Stapelia hirsuta: this is actually the first one of these I've ever seen in my area. I love the velvety texture but not looking forward to those flowers. Not a fan of carrion odor in any form!

These two were $1 each and so cute.

Mammillaria gracillis

Epithelantha micromeris

And an adorable little variegated agave that I just wanted, even though I live in Texas and they're EVERYWHERE.

Absolutely beautiful plants, congratulations on finding them. I'm not familiar with any of them, please let us see how they do as time goes on.

I just got my first Mammilaria this year. It's not columnar as is yours, but the usual tufted cushion type. I love yours. Good tip on how sensitive they are to water. What is in your "Gritty Mix" if you care to say.......Maryl

I make the "simplified version" of gritty mix, from materials readily available locally; which in my case is repti-bark, granite chips, medium-size perilite, and ad-sorb clay chips, super convenient and eliminates the screen-it stage, which I'm not really set up for or even keen to do. I'm in Texas and most of my plants spend the summer outside. I live on a pretty tree-shaded property but they do really well with filtered sunlight in that mix. It's taken me a couple of years to get most of my plants moved over to it. I custom mix it for what needs more moisture because it gets hot in the summer here and if I did it equal parts, I'd be out there watering twice a day (no exaggeration, I really would). On the plants that like it a little wetter, I just add more bark and clay chips. The mix stays really open so even those plants' roots have never rotted. Most of the C&Ss get it in equal amounts, which dries out within hours of a good watering in the hot summertime.

So there is no soil/potting mix in your gritty mix? I've never heard of Repti-bark can you tell me what that is? Where do you find "Granite Chips" (as in what type of store)? Since I'm in Oklahoma I can very much identify with hot and humid summers. So far, (knock on wood) no problems over watering when mine are outside, it's just when I bring them in over winter I have to be careful. Do you leave yours out all year?.....Maryl

Aztcqn, that's beautiful! Thank you for sharing that picture! I appreciate the first-hand care tips. I checked it today and it's in a very coarse, very dry grit-mix, so I'm probably not going to repot it for a while. It will definitely get and stay nice and dry here. When you water yours, do you fully wet it allowing water to drain out the bottom? water it from below? Spritz it? So looking forward to life with this cactus.

Maryl, there are great posts on here about the gritty mix. Just do a search on Al's Gritty Mix. He's famous. :-) In case he reads this post, "Thanks, Al, for making my plants a lot happier!"

I got my Repti-bark at Petsmart. I got the granite chips at Tractor Supply. I got the medium perlite at my local independent nursery. I got the clay bits from the auto-parts store, a product used to soak up oil in driveways.

No, I bring everything in about mid-October. I have a small greenhouse, so some go in there; some go in a spare room on plant racks with artificial lights to supplement window light; and some go out in the barn with an LED plant-specturm light over them. I think I watered the C&S about twice all winter. Everything survived just fine.

Your welcome. ;]
M. theresae appreciates an open well draining mix. When I first got my little bare root nub. I put it in a coarse mix. It just sat there for almost a year (I got it in late summer). Stayed green. Then in Spring it produced it's first flower for me. Nex year it grew twice as big and added arms. So, once established they do quite well. If your plant just sits there for awhile it's just getting used to the conditions.

Be sure it gets sunlight for at least half day and err on the side of less water than more. No spritzing. I'd say all plants appreciate a drench and drain when watered. Looking at your pic, pot seems just slightly over sized for the plant, so, I'd water and wait til it's quite dry before each time.

Thanks Stonetreehouse for all your information. It has helped. I think I need to do two things - improve the drainage even more on my C&S mix and stop watering so much in winter. I was throwing a dab of water at them every week, and from results and what you say that's way too much. I need to be a bit more "lazy" when it comes to messing with them over winter I think. Appreciate all the advice and especially where to get some of these "exotic" ingredients.............That Mamm btw is drop dead gorgeous. I don't grow C&S for the flowers and have been pleasantly surprised at how pretty some of them can actually be. I need to repot the one I just bought, and hope it lives long enough to flower like yours Aztcqn...........Maryl

Maryl, I'm a compulsive overwaterer, too, so I understand how easy that is to do. That's where that gritty mix will save your plants. We're having monsoon rains right now, totally out of the norm, but I'm not a bit worried about all my C&Ss outside now that they're in the mix. I think some people balk at doing it because it seems so overwhelming to think about acquiring all those items that make up the mix, then sorting them/screening them that, personally, I'd never even seen/noticed before where I shop. That's why I just picked bits and pieces of advice and acquired the "approved" substitutes that would work, and found them all relatively locally. Piece of cake! ;-) Good luck with your plants. Looking forward to seeing pictures!

For Mother's Day, my sweet husband bought me this cute little Agave victoriae-reginae, white variegated. Its parent plant was the most beautiful plant I'd ever seen and my all-time favorite at the show. I told my husband about how much I liked it and he surprised me with it this morning. It's been a great Mother's Day. Hope baby grows up to look like "mama" plant.