I live in Texas just north of Dallas. Summers here are brutal.

I live in an apartment so no yard or shade options.

I do have two prickly pear that are outside as soon as the weather hits about 50*.




Are things like golden barrel cactus and pin cushions on in the full sun in Texas? Summer is usually 100 degrees or more.

Sun is in this spot from the above photo about 9am to 2pm right now.

These guys sit in my window and get from about an hour after sunrise to about 5pm






I guess my question is should I put the smaller guys inside when it gets insanely hot and rains or just leave them outside?

Calloways said they raise them on morning sun and they can't ever get anything more…(sounds like a crock of poop to me)

Well, as for the Golden Barrel, I leave mine in full summer sun and it has thrived. Started with one off the Wal-Mart clearance table about the size of a soft ball and it's now the size of a big beach ball . Hard to manage now in the winter freezes, but I love it. As for the smaller cacti I'm growing, nearly all of them get full sun except a few in the hottest part of a Texas summer. I try to watch them and when they start showing signs of stress will move them into light dappled shade or on the east side of the house - they still get a lot of light though not all day direct sunlight. After a year or two, some seem to have adapted to staying in the sun. It's never a sure thing here, though. Last year I had some that got burned which normally stay in all day sun. I have too many plants, so it's hard to relocate all of them to some shade. Failing to do so last year cost me. Some still managed quite well, some had some damage and two small, younger plants didn't survive because I didn't notice their stress in time. Just remember to expose them to direct sun a bit gradually rather than just abruptly setting them in the sun all day. I usually don't have to start giving mine a break from the sun until late June or later when the temps start reaching triple digits day after day.

Donald has given some great advice.

I will share a few observations from a distance (we experience no heat to speak of here).

Those unglazed clay pots will dry out very fast in hot temperatures, especially combined with low humidity. Like insanely fast, if they are in the sun.

That is not necessarily a dead end of any sort for these drought tolerant plants. Just a reminder that you might consider watering more frequently in hot conditions, to compensate.

There is a significant cooling effect as clay pots lose moisture through evaporation. Put your hand on the side of a clay pot an hour or two after you water to get a dramatic reminder of this. This works to your advantage in a hot climate but it stops working entirely when the soil has gone dry.

There is a perverse effect under extremely hot conditions (especially when it does not cool down at night) where you can actually kill succulents by watering them. So do exercise caution with the watering can, too much at the wrong time can cause problems.

The golden barrel is quite heat tolerant, given time to adjust, and should not need to be brought indoors during the peak of summer. But all your outdoor cacti will do better with whatever partial shade you can introduce by bringing them closer to a wall or whatever.

Indoor plants will want the maximum amount of sun. But be very careful shuttling plants in and outside, because you can very easily fry indoor plants if you leave them out in strong midday sun right away, without a gradual stepwise introduction (over weeks) to outdoor sun.

Indoor sun is kinder not just because of the more moderate temperatures (usually) but mainly because regular window glass cuts most of the UV from sunlight.