Cactus Bombing

Placing cacti so that people can find them and take them home and love them 💚

The idea is based on the same principle as the 'message in a bottle' - letting something go to see where it might end up.

People rarely get in touch. So, please, if you find one, message me!

One of the great stories of Day Of The Cacti is Clifford’s, the barber shop at the Barbican: Ask me to tell you the story. 

Friends have remarked that it’s “a bit Banksy” and also like “the FODrocks” - which I’d never heard of before. You decide.

April 2024 - Steenvoorde, France

Placed a cactus in a disused fountain outside the main church in the town centre.

February 2024 - Whittlebury Park Hotel & Conference Centre

A small cactus left in the chilly lounge area on the table in the foreground. I wanted to put it in a cabinet with fake succulents that adorned the spa treatment marketing cabinet but that was locked, so the table it was instead.

February 2024 - Angel of The North

Placed a little cactus at the base of the iconic Anthony Gormley statue that overlooks the A1 between Gateshead and Washington. A cold, dry day and hopefully someone will rescue it and take it home. Please contact me if that’s you.

August 2023 - Aarti Indian Street Food Restaurant - Leeds

Small plant left on the table after a delicious meal for the head waiter; a lovely guy who really helped me navigate the menu.

August 2023 - La Cuisine, Wexford, Ireland

Small cactus left on the table after a wonderful sandwich and pavlova.

July 2023 At the top of Kinder Scout, Edale Derbyshire

The pot was filled with the natural peat soil of the mountain and the cactus left for someone to find and take home.

March 2023 - Solihull College & University Centre

With a little note on the side to say: “Please adopt me”.

May 2022 - Theale

Lovely people at New Homes Flooring got a cactus placement for lending a colleague and I their Showroom

May 2022 - Clerkenwell

Clerkenwell Design Week Left this little cactus at St James Church on May 25th. I watched it with some customer friends for a while, from a distance, as people took pictures of the wall art and one guy even sat next to the cactus for a few minutes - all without paying it any attention. It was rescued and homed by my friend Carly after an hour or so of being unclaimed. Thanks Carly.

April 2022 - Ross-on-Wye

At the Starbucks: The coffee stop that’s eternally under-staffed just off the end of the M50

January 2022 - Beachey Head

December 2019 - Chepstow

“Four cacti for four doors”: Joel and I positioned four small cacti outside these doors in and around this lovely Welsh border town

April 2019 - Uffington White Horse

Joel and I ventured up to the top of the hill and left a cactus in the centre of the eye with a little note

February 2019 - Lavenham Water Tower

February 2019 - Chichester

Left a couple of cacti in the city. First one at the Guildhall and the other at the Council House in the centre:

January 2019 - The Celtic Manor

In the massive Welsh Carbuncle that Obama and The Beckhams stayed at during The Ryder Cup: The Celtic Manor is the ugliest, most prison-looking hotel in Britain, with an incongruous, awkward Conference Centre on the side which is the architecturally messed-up jumble that visitors first see as they enter Wales from the Second Severn Crossing.

Boxing Day 2018 - Chepstow

A walk with the son, Joel, into the Welsh border town of Chepstow to put nine cacti into iconic places. More pictures on the Instagram page - can you name them all Chepstownians?

UPDATE: January 4th 2019 - so far three of the cacti have been found - two by Tracey (Derek’s Gym and Merricks) and one by Esme who found hers in a car park, which is intriguing as we didn’t place one there.

October 2018 - St James Church, Lancaut, Gloucestershire

Another church. Is this a natural descent into religion as I get older? Hope not. This amazing little ruined church was said to have been established in 625 AD (just a generation before the one below in Kortrijk).

Update on November 18th 2018……gentleman called Attila found the cactus and sent me an email. He never got in touch again. Odd.

October 2018 - Bury-St-Edmunds

Left in the little kitchen window of my wonderful Mum’s house. Mum had Cactus number 12 for many years which made many offspring, so it’s fitting that this cactus is a great grandchild of that cactus.

August 2018 - Kortrijk, Belgium

At the front entrance of the magnificent Saint Martin’s Church in the historic town of Kortrijk, Belgium. The church itself dates from 1390 but is on the site of a Roman church built in 650 AD…..so I’m pretty confident that this is the first cactus that’s ever been left there.

July 2018 - Greenwich

To the bemusement of several international tourists, I left this one on the Meridian line that separates East and West

Yes, it's slightly in the East.....a group of Italian students watched me place it and then I begged them to leave it be, who knows it could be in Milan right now....?

April 2018 - Kortrijk, Belgium

Popped into a tent housing a penny falls machine and placed it above the unit. It had disappeared the next night.

January 2018 - Monmouth

Placed on the plinth of the Rolls Statue

November 2017: Stow-on-the-Wold, Visitor Centre & Library.

November 2017: Birmingham New St, wedged into some railings. Tremendous update in January 2018, this cactus was found and posted on Instagram by a guy called Marc. It now sits on his window shelf at home.

October 2017: Caldicot Castle, in a small window of one of the runied turrets; just a simple placement.

September 2017: London, Cleopatra's Needle at around 2.30am on a Sunday. The stone obelisk made of red granite which was originally erected in Heliopolis, Egypt around 1450 BC sits now on the north bank of the Thames just below Charing Cross and Embankment stations. It's one of my favourite places in the world and seemed very fitting to site a cactus there.

September 2017: Leeds Art Gallery: Henry Moore's "Reclining Woman: Elbow 1981". The cactus was perfectly positioned within the cupped hand of the figure. Also saying hello here too to the lovely staff at the Jeffery West shop in Leeds. Go to https://www.artsy.net/artist/henry-moore for more info on Henry and other artists.

September 2017: Hestercombe House in Somerset. The cactus was positioned on a window sill overlooking a beautifully manicured country garden. Inside the building was a very average art exhibition using ink poured down large pieces of creased white paper. More interestingly, here is the montage of the cactus and house:

August 2017: Tebay Services in Cumbria on the M6 Motorway, who are transforming the experience of stopping at service stations in Britain. Apologies for the rubbish image which I've had to manipulate so that you can see the cactus in the bottom left of the shot. Note the amazing scenery through the window. It would be lovely to imagine that the cactus will stay there.

June 2017 On the bridge over the M6 Motorway at Hilton Park Services, north-west of Birmingham. Here's the view.

May 2017 In the stairwell at Cardiff City Football Club

March 2017 Upstairs in the superb Swansea Waterfront Museum, there's a kind of contemporary room set; retro chair, sofa, rug, lamp, big tv...I thought it was missing a cactus so I left one in the corner of the window. Looks perfect....(update, September 2017 - the cactus has disappeared).

February 2017 Love the name of this church in the centre of Bath: St Michael's Without. Cactus was placed on a top of a small wooden cabinet with great natural light flooding through the church windows....how long will it stay there for?

January 2017 Placed inside a classic red telephone box in Brecon. The door hinge was broken, hence why the door is wedged open. I cannot see this one staying there very long.

November 2016 Inside the wonderful Malvern Winter Gardens. Just a few yards from the room where Joy Division played on 5th April 1980.

October 2016 A cactus was left on the window-sill of the underground car park next to the Cardiff Blues Rugby Stadium in the centre of the city.  Here it is on the right of the picture: it lasted there at least a week, it had disappeared by the 20th of October.

If you found this cactus it would be great if you got in touch at dayofthecacti at gmail.com - let me know what you intend to do with it. There's info on how to look after it on this site. Good Luck!

September  2016   Cactus was left strategically on a window-sill of a cool place in Cardiff: Little Man Coffee. Here it is:

So, it has a new life. As above, please let me know what you intend to do with it if you now own it. Thank you.