Estate Sale Cactus

Around here organizations like the Kiwanis and Lions Club look after most estate sales.  They're great organizations but I suspect that by the time they open the doors to the public every member has had a chance to go through the loot and snatch up all the cool tools. 

Sometimes a deal can be had if you simply look where nobody else does. Today there are no tools so I walked around the outside of the house and I spotted a potted cactus on the far side of the house.  Once inside, I asked about the cactus and nobody even knew it was there. I offered $10 for it.  I think I could have offered less but I'm a giving person and the Kiwanis do good things for the community.

With Wikipedia's help I discovered the cactus I picked up was an Argentine Hedgehog, also known as a Red Torch because of the spectacular Springtime blooms, but I'm not positive.  We'll see if it survives the transplant or if it even flowers.

So how do you handle a cactus of this size to transplant it? You have to be creative and very careful. Gloves are useless, the needles are an inch long and there are hundreds of them. As careful as I was I still managed to get punctured twice.  Not bad says Yvonne but she only had to hold the pot. I used some nylon tie-down straps and now my straps are full of needles. 

Well, the cactus has found a new home in our back yard right between the Totem Pole (left) and Mexican Fenceposts (right) and the pot is being used on our front patio. Today, the estate sale experience was good for me.

This is a photo of an Argentine Hedgehog I downloaded from Wikipedia. Hopefully it's what we have. It will flower either Red or Orange next March if it is. 

In Alberta, we have weeds growing in the yard. Here, weeds are scarce.  We have a gravel yard and these prickly little guys keep popping up. This one is only an inch tall and I'm leaving it grow to see what it develops into.  It's too small right now to identify.