I was looking for some plants for the south side of my house in Golden, CO. My new xeriscape had…read morereplaced all my sod with rock. I wanted to add some interest so that I wouldn't have just rock everywhere, but this south side of the house has no drip line. Perhaps some cacti and other southwestern plants would be appropriate? I made my way down to the local nursery and found this cute potato cactus. Rather than the typical plastic stick with planting instructions, the plastic stick found in the little plant casing said www.coldhardycactus.com. I went to this website to see how to plant and care for this cutie, and lo and behold--an entire cactus website run out of a location right down the road in Lakewood, Colorado! They sell quite a variety of cacti, yucca, agave, all the southwestern plants you might find in a desert environment, carefully studied and developed to be cold hardy for Colorado. I promptly scheduled an in-person tour of the plants, which you can do online. When I arrived, Kelly, a horticulturalist, showed me around the yard and greenhouses and told me about all the plants that he grows. He knows absolutely everything about them, and loves to convey his knowledge about their origination, hybridizations, and ability to withstand our environs in planting zones 4, 5, 6, etc. My house resides in zone 5. Based on Kelly's guidance and my own taste in plants, I walked away with a combination of cacti and succulents; from your traditional spiny cacti to beautiful flowering gentle varieties with smoother paddles. With my brown thumb, and the little 1.5-2" pots, I was wary about their outcome. However, you can see below the pictures that I took in May, 2025. They survived beautifully, and in fact are thriving! I have to admit that the succulents did not make it through the winter. I suspect I did not provide enough water for them after planting, or maybe the site just isn't right, but I couldn't be more happy and proud of the many cacti that are happy in my yard. In one year, some have at least doubled in size! I recently paid Kelly another visit this fall, and purchased some yuccas and agaves this time to fill in some holes in my landscape. I have some pictures below of these babies. I'm excited about the prospect of a southwestern cactus garden in my south yard!
If you have want to add a little bit of interest to your yard with an unusual touch, or even just want to create an indoor cactus/succulent arrangement, I highly highly recommend visiting ColdHardyCactus.com. If you live in the Denver metro area you can pick them up from Kelly, but he also ships them anywhere.