On my way home from San Diego I stopped in Wildomar near Lake Elsinore to check in with Brent Wigand, cactus grower and hybridizer extraordinaire. I’d had a great visit with Brent in June 2023 (post here) and we’d stayed in touch online.
Brent lives on a beautiful 1¾-acre property outside of town where he has plenty of room to grow all kinds of wonderful succulents in the ground. As you can see, he has quite a collection of Aloidendron dichotomum, A. ramosissimum and A. ‘Hercules’, as well as various hybrids between them. I’d be happy to have just one of them!
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| Brent Wigand next to an Aloidendron dichotomum |
These are planted along the street:
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| I love the mama and baby A. dichotomum |
On the slope above Brent’s house and propagation area:
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| Trunk on Aloidendron dichotomum (left) vs. Aloidendron ‘Hercules’ (right) |
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| Aloidendron dichotomum (left) and Aloidendron ‘Hercules’ (right) |
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| Soap yucca (Yucca elata) closeup |
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| Agave sobria ssp. frailensis, native to Baja California Sur. Easily the most attractive form of this agave that I’ve ever seen. Brent gifted me a pup. |
On the west and north side of the house is where all the cacti are:
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Rows of echinopsis hybrids
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| Echinopsis ‘Flying Saucer’, Brent’s best seller. While I was there, a guy came to buy five of them. |
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| Brent propagates many hundreds of them every year. |
The cacti above are for sale. The ones below are stock plants for propagation:
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| Echinopsis ‘For Norma’, a Bob Schick hybrid released by the Huntington |
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| Shade house |
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| Smaller hybrids; some stock plants, some for sale |
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| Lined up like ducks in a row |
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| Who says red Solo cups are only for beer pong? |
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| Brent gets them by the hundreds at Costco |
One final look at the shade house from the hill above it:
Unfortunately, very few cacti were in bloom when I was there. But less than a week later, the much anticipated megabloom happened, with hundreds of echinopsis hybrids bursting into flower on the same day. Below are a couple of reels Brent posted on Instagram. I can’t even imagine what it must be like to see that spectacle in person. I’d go crazy trying to photograph them all!
WHERE TO BUY
Brent sells a large variety of echinopsis hybrids online, both through his website, Torchcactus.com, and through his Facebook group Torchcactus. And if you’re ever in southern Riverside County or northern San Diego County, you should visit Brent to see his collection in person (contact info here).
MY GOODIES
Of course I didn’t leave without a few goodies. Here’s what I got:
Echinopsis ‘Flying Ice Cream’
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| ‘Flying Ice Cream’, my plant the week after I got it from Brent |
Echinopsis ‘Magic Eyes’
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| ‘Magic Eyes’ (photo by Brent) |
Echinopsis ‘Starburst’
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| ‘Starburst’ (photo by Brent) |
VIDEOS
BRENT ON INSTAGRAM
Brent regularly posts photos and videos of plants in bloom on his
Instagram account. Follow him if you aren’t already.
© Gerhard Bock, 2025. All rights reserved. To receive all new posts by email, please subscribe here.
I've purchased several Torch Cactus from Brent. I enjoy seeing all the blooming plants now. I have to restrain myself because I don't have room for more here. Hope can you decide which ones to pick? Yikes!
ReplyDeleteOh, and I really liked seeing all the rest of his garden. He has some great plants!
ReplyDeleteWow those spiralling Cereus are gorgeous as are all the blooming cacti. Too bad you missed that but your own superbloom was comparable. Wish we could get some of these hybrids here. Going through your photos it struck me how arid Brent's garden looks compared to the lushness of the properties across the street. Quite a dichotomy.
ReplyDeleteI'm in love with the torch cacti. I never realized that there are Aloidendron with such interesting trunks. The garden, the plants and that nursery are very impressive!
ReplyDeleteOh that super twisty Cereus forbesii (in the ground) is fabulous!
ReplyDeleteImpressive garden that Brent has, and his cactus nursery is amazing. That aloe is most probably a variety of the confusing Aloe Camperi group. Out of Eritrea and probably into Sudan and Ethiopia. We have that exact clone here too in SA. Names such as Aloe Eru and Aloe Abbysinica are now grouped under Aloe Camperi. Quite a few different easy offsetting clones are scattered all over the world. Lovely and easy garden plant.
ReplyDeleteI want them ALL! Hahah, obviously I don't have the room but they are just fabulous. I can't believe I wasn't following him on instagram.
ReplyDelete