Arizona Oddities

Main Menu

  • Home
  • Your Guides
  • Departments
    • Art
    • Dose of History
    • Culture
    • Natural Surroundings
    • Odd Observations
    • Weather Talk
    • Food & Dining
    • Small Town Scene
    • Recreation
    • Only in Arizona
  • Get the Books
  • Contact Us

logo

Arizona Oddities

  • Home
  • Your Guides
  • Departments
    • Art
    • Dose of History
    • Culture
    • Natural Surroundings
    • Odd Observations
    • Weather Talk
    • Food & Dining
    • Small Town Scene
    • Recreation
    • Only in Arizona
  • Get the Books
  • Contact Us
Natural SurroundingsWeather Talk
Home›Natural Surroundings›Why Do People Put Cups on Cacti?

Why Do People Put Cups on Cacti?

By Andrea Aker
December 15, 2011
9761
4

Excerpt from Valley 101: The Great Big Book of Life, a collection of Clay Thompson’s columns for The Arizona Republic. (Originally published December 14, 1999.)

Cups on Cacti

Cups on cacti in the Town of Carefree. Photo Credit: Violet Killen

Q: My husband and I recently drove to Cave Creek and along the way we noticed many people had put plastic-foam cups on their cacti. I said this is for protection from the frost, but my husband said it was some sort of Christmas decoration. Who wins?

A: You know, your mother was right: You could have done better.

As entertaining as it would be to tell you that, yes, placing plastic-foam cups on cacti is a treasured holiday tradition dating back to the earliest Spanish settlers, we must tell the truth: Your husband is 100 percent wrong.

The cups are for frost protection.

We doubled-checked this with Patrick Quirk, a cactus horticulturist at the Desert Botanical Garden, which, by the way, is a swell place and a great spot to dump winter visitors for an afternoon.

Plastic-foam cups can trap just enough warmer air to protect the growing tip of a cactus. Plus, they won’t blow off, and they’re easier to use than the old sheet or whatever that you might use to cover your petunias on a chilly night.

And we have more chilly nights than you might expect. The dates of the first and last frosts vary depending on what part of the Valley you live in. Generally, the outlying parts of town are chillier than the closer-in neighborhoods. For instance, the average first and last frost dates for Laveen are Nov. 27 and Feb. 21, while the average season at Sky Harbor International Airport is Dec. 12 to Feb. 7.

Cactuses seem to have survived around here for ages without the benefit of foam cups. So why start now?

Because, Quirk said, the cupped cactuses you saw probably weren’t from around here.

Cactuses have adapted to cold weather as far north as Cape Cod, and our local varieties, such as the saguaro, aren’t especially at risk from frost.

But homeowners or landscapers who bring in cactus from farther south—Mexico or the Caribbean or South America—need to take steps to protect their imports.

(Visited 5,158 times, 1 visits today)

Related Posts:

  1. Why Do People Paint Citrus Tree Trunks White?
  2. Frequently Asked Questions About Saguaros
  3. Why Don’t Cactus Wrens Impale Themselves?
  4. Yes, it’s Hot. Famous People Who Said it Best.
  5. Saguaros Refuse To Tell Their Ages
Tagscarefreecave creekplantsweather

4 comments

  1. Freezing | Glenrosa Journeys 11 December, 2013 at 21:00 Reply

    […] an unusual sight but it’s what people here do. Keep warm wherever you are, however you […]

  2. Tony Pantera 18 December, 2014 at 22:52 Reply

    Frost protection? I thought those were Foam Cup Plants. Isn’t that how they grow cups?

  3. Russell C. Lewis 24 December, 2016 at 12:10 Reply

    Wow, was there possibly a way to just answer the question WITHOUT being insulting to the husband?
    Perhaps your spouse’s mother said the same thing about you.

  4. Derek 28 April, 2020 at 17:50 Reply

    I have to agree that being insulting to the husband was out of line.

Leave a reply Cancel reply

Arizona Oddities Archive

Most Popular Posts

  • How to Keep Scorpions Away from Your Home
  • How to Keep Javelinas Away from Your Yard
  • What’s With All the Backyard Concrete-Block Fences…
  • Did You Know it’s Against the Law to Grow…
  • Four Deserts, One State

This Week Past Years

2019

  • 5 Facts About the Southwest’s Strangest, Smelliest Inhabitant – The Javelina

2015

  • A Beer Between the Forked Tree in Flagstaff

2014

  • Mow the Lake?

2013

  • Peach-Faced Love Birds Live in the Valley?

2012

  • Walk in the Path of Ancient Hohokam at Sears-Kay Ruin
  • Rest Stop Marks Border of Gadsden Purchase

2010

  • Why Do People Paint Citrus Tree Trunks White?
  • Elephant Feet in Northern Arizona?
  • Recent

  • Popular

  • Comments

  • Find a Famous Writer and Explorer's Mountain Retreat in Greer

    Find a Famous Writer and Explorer’s Historic Mountain Retreat in Greer

    By Taylor Haynes
    July 31, 2020
  • thousands of Mexican free tail bats make Phoenix tunnel their summer home

    Thousands of Mexican Free-Tail Bats Make Phoenix Tunnel Their Summer Home

    By Taylor Haynes
    July 17, 2020
  • How to Keep Scorpions Away from Your Home

    By Andrea Aker
    January 3, 2011
  • Javelina

    How to Keep Javelinas Away from Your Yard

    By Andrea Aker
    November 23, 2011
  • Phil Motta
    on
    August 27, 2021

    Why Does Downtown Phoenix Seem to Have Two Downtowns?

    I know this post ...
  • Carol
    on
    October 17, 2020

    The Tucson Artifacts are the Southwest’s Greatest Hoax

    lol ... these "clues" ...

Follow us

© Copyright 2009 – 2023 Aker Ink, LLC :: Arizona Oddities is published by Aker Ink.