Variety is the spike of life in cacti world

Stan Griffin and Vicki Newman have a prickly relationship – and they are proud of it.

The West Bromwich couple have been owners of Craig House Cacti for two years and now have more than 500 varieties of the exotic plants.

Craig House Cacti was started by George McLeod, who now lives in Southport, and since taking it over Stan and Vicki have won several prestigious awards.

Between April and September they take around 200 of their cacti around the country in a van to various shows.

Stan, who spent 40 years working as a mechanical engineer at Accles and Pollock in Oldbury, has been into cacti since he was a young boy when a friend from school gave him a cutting.

It was Vicki's father Ray who got her involved in the prickly plants and two years ago she quit her job as a a teacher at Green Rock School in Blakenall, Walsall to focus on her hobby.

Vicki, 53, says: "We used to go around the shows with George and were members of the Cactus Society for many years.

"I was show manager for the society for several years and now I'm on the committee.

"One of the things I love about cacti are their flowers, but I also like the formation of the plants." In the last two years the couple have won gold awards at a 12 shows including the Cardiff, Harrogate and Bath Spring Flower Shows, Malvern Spring Gardening Show and the Chelsea Flower Show.

They were presented with a silver gilt at Hampton Court Palace Flower show and at the Shrewsbury Flower show they were awarded second best in show by the Shropshire Star, the Express & Star's sister paper.

Vicki says: "It was our first time at the Chelsea Flower Show this year and so we were thrilled to get gold.

"It is difficult to make a living out of cacti but we manage by winning prizes and selling our plants." Some of the plants are grown from seeds while other are brought in from dry, hot countries around the world.

Stan says that he has been to Argentina and seen cactuses that are 30ft high.

The couple have a range of cacti and these include an echinocactus grusonii, which is 35-years-old and their echiopsis pachanoi cristate is one of only 12 in the world. There is the dinteranthus vanzjlii, which looks and feels like small grey pebbles, and the pachypodium brevicaule that has the appearance of a sprouting potato and is from South Africa.

After being involved in cacti for 48-years Stan says he has tried to grow practically every one of the 4,000 varieties.

"We have the usual and the unusual but to try and grow them all would be an incredible job," he says.