I have a 4 foot tall healthy, thriving Saguaro, and I live in chicagoland.. It stays in the house in a southern exposure from October until June. It gets watered MAYBE 4 times during those EIGHT months! Once it goes outside, I water it about every 2-3 weeks in the summer, using a moisture meter as my guide. Plus, you must ALWAYS have the same side facing south, or they will burn and die..I mark my pot with a painted red dot, so I know to ALWAYS keep that side facing south..VERY IMPORTANT to NOT turn these guys.. You MUST keep these guys super dry in the fall/winter, and even in the summer, they can go awhile without water, even if its 90-100 degrees. They are like sponges; you can see them swell up when you water them, and you watch them start to shrivel up a bit the dryer they get. Remember, they are native to the Arizona desert, where they might get 4 inches of rain ALL YEAR..Overwatering will kill these guys, and that is what you did to your little guy..My 4 foot tall guy is in a 14 inch diameter pot, which is only a little bigger than they one you had your little fingerling in.

Christopher, You are right. I was looking at pictures of Christmas cactus and then they all looked the same. Sorry for the mixup. Sharon

moccasin - those are some nice lights! i can see why you like them. I bet they're more than 20-30 $s each tho... I loved that the globes come in colors... I'd stay away from the red tho. OTOH that could be good for an emergency signal to a neighbor. I'm too poor to pay much for the lights - even if I find a SWern one i like it's sure to be more than 30.00 and I think I should limit it to that. I need 3 - plus a few (plus) inside need replaced based on they are UGLY. I found these 2 at lowe's. both plain but would do the job - cheaply. it'll probably be the first one unless I find something better for the price in the store. around 25.00 with clean lines. I'd have to see how my chubby little fingers fit for changing the bulb. it's better I don't have to mess with those little screws and chance dropping the globe since things seems to jump out of my hands. I remember changing bulbs in the screw on globe type yrs ago. max wattage is 100w this one is about 21.00. I like it, again clean, simple lines - this one has a frosted globe. has the little screws tho and max wattage is 60w.

"Just wait until you have to pack up all that crap and move it." My SIL just bought a retirement home so they are decluttering their current house as a preparation for selling it--she keeps telling me she can't believe how much STUFF she's got to get rid of. When I go to their house I always admire how it looks nicely organized and without extraneous things all over. However, I also admire her tons of closets and storage space which she says leads to keeping, you guessed it, all that stuff LOL. I've decided I will play a mental game this summer and pretend we have to move; maybe that will be my motivation to get rid of much unnecessary and unused stuff in our house! I use the holidays and shopping for gifts to satisfy any yen I may have to be a retail hunter/gatherer. The past few years I increasingly feel as if I am gorging myself after staying on a careful and healthy diet; by the time January comes I feel so psychically bloated from all the shopping /buying that I need another year to rest up and recover! It's interesting to me to watch my young adult daughter who is setting up her first home. She loveslovesloves Home Goods, Marshalls, Pier 1 etc. And when I go with her I usually find stuff I could easily buy. I have a rule that I can't take anything from those places home the day I see it. That usually short circuits the purchase, I'm rarely motivated enough to fight the traffic and crowds to go back a second time!