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SEATTLE — Seattle’s favorite gardening expert Ciscoe Morris stood among dozens of potted cacti at his house and declared, "In case you haven't noticed, I'm kinda a cactus lover. Any kind of succulent, I love ‘em!”  

He had one cactus planted in a pink pig planter that was getting too big for its pot – which he nicknamed Pepto Bismol. 

"As much as I love having this cool cactus in Pepto here, I gotta transplant this guy before it's too late. I don't even want to touch this guy,” Morris said, showing off his tools to avoid injury, including cactus-proof gloves and a pair of tongs with pads zip tied to the grabber part. 

He said a really spiny cactus like the one he was working with will still poke through gloves, thus the tongs. Once he carefully pulled the plant out of its pink pot, he saw that it was, indeed, rootbound.  

“If I leave this in that pot too much longer it's gonna be goodbye Charlie,” Morris said.

He started scraping the roots with his pruners, explaining that if you don’t do this important step, the roots never go out into the new pot, the plant still thinks it’s rootbound. He filled the new pot with soil specifically made for succulents and cactus, saying it’s the only soil you should use for since it’s coarse and drains easily, which is what these plants need.

Morris is transplanting the cactus into a fairly large container because it will be sitting outside. 

"One thing I want to mention right now is if I was growing this cactus in the house, this pot can't be bigger than 1 inch bigger than the root ball, because otherwise it would hold too much water. But out here you've got sun, you've got wind. You've got evaporation, so things dry out much quicker. You can use a bigger better pot.”

That cactus safely transplanted, he moved on to another cactus that needed a bit of tough love.

"So this is my prize cactus. It has these huge white blooms that are so cool, but I can tell it's starting to get in trouble. This thing is so rootbound it’s unbelievable. But how in the world am I gonna get that out of that pot? Well, there's always a way!” he declared, pulling out a small mallet.

Since the cactus had grown so big that it filled every square inch of the container's surface, Morris simply laid the container on its side and smashed it to release the plant.

Cactus care requires adding some new tools to your gardening arsenal, but Morris swears these prickly pals are worth it.

Story sponsored by Dramm. 

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