Making the most of prickly neighbours
If you are keen to grow cacti and succulents in your garden, a society has recently been formed that could interest you
If you did most of your gardening in northern Europe before coming to live in Cyprus then you may have been surprised to see so many cactus and succulent plants thriving in gardens here.
Look around and you will find whole gardens dedicated to these wonderful plants surviving all but the coldest of weather outside. Maybe because the weather in Cyprus closely mirrors the conditions under which they grow in their native habitats, such as the arid situations that you would find in some parts of South Africa, Arizona or California. You may be surprised to know that there are many cacti and succulents endemic to Cyprus.
Graham Charles wrote in his book Cacti and Succulents, “there is no absolute definition of a succulent. To be a succulent, a plant must have evolved ways to conserve water in its leaves, stems or roots and let it out as and when the plant needs it” and if you grow succulents you will agree that this happens here in Cyprus during our very hot summers.
Take aeoniums, for example, in wintertime they have plump, fleshy, sometimes almost black leaves from which huge flower heads looking like golden broccoli appear on long stems in the very early spring. During the summer they draw on their own stored water and by October they are looking very parched and thin stemmed.
You will find some cacti and succulents in flower almost every month of the year here.
Some flower buds are swelling now as the temperatures drop and there is some likelihood of rain. Haworthia, with its striped, pointed leaves, is throwing out long delicate stems with orange and yellow dew drops of flowers at the moment. Crassula capitella ‘Campfire’ loves to grow in a sunny spot, which turns its normally green leaves and stems into a bright orange colour with the flower stems shooting away already.
During the early summer, there is an abundance of potted Lampranthus with brilliant flowers that shout out to be looked at. Portaluca can be used in summer hanging baskets with the jewel-coloured flowering stems tumbling over the edges. Unsightly banks and walls can be covered in Carpobrotus edulis or the smaller leaved Aptemia, whose pretty, tiny, red flowers attract visiting bees. Carpobrotus, which also goes by the name of the Hottentot Fig, is known here as Aphrodite’s Tresses and you can see why as the ‘leaves’ look like layers of waved hair as they pour down a bank or wall. Euphorbias provide year-round colour and make good pot plants. Their bright red, pinky-cream or lime coloured flowers hide away beneath the very prickly stems, so take care when handling these. Not all cactus and succulents have prickles and some are very smooth indeed. However, lots of them are covered in very fine hairs which are the very devil to get out of clothes or skin.
The current craze for minimalism in gardens surrounding very modern houses makes cacti and succulents very suitable plants for people with little time for gardening. Agave americanum ‘Variegatum’ with their curving stems creating much enclosed space make very bold statements sitting as they sometimes do among gravel or pebbles and requiring little else to show them off. Yuccas, soaring skywards and sometimes with many branches, give height to clusters of other cacti beneath them. There is so much to choose from.
Sometimes whole gardens are devoted to them as enthusiasts show off their gardening skills with their favourite plants and a group of such people got together and formed a club here in Cyprus this summer called the Cyprus Cactus and Succulent Society. There are many other such societies around the world but this is the first time that such a club has formed here. The founding members are hoping to make contact with the hundreds of other enthusiasts on the island. Their aims are to help inform and educate other cacti lovers about the cultivation and propagation of cacti and succulents and contribute to the preservation of them in the wild.
Mary Michaelides is the society’s spokesman and is keen to hear from anyone interested in joining the club. Meetings are currently being held in the meeting rooms at Nicosia’s Acropolis Park by kind permission of the Strovolos Municipality and Mary is hoping that there could be other venues in other parts of the island in time. A calendar of events has been arranged with the likelihood of shows, field trips and help with identification of plants, which in itself is a very tricky subject as there are so many all too similar.
So, if cacti and succulents are your hobby do get in touch with Mary as soon as possible so that you can be included in the forthcoming programme. You can download an enrolment form from the internet by emailing Mary at [email protected]
