John Trager, curator of the desert collections at the Huntington Botanical Gardens in San Marino, offers these five tips for growing cactus and succulents in containers: 1.

When author Kurt Kamm is not writing firefighting mysteries, you can find him on his terrace pacing among his pots of plants: 112 cactuses and succulents, at last count.

A potted cactus responds to even a little rain. "With just a little sprinkling, the increase in humidity is going to make the cactus happy for a short period of time," says Cooper.