Among the Christmas cactus and amaryllis for sale recently, I noticed the retail stores in my area selling jade plants in bloom.

The New Year is barely over a week old, but nurseries and garden centers are already planning ahead for the 2005 garden season. For 2005, a number of new cacti and succulents are being introduced. In addition, a number of new plants that are suitable as companion plants for cacti and succulents will

Apart fropm the poinsettia, the crown of thorns is the most commonly grown Euphorbia. It is also known as the Christ plant.

During the Christmas season, the poinsettia seems to get all the attention. However, there are related species of euphorbias that make excellent houseplants for colder areas.

Many people give books or music for holiday gifts. It's hard to go wrong when you choose books. Stores have lots of titles on every subject from which you choose.

Most all of the economic news is gloomy, but even if you´re on a budget, Christmas shopping need not create problems.

Some of the classic reference books on cacti and succulents may be out of print. You may be lucky to find these at public libraries. In addition to books devoted entirely to cacti and succulents, there are other titles worth considering.

Gardeners enjoy seeing images of their favorite plants. Why else would we buy gardening calendars year after year? Images of cacti and succulents may not be quite as common as those of some other flowering plants, but they are available.

This is a story about how not to move your plants. Tough love doesn´t sound like a promising concept when it comes to cacti. Normally, I wouldn´t recommend it, but based on my experience, it did seem to work during my recent move.

Though we may often think of the stonecrops and other Sedums as garden plants, there are a number of native species in the eastern U.S. In addition, some introduced species have naturalized.