Well, I took pictures with my phone, both of Old West and also of my "treasures" because I wanted to share them on the Cactus & Succulent forum, came home and downloaded them to my laptop, but never could figure out how to get them on here. For starters, I couldn't find the JPG ...I'm pretty bad when it comes to computers. I got an astrophytum ( I LOVE them!), a mammillaria with a ring of buds starting to open, two really cool variegated fish-hook cactus (I think that's what the guy said they were- funny aside: the guy was surprised to see the two variegated ones-didn't know they were back there lol), a nice-sized melocactus, an echinofossulocactus lamellosus or multicostatus and one more one-gallon that I have no idea what it is. I also got two small ones that I don't know the names of. Today I planted two 5-gallon barrel cactus I bought from them in November. They are replacing two I lost last year - I had three in my front yard and lost one of them a few years ago, replaced it, then last year lost two of them. Hopefully I'll do better with these. I hope I can get the pictures loaded because I'd love to give people a glimpse of that place.

You've got some nice plants there! I'm thinking the size of those pots is fine unless you unpot one and find it filled with roots (unlikely). Even though plants grow fine in the ground, they don't do well in pots which are too large. If you are getting new pots, I like clay, but just be sure the pots have a hole in the bottom. To the best of my knowledge, all your plants except possibly the last one, will appreciate full sun. Move them gradually into full sun (assume you are keeping them outside). OMG I just noticed the last one has a bloom! Nice! These plants keep water in their leaves (or inside the cactus), so if they are overwatered, they will rot. Assuming your potting mix will be slightly damp, don't water until the plant is dry, maybe a week or more. You can stick a skewer into the soil for a few minutes, pull it out and if damp, don't water. Don't water on a schedule, water when dry. Good luck!

It sounds like you may have two problems going on. Too much sun and too much water. We routinely have temperatures in the low 100s. Sun/Shade/heat: I keep my echeveria and sempervivum where they are in dappled shade from a nearby thin desert tree until about 11. Then as the sun shifts, they go into in bright shade from an overhang for the rest of the day. You might be able to stretch a light fabric such as cheese cloth in a way to cast a bright shade. You've probably noticed that glazed pots become far hotter than terracotta pots, so hot they can burn your hands and kill the plant. Favor terracotta if it is available, as it "breathes" - the evaporation of moisture laterally through the clay cools it. If you can't solve the sun problem, and slipping one pot inside another (as SunnyValley recommends) gets too heavy or too expensive, try re-potting, and line the sides of the pots with thick bubble-wrap. You have to tape the bubble wrap to the top edge of the pot while you are potting, and after you are done you can remove the tape. That has worked for me in places where I can't get a potted plant out of the sun. But the plastic lining means the pot doesn't breath, so you need to be careful about over-watering (see below). Soil: In the photo, the soil looks much too rich, and it will hold too much water. If you can find bagged potting soil formulated for palms and cacti, that is what you want. It holds just enough moisture, but not too much. If you can't find it for sale, try mixing gritty soil, sand, a very little bit of rich soil. But be wary that builder's sand may have salts in it that need to be washed out thoroughly first. If you can find washed pebbles, cover the top of the soil with a layer of pebbles 1 to 3 inches deep. This minimize the rate of fluctuation of both temperature and moisture content. Water: I water my potted cacti and succulents at this rate, based on average daily high temperature: 90+ degrees = once a week 80+ degrees = alternate weeks 70+ = every third week 60 or lower = one watering per month. Yes, even when temperatures are 106 in the shade, I water cacti and succulents only once a week. When I water, I give enough that it flows abundantly out the bottom of the pot. This washes away salts and minerals that can build up in the soil. Try not to get the plant itself wet; succulents don't love this, and the little drops of water act as a lens and can make burned spots. If you have mineral-rich water, droplets will leave behind whitish spots on the leaves. Lifting the pots on clay feet or pebble or pieces of wood, to allow quick drainage as described above by SunnyValley, is important advice. I feed cacti and succulents with a half-strength water-soluble balanced fertilizer (5-5-5 or 10-10-10) only once a month, only in the growing season. Note that cacti sunburn. Potted ones should not be rotated; their skin grows sun-tolerant on the side toward the sun, but does not develop sun tolerance on the side away from the sun. Yellowing of the skin is sunburn. It can be eased by draping cheesecloth over the cactus until autumn. Good luck with this. You should be able to make a very nice garden even in limited space.

@meanom most people here mix gritty mix as equal parts of: * granite stone that is 1/4" to 3/8" (no fines or sand) * turface MVP that is filtered, and many people here "cheat" and filter out only particles smaller than 1/16" * bark filtered 1/4" to 3/8". Fortunately, I found a local supplier that prefilters to 1/4" I would recommend using some root hormone to get the roots growing into that medium. Then fertilize maybe starting two weeks later.