Stuck on cacti at the Montreal Botanic Garden
Golden Barrel Cactus
I like cacti, but that’s probably because of a story my mother used to tell when I was a child.
Her father had a swag of siblings and most all of them moved to California at a young age, but he stayed in the Midwest. One year, he decided to take the family west for a visit. On the way they stopped often to look at the scenery. At one spot in the desert, grandpa wanted to take a picture of my mother and her sister, my Aunt Peggy.
The girls posed and—just like in the movies—grandpa kept telling them to back up until he could get them framed right in the viewfinder. Of course, he had to stop cold when my mother backed into a small but deadly cactus and ended up with a bum full of spines.
Oh the screams, and the rest of the night was spent lying on her stomach while grandma extracted the hundreds of spines with a pair of tweezers.
I heard the story plenty of times before I ever saw a real cactus, and it always reminded me of the cartoon about Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner.
So you can imagine how much I enjoyed visiting the cactus house at the Montreal Botanic Garden. Here are some of the beauties we saw. Sorry I don’t know the names of all of them. Let me know if you do.
You can also check out my posts on the garden in general and its Japanese-themed garden. Or check out the sticky stuff at Seattle’s gum wall.
Where to next? 
Hi Peggy,
Who knew there are so many different varieties of cactus! I especially like the flowering one.
Cheers
Louise
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And there were lots more too. I got pics of the ones that intrigued me most. Now I want to go back for another look…and another…and. 🙂
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