Firesticks Cactus Outdoors With New Annual Growth - Year Eight - August 2026

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I have a mixed record with house plants.  I am (usually) pretty good with what I'll call 'project house plants'.  Those are things like Amaryllis that I can grow from a bulb for Christmas that have a defined season and duration.  I've tried other houseplants and I usually get bored of them.  Nat, on the other hand, maintains a number of her own houseplants and she's been a good steward of the ones she's grown.  That includes some good runs with Orchids that she's nurtured into re-blooming. 

But, I *do* have one houseplant that I've kept alive for a while.  In fact, I call this the eighth year of growing it:  my firesticks cactus.  Planted in a small orange pot back in the Spring of 2018.  It was small, green and maybe five inches tall.  

Today, it is taller.  Fuller.  And more well-branched.    Below is a photo showing the current state of my Firesticks cactus as it lives out on our back stoop during the Summer. 

Firesticks Cactus After Eight Years In A Small Pot

Last year, I posted about the Firesticks in Summer and called it my seventh growing season.  

2024 post - year six.  It has grown quite a bit since then.  

2023 - year five.  Same pot as today.  

February 2022 - year four.  This was earlier in the growing season before I move it outside.   

I don't seem to have:

2021 - year three

2020 - year two

2019 - year one.

But, here's the 'origin' post from March 2018 when I bought it.  

In the February 2022 post, I talk about the pot, so it appears that the original pot (the orange one) broke sometime between 2019 and February 2022.   It seems that in each of the subsequent posts, I've mentioned that I should (perhaps) repot this.  It is getting pretty top-heavy now, but it seems happy in this small, cramped pot.  The only consideration for repotting for me (right now) is to (maybe?) find something that is heavier and has a wider base that can help it from tipping over.  I have to wedge it in against the stairs and some other pots to keep it set in place firmly. 

I bring it in each Fall and it spends the Winter down on a window ledge in our basement.  Where I neglect it.  It gets light, but no water.  And, it seems to tolerate that neglect because it springs to life when I bring it back outside in the late Spring.  

Location: Downers Grove, IL, USA

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