I’m on the countdown to the RHS Malvern Spring Festival and getting into the mood by reading Cacti and Succulents by Sarah Gerrard-Jones, one of this year’s new speakers at the festival.
(Given review copy. Not paid.)
Sarah – known as The Plant Rescuer online – has collected cacti and succulents since discovering them on a trip to the USA, cementing her obsession with an elderly, 1.2m-high Cleistocactus strausii that was looking for a new home.
“This white, hairy plant was the most extraordinary I’d ever seen,” she tells us.
And that’s what makes this group of plants so rewarding to grow. They are just so different to anything else. The range is wide from the familiar yucca and sempervivum (houseleek) to the classic desert catcus, opuntia (prickly pear) and lithops, which look like stones.
With the rise in popularity of houseplants, many are now widely grown, including kalanchoe, curio (string of pearls) and haworthia.
Cacti and Succulents opens with an overview – what the difference is between the two, the anatomy of cactus, how plants have adapted to cope with their surroundings with leaf shape or spines, and the way they take up CO₂.
Among the fascinating facts are that some cacti in the Atacama Desert collect water from fog, the opuntia is the most commercially important cactus in the world and has been eated for more than 12,000 years, and that the saguaro and organ pipe cactus are pollinated by bats, which time their migration from central Mexico to feast on the flowers’ nectar.
The book moves on to advice on growing, covering choice of pot, growing medium, light, watering and propagation. Light is the most important – “No one buys a plant to experience the joy of watching it die, so give it the best chance of a long life and healthy growth by providing the light it needs.”
Woven through are profiles of notable growers, including Paul Spracklin, author of The Dry Exotic Garden (reviewed here).
Plant profiles complete the book with a little about each plant’s appearance, natural habitat and detailed advice on how to get the best out of them.
Sarah says you don’t need horticultural qualifications to be a successful grower – curiosity and a willingness to learn are key, although the scientific language of many books can deter the novice.
The aim of her book is to bridge the gap between what she describes as “oversimplified misinformation and the juicy good stuff”, making a great place to start your cactus obsession.
Cacti and Succulents by Sarah Gerrard-Jones is published by Dorling Kindersley with an RRP of £25. #Ad You can buy it here for £19.63. (If you buy via this link, I receive a small commission. The price you pay is not affected.) Alternatively, you may wish to buy from an independent bookseller here. All prices correct at time of publication of this post.
RHS Malvern Spring Festival 2025
Sarah Gerrard-Jones will be discussing cacti and succulents at this year’s RHS Malvern Spring Festival, which runs from May 8-11. She’s one of a number of speakers during the event – others include Alan Titchmarsh, Adam Frost and Frances Tophill.
There are eight judge gardens at this year’s show and two feature gardens, while an exciting introduction is the first RHS-judged indoor plant gardens section. It will be part of the Festival of Houseplants – Sarah is creating an indoor feature garden as part of this area.
My favourite part of any show is the nursery exhibits and there will be some new faces along with old favourites with more plant stands and nurseries in the Plant Village outside.
There will be lots more to see and full details along with ticket prices are available on the website.
Make sure you don’t miss my roundup of the show by adding your name to my mailing list and putting The Chatty Gardener email on your safe senders list.