When I first met Heidi, 25 years ago, she had a little tiny peanut cactus in a little tiny clay pot. It did its cactus thing, staying relatively the same with very little maintenance, for many years. Then one summer maybe 8 years ago I put it out on the deck from June to September, and we were amazed to see it triple in size and grow a couple of off-shoots.
The following year I repotted it and put it out there again, and it grew just as exuberantly. At the end of that summer, I read that the branches that grew from it were called pups, and they could be cut off and potted themselves. Soon we had a big hanging pot full of pups, and they wintered over in the western-facing window of our guestroom, a cool and sunny place for them to enjoy their seasonal dormancy.
Today I repotted those cacti after another summer on the deck, and it took 7 pots to find places for all 20 of them and their pups. Some of the stems are 18 inches tall! How amazing to consider that all of those cacti came from one little thumb-sized plant.
Also? I think it's time for me to find some new homes for those pups.
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