This plant (the two plants hidden by their flowers) was purchased and planted in October, 1993, and has been there ever since. Unfortunately, it now shows signs that it rotted out as a result of getting too much rain in Summer 2000. Fortunately, I have a few seedlings from this plant which could be used to replace it. Next time I will be more careful to keep excessive summer rains off of the Echinocerei.

I purchased this plant from Wildlife Greenhouses in Brighton, MI. They have a great array of indoor cacti and succulents, and if you know what to look for, you will find hardy ones, like this one, in their stock. Anyway, go to Wildlife Greenhouses and buy any plants with this name, and most likely you will have something as hardy as this one, which thrived after experiencing -20F outdoors. It is probably even hardier than that.

This plant looks a little like the plant in the picture labelled Echinocereus caespitosus var. caespitosus in Cacti of Texas and Neighboring States (Del Weniger, University of Austin Press, Austin, TX, 1991), but I'm not sure that's the same plant. There is probably a lot of natural hybridizing and local variability in this genus, and the experts mostly disagree with each other.

UPDATE March 25, 2001. The plant on the right has rotted out completely, and the one on the left is just fine. Both are actually cuttings I rescued after excessive rains rotted the original plant, because I hadn't protected them from the rain enough one summer.

Click here or on the picture above to read how I grow this plant.