Amazing Cactus Growth

I have to share these photos of the cactus that we "rescued." These were taken in 2003. It turns out that a colleague of mine planted two pads of this cactus in the planter back then and took these photos. She plucked them off of her mother plant at home.

(Looks at those cigarette butts - people are so nasty.)

So it only took 3-4 years for the two cacti to become monsters. That's an incredible growth rate! And here I thought they might have been at least 20 years old or more. That's hilarious, and given that kind of growth rate, we may have been better off just collecting a few of the pads and planting those instead. (Well, it was kinda fun to be in rescue mode and cram the whole thing in the back of the Volvo.)

I had advised everyone that we lay the pads down and let the roots grow out of the side. Maybe we should turn them right side up and plant them vertical, yo.