From prickly pear to yucca and agave, Judy Smith displays her cactus collection for all to see in her front yard.

She also gets a good laugh when the thermometer plunges or the rain stops falling - her plants are pretty much foolproof and maintenance-free, whatever the weather.

"You don't have to water them in the summer and in the winter ... they get a little droopy," said Smith, who has a 30-year-old cactus on her property. "I keep them cut back; I keep the cuttings because I think it's a mortal sin to throw plants away.

"Everything I've got outside is specifically winter-hardy plants. If you give me something that requires water, as much as I want to keep it alive, I can't."

But Smith didn't just choose cactuses for her yard because they were easy to care for. She said she "loves them because they are different."

And their hardiness will come in handy today, when temperatures aren't expected to be above freezing, and may dip into the teens overnight.

But Danny Syfan, owner of Syfan's Landscape Center, said even hardy plants may have some trouble if nighttime lows stay in the teens for too long.

"It depends on your varieties, but if it gets cold, sometimes right where the cactus comes out of the ground it will freeze it and it will turn to mush," he said. "Again it depends on the variety ... and certain plants acclimate and may survive."

But Smith said the only problems she has ever had with her cactuses is frostbite, which usually comes with ice rather than cold.

During the winter, the cactuses aren't too much to look at, but in the spring they show all of their pink, red, yellow and orange glory. The cactuses at the Smith home on Riverside Drive are spread throughout the front lawn, and a yellow brick "road" anchors the yard.

The key to planting cactuses in your own yard, according to Smith, is to have the perfect soil mixture.

"I put in sand and tilled it in with the clay because if you don't put enough sand in with the Georgia clay you will get root rot," she said.

And this soil recipe has seemed to work perfectly for her black spined prickly pear, toothpick cactuses, agaves and palms, among other native desert plants.

Smith said she didn't purchase all of her desert-loving (and very drought-tolerant) plants. Instead, she got creative and "confiscated some from roadsides" across the country.

Then, she placed these free finds in the front yard and, luckily, they took root and grew.

But beware if you keep your cactuses indoors. Some cactuses that live indoors are prone to mealy bugs and other pests.

But don't fear, Smith has a tip for you.

"Mealy bugs suck the juice out (of the cactus)," Smith said. "... You can dip a Q-tip in some rubbing alcohol and kill them that way."

Another tip for gardening with cactuses is always have a pair of barbecue tongs at the ready "to plant and pick up the cactus," Smith said.