Windowsill Cactus: Escobaria Photo

These cacti range from low to high altitudes in a vast habitat from Southwestern Canada to Northern Mexico, and mostly west of the Mississippi River. Some varieties will only grow as singular stemmed plants while others will make offsets by the hundreds. Their spines help them blend into the appearance of dry grasses and rocky ground making these cacti most easily seen in habitat when they show the intense colors of their inflorescence. They survive best in very dry conditions and often tend to rot with exposed to too much rainfall. However, there are some species with populations that survive climates with heavy rainfall, and nearly all tolerate very cold winters. These plants are survivors in extreme environments, but any individual plant's abilities will vary depending on the genetic background of the plant habitat because they are widespread.

Their flower colors range from creamy whites , pinks, magenta and strange brownish green tones. They are small globular usually heavily covered with white spines and some varieties clump into multiple headed colonies. They are generally small globular plants with a few species that grow tall, and in good conditions they grow fast and produce flowers easily.

They need cool dry winters and full sun so much that they are very difficult to keep as windowsill plants. The best way to grow plants in generic is to keep them outdoors either in high fire glazed ceramic pots or in rock gardens, and choose species that will do well outdoors in the climate where you live. These plants can be very cold tolerant, but very few will survive harsh winter conditions of colder non-semiarid regions. In general they are very frost hardy, but only a few varieties will thrive in regions with heavy snow.

Seed Escobaria vivipara
Cactus Photos:
Escobaria five flowers	Escobaria flower
Escobaria minima flower	Escobaria vivipara New Mexico
Escobaria pink flowers	Escobaria pinkish greenish flower
Escobaria star flower	Escobaria white spines
Escobaria four yellow flowers	Escobaria four flowers
Escobaria long spines	Escobaria unknown hybrid
Escobaria 3 plants and flowers	Escobaria shrinking for winter
Twelve flowers