Xref: 127.0.0.1 sci.bio.botany:18222

I am planning a cacti/succulent garden as drought seems to be getting worse
here (Australia) but I want plants that will get nice and big,
Many cacti & succulents are sold in pots as small specimens, but they can grow
quite big if you plant them in the ground. You can probably get a lot of
information from books that are written for the US Southwest, like the Sunset
Western Garden Book. If you don't mind the glochids (spines with fishhooks),
look for the Opuntia group (prickly pears). For large columnar cacti or
succulents, look for Euphorbias and cacti with -cereus in their name. For
something really unusual, get a boojum tree and its relative, the ocotillo.
They can be purchased in small sizes. Want something really big? Get a baby
Carnegiea gigantia. It will grow huge, but not in your lifetime. It may get
complicated if you have to import these, as most of them are protected species
& you will have to get CITES documentation.


Iris,
Central NY, Zone 5a, Sunset Zone 40
"The trouble with people is not that they don't know but that they know so much
that ain't so."
Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw), 1818-1885