Today I want to show you one of the most interesting and beautiful cactus collections in Australia: CACTUS COUNTRY in Strathmerton, Victoria.

Some of you may already know about this wonderful place, but for everyone that´s new to this community it´s my great pleasure to give you an impression of some of their plants. CACTUS COUNTRY has been around for over 25 years and with all the giant and flowering sized cacti it looks better every year. The CACTUS COUNTRY collection covers a 10 acre site and is located 30 minutes north of Shepparton.
If you ever happen to have some free time to kill and want to see some incredible cacti, please pay them a visit and support them by taking one of their famous tours.
Cactus Country can also be booked for special occasions such as wedding ceremonies or parties.
Imagine celebrating your birthday with thousands of flowering cacti all around…sure sounds like fun to me. 😉 The owners Jim and Julie Hall also rent out the location for movies, photo shoots, weddings and functions in general. If you ever came across some wedding photos with huge cacti all around on social media, then chances are that it was at Cactus Country.

Below you can also find  their contact information so you can get in touch with Jim and Julie to inquire about tours or visits. An average tour is 40 minutes and visitors can choose plants during the tour and buy a cutting. They also have a plant sales area with many options of species and sizes. Besides all of that, they have a Mexican cafe for the visitors, where they can try cactus cake and cactus ice cream.

So yeah, it´s very important to me to support their amazing collection and to make you aware of the great stuff they have. There aren´t so many cactus collections of this size and it costs a lot of money to keep all the plants healthy and to maintain the collection.

Below you can find a small part of the photos that they post and these are really just the tip of the iceberg.  I am very proud that I can show some of them here on Trichocereus.net.

CACTUS COUNTRY 
4986 Murray Valley Highway
Strathmerton, VIC 3641
0427 745 271
info@cactuscountry.com.au
Website: http://aloeessenceaustralia.com

The following photos show just a small part of the plants you can see there. There are not only Trichocereus, but Neoraimondia, Soehrensia, Hildewintera and many more. Check them out!

Trichocereus ‘J2’ (Echinopsis) Cactus Country

J2 is a hybrid from Cactus Country.

Just like the other J-hybrids, this clone comes from Cactus Country in Strathmerton, Australia. They were named after the owner Jim, who built an amazing collection filled with beautiful Trichos.

Most people call this an Echinopsis pachanoi, but I do not agree. The distance between the areoles and the flower indicate a Trichocereus bridgesii hybrid. If not as the mother, then as the father.The clone clone was propagated and distributed by SAB forum member PD, who still uses the J hybrids for hybrid cultivation. All of them, including the J2 are hybrids.

J1 = Trichocereus peruvianus / pachanoi hybrid. Apart from the long spines, it looks like a Tr. pachanoi.

J2 = Trichocereus bridgesii hybrid or hybrid between Trichocereus pachanoi and Trichocereus bridgesii.

J3 = Trichocereus peruvianus

JB = Trichocereus bridgesii

If you want to see more photos of the J hybrids and clones, you can check out our Trichocereus Facebook group: https://facebook.com/groups/trichocereus

J2 in Cactus Country – Photo: Rodni Kisar

Trichocereus ‘Psycho0’ Echinopsis lageniformis

Psycho0 is an Australian Trichocereus clone. It belongs to Echinopsis lageniformis.

The clone was dedicated to the same-named SAB member, who unfortunately died at a very young age. It has always been a very popular clone that was given to many members on SAB. It spread through the Cactus community very fast and it´s a nice thing to see that so many people still keep our lost friend in mind. The clone originally came from Cactus Country, the legendary cactus garden in Strathmerton, Australia.

PSYCHO0 is an Echinopsis lageniformis with long, strong spines that are yellow in color. The plants usually have three very strong spines, that look pretty unique, though it can sometimes look like a more typical Echinopsis lageniformis.

Copyright: lhb2444

Hybrids

This nice Trichocereus terscheckii x  PYCHO0 is a great example for an amazing hybrid.