These Prickly Pear pads are sitting in a tray of gravel to prompt them to grow roots. They were harvested last fall and have spent the winter in an unheated room under artificial plant lights. Opuntia pads can live a very long time without roots and if kept cool and dry they will last over a year in this condition. Setting them outdoors in the sun and rain on a bed of gravel will get them to root especially in the spring. I have several other Opuntia pads - not in this photo - which were cut off of their plants this spring sitting on beds of gravel to root. I think the pads can be cut off of their parent plants any time of the year, but spring is the best time to try and root them.

Labels: spring

These little 'Prickly Pears' started growing in our back yard last summer, but I'm unsure how they got there. I may have dropped some Opuntia fragilis pads by accident or a squirrel got some pads stuck on its fur and dragged them to this location. I have discarded some cactus soil which may have had Opuntia seeds in it and the seeds finally decided to germinate here. I'm not sure, but they would probably be 'Plains Prickly Pear' seeds that I couldn't get to germinate indoors so tossed out the soil. All that can be done now is watch them grow and see what kind of Opuntia they grow up to be.

What impressed me the most about these plants is that they lived outdoors with no protection this last winter, so what ever variety they are they are definitely cold hardy cacti.

The Pelecyphora seedlings have started to put out their first spines. I'm very happy these seedlings are continuing to grow - maintaining my first success in growing Pelecyphora. So far they haven't been bothered by soil flies or molds. I think the photo is a little out of focus.

This morning the cold frames were still covered with snow, but by 3 pm the snow was all melted. This was a very warm day and the kind of fast snow melting days more typical to Colorado than Wisconsin. I'm very happy to see all of my cold climate cacti which spent the winter in cold frames. The last time I saw these plants was in December of 06 and I'm glad to see that all of them survived and look great. Some of the Pedios have even started to show the first signs of spring growth. Pediocactus seems to want to grow early in the spring even if they can't get any sun because of the snow cover. All of the Echinocereus, Escobaria and Opunta plants are still looking like they are in their winter shrunken stages. I guess all of these are waiting for the sun and rain before they start to grow again, but all of the cacti look very healthy.

Spring snow is usually beautiful large delicate flakes that melt soon after landing on the earth. This year the snow is covering the ground - it's spring - and if the snow wasn't there we would have lots of spring flowers starting to show their leaves.

We have lots of cacti in the outdoor cold frames covered with snow. We haven't seen these cacti of about 3 months and I really miss them. Hopefully the snow will all melt this week and the cold frames can be opened so the cacti can see the sun again.

If it weren't for this thick layer so snow the Pediocactus plants might even be forming buds by now. Out in the garden where the spring bulbs grow we would surely have Snow Drops by now if the snow would just melt already.

Labels: spring