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isn't the easiest genus to grow but they survive cold conditions. I've had P. simpsonii growing in my garden in Calgary, Canada for several years. It's survived while Echinocereus viriflorus and some supposedly hardy Opuntia haven't.

The remaining North American ones tend to be odd but slow growing and probably not the best things to start with. Echinofossulocactus (aka Stenocactus) have many narrow wavy ribs and stripy flowers. There are several species of Thelocactus with strong, colourful spines and beautiful flowers in a variety of colours. Leuchtenbergia principis has long, leaf-life tubercals and long papery spines. It also has large yellow flowers. Astrophytum, with few ribs and white flecks in addition to the ariols (the newly discovered A. caput-medusae has long, thin tubercals). Ariocarpus are spineless, with large, leaf-like tubercals, which make them look more like Sempervivums (house leeks) than cacti. Lophophora looks like a hot cross bun and has small white or pink flowers. Obregonia looks like a globe artichoke. Pelecyphora strombiliformis looks like a pinecone and P. asselliformis looks as it's covered in wood lice. Turbinicarpus (which now includes Gymnocactus and Neolloydia) are tiny cacti, mostly with few curved spines and greyish stems. The former Gymnocactus and Neolloydia species are bigger and spinier. Then there are the rugged looking and weekly spined Aztekium, Geohintonia and Strombocactus. If you want to grow this group, it's probably best to start with Echinofossulocactus, Thelocactus, Leuchtenbergia, Astrophytum myriostigma, Turbinicarpus, Lophophora (illegal in the USA because it's hallucinogenic) and Obregonia.

Now for South America! The Trichocerinae is a large group of mostly easily cultivated cacti but its classification is a mess. Echinopsis used to be a genus of cantalope-sized cacti with huge white or pink flowers that opened at night and stayed open for two days. E. eyesii (short spines and white flowers) and E. multiplex (longer spines and pink flowers) were the ones granny grew on her English cottage windowsill. My favourites are the smaller species: E. ancistrophora, E. seminuda, E. cardensiana and E. obrepanda, which are sometimes classified as Pseudolobivia. Also in Pseydolobivia is E. kermessina with yellow spines and large magenta flowers. Pushing the limits of plants we're talking about here are E. hauscha, E. grandiflora and a few similar plants with clumps of stems up to about 1m high and huge white or coloured

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