What source of light will these plants be receiving and from what direction will the light be coming? (i.e. North, South, East or West window?) If a north window is the only option, invest in a 4' fluorescent fixture to provide light. The haworthias and gasterias should get along quite well together, I would guess, since they come from fairly similar growing conditions. If growing in a window, how far from the window will this garden be? The distance and the exposure will pretty much determine what plants should be tried and whether the garden has a chance of success. I've grown haworthias and gasterias under fluorescent lights in my basement for 30+ years without a problem. Under fluorescent lights, there is never a cloudy day and the light is coming from directly above the plants so they grow very symmetrically. Growing the plants in a window will require turning the garden occasionally to keep the plants from growing toward and leaning into the light. If you're concerned about cultural conditions for individual plants, you could always keep the plants individually potted and sink the pots into sand or gravel to hide the pots from view. This would allow watering each plant individually and allow plants that like different watering regimes to be grown close together without affecting the neighboring plant. Individually potted plants will also allow plants that may not be doing well, or those plants that may have gone to the big greenhouse in the sky, to be be removed and replaced with a new plant fairly easily. Good luck! I hope you'll post a photo once you get this garden put together so we can see the results of your vision and the plants you decided to grow. Mike

crylady, Hmm... that defintely doesn't sound like a brain cactus lol. I'm not sure what that would be. Do you have a photo you can post, maybe someone can help you identify it? I didn't see a form when I clicked on the link to rjm710's URL he posted... I saw "latin name" on the left side near the middle of the screen and "common name" on the right, where you can type in either the latin name of the cactus or the common name. It seemed to work ok for me, I didn't see anything about ICQ? Did you click on anything right after you clicked the URL or no? rjm710, You're welcome lol. That sounds like that's all I can do, just wait until it blooms. I find that alot of cacti and succulents that you buy from "the cacti collection" or "the succulent" collection are mislabeled like crazy. I found two differents labels in two different pots, but they were the same plant! I returned one of the aloes/gaterias/whatever it is lol back to Lowes. I downsized my collection you could say... Elizabeth

Barb...both happy and sad....Happy he is moving forward with his life. Knowing he will go far as long as he stays focused on his studies, and learns to quit being so wasteful. Sad because he is moving on and we will be seeing very little of him in the next 4 years or so. We havent made any new life adventures yet. House needs some TLC. I suppose first we will get used to having a home with just us and the critters and go from there. Chell I used to be a dog and cat groomer. I loved it too. But my employer was a deedeedee. Never had the money to pay me each week and always "owed" me. And she never gave me my tips either.Then at the end of the year she reported more earnings for me than what I had really made.Fortunitly I kept records and proved my case and won, so make sure you don't let the same happen to you. I have kept my clippers, blades and accessories and still will do a neighbors dog or two once in awhile to keep my skills up.....but don't miss the hair stuck in places I did'nt know existed....lol. Love all the pictures the everyone post. Always enjoy seeing ya'lls babies. Regina

If you have no mold than there's no need to uncover yet. By about 2-3 month mark is when I uncover. It honestly just depends on what's going on in the container. My Ferocactus are uncovered now. Along with a couple other containers that had mold growing. As soon as I uncover the mold stops. I just have to remember to keep moist everyday. Instead of having them covered and not having to worry about them as much. I still have three covered. I will uncover those last three in a month or so. I don't like to keep them covered longer than three months because I feel like they start to need air circulation. Everybody does it different I'm sure. Whatever works:). As long as you keep them moist with some filtered light, they should be fine. All my seedlings are in a north west frosted bathroom window. This would never be enough light for most mature cactus, but the seedlings don't need direct sun. You can see the window in the above pic. That's how much light they get till about 3:30-4:00pm then as the sun is going down they get some sun. I don't know if you've seen this YouTube video, but this guy is germinating Astro seeds. I get the vibe he doesn't keep them covered long at all, but you can see he keeps them very moist because once you uncover the water evaporates pretty quickly:). Video:)