Cactus Flower

Even though lots of quilters also seem to be gardeners, I've never really done very well with houseplants. I never provide them enough of some essential ingredient--light, water, food--and eventually they always succumb to bugs--red spider mites, mealybugs....or something else.

So I was amazed that these cactus plants survived. One of the kids expressed an interest in having a cactus several years ago, so I bought a six-pack of them, all different, in pots that were one inch tall and one inch in diameter--little tiny cactus plants. I think they were supposed to be novelties, you know, like the Venus fly traps in the tiny plastic greenhouses you see in the store sometimes.

I planted all six of them in this shallow clay pot, which is seven or eight inches in diameter. I did lose two of them, but the rest have positively thrived despite the abuse I've heaped on them. The fuzzy white cactus is now just about a foot tall, and those aloe looking things have become three, where there was just one originally.

My reward for neglecting them over the years is the sudden appearance of what appears to be a flower spike on one of them. I'm so excited to see what develops! I hope I don't have to wait another year for it to open.