Good Old Opuntia

I have three different types of Opuntia [Prickly Pear] in my garden.

The Opuntia ficus-indica is the first cactus planted in the yard by my old room mate's mother who use to come and visit. She planted it to eat with eggs and in salsas. I have never picked and ate any of it myself because I didn't want to do all the cleaning. I think this video changed my mind.

They have beautiful yellow rose like blooms on them and grows very fast. I have to trim about 10 big paddles off of it a month. If you do not trim them they will grow very tall and wide. Prickly Pear were considered the most devastating "weed" imported into Australia. It had a horrible impact on life in rural eastern Australia during the early part of the 20th century. Special acts of Parliament were passed to enforce control measures in an attempt to halt its spread through Queensland and New South Wales.

The second "Opuntia" I got was the Opuntia basilaris, the Beavertail Cactus. I got this one from a cutting in Joshua Tree. It took two years for the cactus cutting to really root and it finally started growing more paddles last spring. I stayed in the Gram Parsons room at the Joshua Tree Inn when I got this cactus, so I'm picking Hickory Wind to accompany this post. The Byrds were pushed into a country direction when Gram Parsons briefly joined the band in 1968. Above is the "mama" in Joshua Tree [2008]. Below are the spring shoots and summer shoots [2010].

The third Opuntia I have is from El Paso, Texas. My boyfriend Lee brought back a heart shaped cutting for me from his Grandmother's yard when he went to visit during Thanksgiving of 2008. These plants are insanely resilient because I must of had that cutting in the paper bag he gave it to me in for a couple months. Then it was laying around the yard because I didn't know where to plant it. Some optunia grow very fast and get very large and I didn't know if this was the case with this kind. I decided to put it in a pot for the time being. Finally this spring it liked where it was and began rooting and growing.

Last Thanksgiving I went to Texas and got see the mama plant at "Babe's" house. No trip to Texas would be complete without Texas's own Roky Erickson.