What are the very best cacti and succulents?

[IainS]

If you wanted to show people the very best cacti and succulents, to enhance their appreciation of these wonders of nature, which species or varieties would you choose? Not your current favourites, or something hard-to-find that might be on your “wanted” list, but the very best of the best.

I'm British, but the American Hosta Growers Association deserves huge praise in my opinion for the criteria for their “Hosta of the year” award. A plant must be mainstream, widely available, and at a sensible price. I have agreed with most of their annual choices, selecting the varieties most deserving of special recognition.

So, what would your “very best” list be? Perhaps limited to 10 cacti and 10 succulents.

[Aiko]

Anything weird looking or gigantic.

Weird: warts and squareness of Pseudolithos cubiformis, twirling leaves of Albuca spiralis, Pachypodium brevicaule.

Gigantic: full grown Carnegiae gigantea, full grown Ferocactus platyacanthus, old Baobab tree.

[iann]

Lithops Not to everyone's taste, but fascinating to many.

[IainS]

Lithops Not to everyone's taste, but fascinating to many.

Hi, Ian. I totally agree there has to be a Lithops in any list. They're classic, even to a beginner like myself. So, if you could only suggest one type, not especially difficult to look after but still one of the best, which would you go for? (I might well take the advice myself, as I don't have any but much admire them.)

[IainS]

Anything weird looking or gigantic.

Weird: warts and squareness of Pseudolithos cubiformis, twirling leaves of Albuca spiralis, Pachypodium brevicaule.

Gigantic: full grown Carnegiae gigantea, full grown Ferocactus platyacanthus, old Baobab tree.

Hi Aiko. I'm probably about to be corrected here, but isn't Albuca spiralis a bulb - not a succulent? The only reason I question this is because we have several Albuca species at our nature reserves in South Africa. But, then, I've recently discovered that some of our Pelargoniums are actually classified as succulents! (I may be a professional grower, and way back trained in biology and psychology , but botanists do my head in. They lump odd things together, no doubt with good reason, and frequently change their minds with numerous re-classifications.)

[IainS]

For the sake of clarity, I need to define "show". Aiko suggested an "old Baobab tree". Who could disagree - if this included being in the wild or through photographic images?! I once slept in a deluxe "tent" high up in a massive baobab in Tanzania.

So by "show", I mean in cultivation, either in a pot or in the ground - temporarily or seasonally. (And it must be a realistic prospect that most of us could manage, otherwise theoretically you could have an old Baobab in your garden depending upon size and geographical location of the garden.)

And I wonder if we can all end up agreeing on a list of "the best", compiled by many?

[DWDogwood]

Mainstream and widely available, to show the uninitiated the greatness of cacti?
I'd move beyond the ultra common garden center species, to focus on things that are common amongst the devotees but still worthy of any bench space. I'd probably have 10 equal lists of 10, but here's a sample.
Uebelmannia pectinifera
Copiapoa cinerea
"Austrocephalocereus" estevesii
Ariocarpus retusus v furfuraceus
Gymnocalycium ragonesii
Eriocyse napina
Astrophytum asterias
Mytillocactus geometrizans
Turbinocarpus pseudopectinatus
Oreocereus trollii

[Chris43]

Who are we trying to impress? People who already have some understanding of what cacti and succulents are, or total newcomers? The list would be rather different, I suspect.

[BrianMc]

I think first we need to understand the question.

One interpretation of 'the best' could be plants that have stood the test of time. Those that remain popular and never go out of fashion.

[IainS]

Hi Chris43: I would say that the target audience should be newcomers who have a capacity for appreciation. I hope you will suggest a Mammillaria. My wife and I currently have two: one which we've had a few years, flowers several times a year, but hasn't offset (we don't know which type) and a small M. hahniana clump which we love, recently purchased. We've got M. bombycina and M. humboldtii on a very short list, purely based on photographs. To me, a cacti top 10 would have to include a Mammallaria?

Hi BrianMc: I totally agree. A good song, for me, is one that remains a good song 20 years later. I might be in a minority here, but one example - in my opinion - would be Echinocactus grusonii. It may be well known, but classic isn't classic without good reason.