I have a new colleague who just moved here from Canada, and his wife wants to put in a cactus and succulent garden. I need some good recommendations for varieties and nurseries to shop at. I already mentioned to him about the Natural Gardener in Austin. So please help me out with some suggestions!
:) Kim
ok everyone...cactus recommendations..
Yucca Do Nursery has a great variety of unique and hard to find plants. Some cacti but lots of other 'desert' plants. Excellent assortment of agaves, sotol, yuccas, etc. They are primarily mail order, but will allow you to pick up your plants and save the shipping costs. They sell small plants, usually pints and quarts. They are a bit expensive, but you get what you pay for. http://www.yuccado.com/
Don't know of any in Bryan, but Paul's Desert Nursery in Schertz is one of the best cactus nurseries I have ever found. Paul knows his stuff. Has very high quality plants at reasonable prices.
My favorite is Lace Cactus...would never be without them!
My favorite nursery is The Great Outdoors in Austin...they have an amazing selection of succulents...but then they have an amazing selection of almost everything...and it is really close to crepes!
I also like Spineless Prickly Pear;
http://wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=OPEL3
Josephine.
I have some of the spineless prickly pear. But the trouble with this area...and I'm not sure why this is...prickly pear, spineless or not, does not bloom in this area. I can't recall ever seeing any of them bloom around here. The Lace Cactus and Cholla bloom well in my yard. The one spineless prickly pear I've had for years in the yard has never bloomed...nor has any of the spined prickly pear on the property. I'm probably going to remove the one in the yard.