I have always had a soft spot in my heart for newcomers to our hobby. I can still remember how I felt when the world of cactus was so new to me. When I came across this cactus in the photo, offered for sale on the internet recently by a private individual at a price of $175.00, I was reminded once again of the predicament of beginners who might be searching for plants to add to their collections. How are they to know if a plant is worth buying?
In the case of this 'beauty', one stem is bent badly and hanging over the fridge. One stem has been chopped off at the top. Another about two feet from the soil. And another is badly etiolated and sickly pale. There are good lessons in this photo though. The chopped off stem at the bottom should have been chopped closer to the soil. The badly bent stem and the yellowing skinny one at the top tells us the plant has not been getting enough light for a very long time. I might add that I don't blame the seller. They too probably don't know much about cacti.
This columnar cactus appears to be Cereus repandus (peruvianus). The photo is proof positive the plant does not do well in the home. It needs a sunny greenhouse.
The only thing this plant is good for now is to chop off all its stems and hope they produce new stems which can in turn be cut off and used to start new plants. Move the decimal point and it might be worth $1.75.
From The Amateurs' Digest Vol 18 Issue 4 March 2007
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