our favorite destinations (and my future retirement state, I've decided). I gained a new found appreciation for the desert flora, especially after walking around the towering Saguaro cactus dotted throughout the region.

It was then I became aware of the growing local popularity of succulent and cactus varieties. There's some kind of fascination with bizarre-looking plants, and the cactus family has no shortage of those. As luck would have it, where I live in Southern California is a Zone 10a region, which in horticulture terms means we could grow most plants without worrying about extended freezes or frosts.

In 2013 after living in my new home for a few years, I purchased two large containers for the yard and create some mini cactus gardens. And boy oh boy if I only knew the addiction that would kick in. Before long I kept discovering new species at Lowe's, Armstrong, and our local Plant Depot, among other places. I kept buying containers large and small for all these collections. The rose garden that was once the focal point of my yard quickly gave way to all the cactus and succulent varieties surrounding them.

I soon turned to eBay where cactus dealers sell species common to other countries, but a rare find for North America. Only problem is, some of these plants tend to go for big bucks, with the super hard-to-find ones north of US$100.00! I'm not willing to spend more than $20.00 on a tiny plant, especially since it could die on you.

I'm literally out of room in my yard (it's only 18'x6' with most of it brick so not much to work with) so I'm in "replacement" mode, ripping things out as they die or start looking atrocious, and either re-pot or find something new to try. If I ever move to a bigger place with a sizable yard, hah look out world!

Favorites

Anything that grows arms gets a head start in my book of favorites. (That would be the Saguaro's fault.) A number of cactus species large and small have the ability to grow arms, so you don't have to rely on living in the Southwest desert to enjoy such things. This would include the Euphorbia and Myrtillocactus families. I also dig the geometrically pleasing species, such as the Astrophytum family found in South America and Africa