A Cactus Oasis in Echo Park

Cactus Store (used with permission)

Cactus Store

Opuntias potted in deadstock terra cotta. Cactus Store (used with permission)

Cactus Store (used with permission)

Vintage Opuntia microcenta. Cactus Store (used with permission)

Cactus Store (used with permission)

Euphorbia polygona "super white" seed stock at the farm. Cactus Store (used with permission)

Astrophytum on graft. Cactus Store (used with permission)

Spring has sprung. Cactus Store (used with permission)

The plant man himself. Cactus Store (used with permission)

When Carlos Morera and his uncle Johnny Morera first staked out their diminutive storefront in 2014, they didn’t even give it a name. People just started calling it the Cactus Store, and the moniker stuck.

Echo Park locals were immediate fans of the place, even more so after the elder Morera took it upon himself to landscape a whole corner of the block. It’s like a tiny oasis en route to the bustle of Sunset Boulevard—a miniature Huntington Gardens without the steep admission fee.

Morera is something of a cactus wizard, and this 200-square-foot space he presides over is much more than a store; it’s a museum of sorts, a warm, dry home for rare cactus specimens sourced from farms along the Mexican border, private growers, and decades-old secret collections.

Yes, you can buy the beautiful, bizarro cacti that are housed in vintage terra-cotta pots and artfully displayed on cinder blocks, provided you’re willing to shell out from $30 to $1,300 apiece. But you’re also welcome to loiter, ask a zillion questions, and take home nothing but photos.