Question
I live in Florida.  About a year ago, I bought this nice potted cactus assortment from Sam's club.  The fit fine at first, but now they are getting to be to big for the pot. I have a semi-shady place I am wanting to move them to.  Do I need to lay down any special soil for them? Also what time of year is best to move them?  I think they are "succulents" if that means anything. I am not too familiar with cactus.

Answer
Dear Jolene,

I'm not sure what type of soil you have in Florida or how much rain (only what I hear) you receive. If you are in a particularly rainy part, you will need soil that drains very quickly. In other words, it should have a lot of sand mixed in. By the way, there is an old saying in the cactus biz, and that is "all cacti are succulents, but not all succulents are cacti".

What differentiates cactus from all other succulents are areoles, which is a very highly advanced (evolved) feature. Spines, branches, and flowers all emerge from the areoles. The flowers in most cacti are very spectacular, where as most other succulents have understated flowers. Hope this helps.

Sincerely,

Greg