2016-02: Unkillable Cacti Project

Since my roommates and I moved into our apartment in September 2014, we've tried to keep plants.

We inherited Frank the aloe vera from previous roommates. He lived in the kitchen window for maybe four or five months. I noticed one night the plastic bag we had him on was moving and promptly discovered our kitchen windows had no seals. Of course, by then it was too late.

I bought Hilda the bromeliad to try and replace him. She did pretty well, even after being mailed from Home Depot. She had a gorgeous red bloom and everything. And then one day she just fell over. Root rot.

We planted some columbines. They never sprouted.

Going into the 2015 holiday season, we stopped in Home Depot on a whim to escape the cold while walking around the shopping center and came out with Doug the Irish redhead cactus and Opal the little lady orchid. The radiators in our apartment are too high, and when we're not home to open the windows, it's often 90 degrees inside. Opal bud-blasted while we were gone over Thanksgiving, then dropped three of her six leaves. I took her to work for a stable environment. When I got back from my brief trip home for the holidays, one of Doug's three heads was covered in white and starting to deflate. I dug it and its rotted root out, treated what was left with cinnamon, and carefully observed and dosed the two remaining heads with soapy water spritz from a spray bottle to fight the mealy bug. The rest was gone within two weeks.

Long intro aside, I decided it was time to give my roommates plants our apartment couldn't kill. I was stumbling around the Internet and came across a bunch of crochet catci patterns and knew I'd be making those immediately. I cranked them out in less than a week to have them as Valentine's Day gifts, stretching my available yarn and stuffing to their limits.

Most of our guests don't even realize they're fake until the cacti come up in conversation. One of our neighbors recommended we put googly eyes on them. I'd do it in the future.

I followed the patterns, but I adjusted for smaller yarn weight and hook size, and often went by what the product looked like than what was prescribed. I find these are very freeform and very easy to make granted you have a little bit of yarn, a little bit of stuffing, crochet hooks, and a yarn needle. I did have to run to the craft store for the tiny clay pots, but they're cheap. I opted to super glue them on because that was what I had, but hot glue probably would work better, especially for ones that aren't spherical--I had to stuff the pot for the three-prong cactus because it didn't sit on the rim of the pot like the others did, and that pressure kept overcoming the bond between yarn and pot.