Giant cactus finds new home after Reporter appeal

A rare cactus that needed rehoming has found a new place to live following a Tameside Reporter appeal.

It’s original owner, Leonard Stewart, got in touch with the Reporter in October to see if we could help find it a new home after it grew too big to live in their porch any longer.

The call went out in our newspaper and online and so many of you responded to say you’d like to take in the flower, however there was one option that was perfect for the San Pedro cactus.

Andrea Jones, head gardener at the Sheffield Botanical Gardens, got in touch to say that they would love to take on guardianship of the cactus, displaying it in their indoor greenhouse for everyone to enjoy.

We put Andrea and her team in touch with Len and she arranged for a covid-secure collection of the cactus, which was then transported to the Botanical Gardens, at the other end of Snake Pass.

Andrea explained: “I’m the head gardener at Sheffield Botanical Gardens I have a team of 5 staff and I’ve been in post for 12 months.

“My partner Greg saw the article online in the reporter and sent it to me. He works in Tameside so likes to keep abreast of what goes on. I had a chat with my team and they were all for seeing if we could re-home it. I wrote and we were lucky enough to be successful.

“The cactus is Echinopsis pachanoi or San Pedro cactus which grow native to the Andes, Leonard the previous owner has had the cactus for 30 years and it stands now its planted about 6 foot tall from the ground so I’d probably say it’s around 35 years old .

“Its quite heavy and took 3 of us to move it up to the pavilions and replant it.

“The cactus had a couple of weeks in quarantine then we transplanted it to the cactus bed in our Glass pavilion. We have a variety of cacti on display including other large Echinopsis (different variety), Mammilarias, Epiphyllums and succulents.

“We christened him Len after his previous owner and I am hoping that both Leonard and Renee will be able come and visit “Len” in his new home in the new year.

“Len it sits happily in the middle of the big ones and look like it’s always been there. I think it will thrive and whilst the pavilions are closed to the public at the moment due to the pandemic, hopefully it will be much appreciated when they reopen.”