Cactuses and succulent plants for indoor growing

Garden
July 29, 2024
Lorraine Alice
4 images

Cactuses and succulent plants with their slow growth and the ability to survive without normal illumination and water for months are very original and interesting interior decoration solution. The variety of sizes and shapes allows them to be used in rooms of all purposes, styles, and sizes.

In the interiors of any style, from baroque to rustic, from antique to modern, there is always a place for cactus room decor. Cactus plants are an excellent material for creating any composition. They look wonderful in the combination with other plants, stones, shells, and driftwood.

Using cactuses in interior room design

Plants for cactus garden ideas should be quite large, firmly fixed in pots and hanging baskets, do not contain brittle branches and, especially, big thorns. Do not use too spreading plants for interior decoration, as well as succulents with fluff and white hairs because this unusual beauty very quickly turns into gray prickly freaks in the dry and often dusty air.

Conditions inside the room are very unfavorable for cactuses, so the main task is not to let them grow as long as possible and thereby preserve their decorativeness. Plants placed in the depth of the room should not be watered at all. They are only sprayed and wiped with a damp cloth.

The better conditions for cactuses in the interior can be achieved in the hothouses built specially for them in the center of the room or near the walls. Such greenhouses can play the role of an artificial window or dividing wall. Humid air and special lighting allow the plant to grow, but this does not always work out in the absence of natural sunlight. Though it’s good that some species from the rainforests nevertheless can bloom and in such uncomfortable conditions.

Optimal soil composition for growing cactuses

The composition of soil for planting cactuses and succulent plants is not so important. The main thing is the structure of soil compound and acidity, as well as the ratio of nutrients and the number of them. Undoubtedly, the absence of various pests and fungi, dangerous for the roots in the soil is vitally important for the plants.

Traditionally, either several mixtures or just one “universal”, which can be changed by various additives are used for growing cactuses. It has long been proven that all cactuses in collections can be divided into 2 groups:

mountain and desert plants growing in heavy (clay) soils with slightly alkaline or neutral reaction;
steppe and forest cactuses, usually having branched roots requiring light powdery mixtures with an acidic or slightly acidic reaction.

Soil mixes should be prepared about a month before planting, stored in a moist slightly light state in order to restore the necessary soil qualities. But the process of restoring the microflora of the soil can be accelerated. The cooled ground is mixed with adding to it a small part of the mixture, where healthy cactuses previously grew.