Several months ago, I googled for plant groups and stumbled upon the Central Arizona Cactus and Succulent Society. On their website, I found out they were having a show and sale at the end of March at the Desert Botanical Garden. Since I lived in the area, I was excited to go unless something crazy happened.

I wasn’t too interested in the sale, but I hoped to find a few cacti I had been eyeing for a while. My main goal was to see the mature specimens of the cacti and succulent show, and it did not disappoint.

There were tables upon tables full of cacti, euphorbia, and other succulents with their ribbons proudly displayed next to them. It was adorable! When I entered, I was given a single bean to drop into any cup next to a plant that I deemed my favorite. At the end, they would tally up and see who had the most beans, and that person would get a prize.

There were so many cool plants that it was hard to choose, but eventually, I did. Everyone did such a great job maintaining these plants, and some really wanted the planter to work with the plant. It was a 10/10 experience for me.

After viewing the show plants, I walked through the sale side of it, and wow, what a selection! It was way better than the plant sale hosted by the Desert Botanical Garden earlier in the month, and I was a little overwhelmed by it all. I got the feeling that if I found what I wanted, I should just pick it up because someone else would take it if I didn’t. No one paid the vendor where they found the plant, and everything was paid for at a booth towards the end of the sale area.

I saw a lot of cacti that I thought were freaking adorable but didn’t want to get. I had some in mind that I hadn’t seen yet. I did see single monkey tails for $20 or a pot of 3-7 monkey tails of similar size with some tails cut from propagation that were $30-50. I wasn’t thrilled to see the full pots with some tails cut. It just looked hideous to me, so it wasn’t worth the price for me personally.

I was keeping an eye out for a peanut cactus (chameocereus silvestrii) and the regular rat tail (aporocactus flagilliformis), but I was getting towards the end of the sale area and losing hope.

Until I saw them. Oh my gosh, Sticky Situation vendor came in clutch with them. They even had FULL pots of the different types of peanut cactus. I can’t tell you how long I stood there googling each plant to make sure they were what I wanted exactly. The lady who was manning the booth was super nice and didn’t put any pressure on me to move on or pick something. I appreciated that.

I purchased 2 little rat tails to combine later into a bigger pot and a MASSIVE peanut cactus.

I hadn’t been interested in the peanut cactus, but I had found one for sale in a gorgeous pot at the beginning of the month on Offerup and told myself to wait. Unfortunately, it was bought, and I completely regretted my decision to wait until the Desert Botanical Garden plant sale was over to decide to get it.

It was a fantastic experience, and I am so glad I went. I saw some amazing plants and bought the ones on my list that I’ve been wanting. I can’t wait to see them grow.

I felt a bit irritated when, a few hours after returning home, I came across a post on the cactus subreddit by one of the vendors showcasing their first-place cactus. A comment on the post revealed that the cactus was one of the rarest in the world, with a similar specimen selling for $200,000 in New York. I had seen the cactus at the show but didn’t take a picture of it, as it wasn’t my favorite. Now, I regret my ignorance and my tendency to prefer flashy cacti over rare ones. Next time, I’ll make sure to take photos of every cactus I see.