Here's a nice article about the cactus pears varieties in Mexico.

Eye-opening article, Bass--thanks for sharing it. It looks like I'd better sample more varieties than just the bland tunas growing wild in my yard.

I really enjoy nopales, which I learned about when I lived in Texas.

Sadly, I've been developing crazy food allergies lately, and it seems that I'm allergic to cooked cactus paddles. Very sad, as they're so tasty.

(Much less depressing than my new allergies to everything in the nightshade family. Goodbye tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants and peppers. Goodbye tomatillos. It was nice knowing you!)

In that picture, most of the ones planted at houses in my neighborhood look like #2 above.

nice article. I can't wait to to how the ones you gave me do and I know my wifes uncle will be excited today when I give him some.

The USDA has or had an impressive collection of Opuntia ficus-indica. There are 133 accessions described and pictured. Unfortunatly the list is for historical records and are not available for distribution. The source of each plant is listed, so it may be possible to track down a desired clone.

http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/tax_imag.pl?25840

I found someone selling a supposed superior clone with orangish-red tunas on eBay, but the person never sent it after I purchased it. It seems only about half of the people who bought this cactus ever received anything. I'm still on the search for a tasty Opunitia variety to grow my own tunas. I have a local wild Opuntia humifusa clone that is spineless except for glochids. It's young pads are tasty fried up, but the tunas are small and seedy, though they taste pretty good. I believe many of the hardy prickly pears found in gardens with the large reddish-purple tunas are Opuntia engelmanni.

Bill..do you have any photos of the prickly pear you have down in S KY?  Are you doing container or in ground?  Am very interested in starting a cactus garden/wall or two on my property.

Cathy...in my experience with my Mom's peanut cactus, if her pot is crowded they bloom...if spaced, very few will bloom.  Not quite sure about other varieties. 

I think the picture Bass posted of the purple fruited hardy is Opuntia cacanapa, fairly common in gardens on the East coast.

I'm so jealous, we have like 20 cactus plans in my backyard, but none seem to produce any fruit, maybe they're not the producing variety and I've been wanting to get one that produces fruit because I love to eat them.

Sara....I have 4 varieties started in pots only. I plan to grow three of them in ground once I get a spot set up for them. The 4th one is the same variety as Ben's. It hasn't started growing yet but it should show some growth by summer's end. I don't think this one is cold hardy so I will have to grow it in my cold frame or indoors come winter. I do plan to test its cold hardiness though - once I have a couple that are well established in pots.

I don't have pics of any of these yet but I will take some & get them on here for everyone to see. Three of them have some nice new growth on them but other than that they don't look too special. Mine haven't bloomed/fruited yet and I'm curious to see if any of them will do so this season. 

Having grown up in Texas, I enjoyed prickly pear jelly and nopales quite often at times.  But most of the time, we just burned them to get rid of them or just burned the thorns off so the cattle could eat them.  Now I'm reading about people raving about the taste.  I can get them occassionally in the Kroger's - but they are nothing brag about in taste.  Ya''l have my curiosity up again!  There are some wild cacti around as well as some in yards.  I'll have to be on the look out this year!

I guess some cactus flowers can be tasty too. I spotted this little raider through my kitchen window this morning, gobbling spent blooms on my hybrid torch cactus.

I have a fairly old Burbank's Spineless opuntia that looks alive but has stopped growing & all the pads have become light brown & leathery.  Hardly any green is visible on the plant which is maybe 4 1/2 feet high.  Any ideas what cause this? Over-watering or hard water might be my first guesses but I really have no clue.

 think noss was referring to removing them after one has been stuck.
flame might work but might be worse than the hairy thorns

Great pictures Ken! I assume that critter is a hare as apposed to a rabbit - ?

Here are a few pics of my young prickley pears. All are still in pots but I plan to get most of them in ground before winter this year.

 Hopefully I'll get the pleasure of sampling some fruit next year:

Here's a bit more description of the above pictured prickley pears.

1.) The one in the far left pic is the one I found locally here in west KY. It seems to grow very vigorously in our local climate and it has pretty large purple fruit on it.

2.) Second pic from left; This is one that a friend gave me. He's been growing this one for some years. It is very cold hardy & has large purple fruit. It also has some really long, sharp spines.  My friend has been propagating many divisions of this one in pots for years as well. He leaves the pots exposed & above ground where they freeze solid in winter. They always come back just fine in spring.

3.) This is a "spineless" variety that I got from a local nursery. The owner says it's very cold hardy & does quite well in our area. I don't know anything about the fruit yet.

4.) The last pic one the right is the same variety the Ben from S. Fl has. His pics & description do a fine job of giving an idea of what this one is like. I started these by just sticking them in the pot shown in the pic & leaving them. As you can see they are just starting to put on some new growth. 

In my limited experience, Prickley Pears seem to be very easy to start from a pad cutting. 

Bill--it's just a cottontail rabbit--one of many that hang around the yard. It looks lanky (like a hare) because it's stretched out on "tip-toe".

Thanks Ken for the clarification on the cotton-tail. Like you said he does look a bit lanky from being on his tippy-toes. Wonder if he got any spines in his feet? If so I guess he figured it was worth the sacrifice to go for those flowers.

Sounds like most Opuntia are pretty determined to grow. Great if you're trying to propogate them, not so great if you're trying to get rid of them!

I experimented with a couple of pieces from the local one I found (pic on left above) by laying a couple of pads in the top of a pot with soil in it. Both pieces did just what you described above - curled up into the shape of a taco & then proceeded to send up some new growth this spring.

All this has me considering closely my choice of planting location for these guys. Better make sure it's someplace where I don't mind having cacti for the next 100 years :-) !  

That's a BOSS bunny!  Spines - what spines?  I'd like to see a matchup between that bunny and the squirrels (or whatever animal) that ate all my Bhut Jolokia peppers a couple of years ago.  Like to see who would come out the winner!

Any Canadians here grow prickley pears? I have not seen any here in Calgary at the garden centers.

Jerry

Caneyscud, from what I've read on the forum, I'm sure your squirrels are much worse than our bunnies. Cottontails are pretty easy to deal with--just remember to shut the gate and you're okay.

Jerry, Sorry, I can't offer anything on that but maybe some of our Canadian friends will chime in for you. If you find some that survive the cold in Calgary that would be one cold hardy Prickley Pear.

Ken, the color on the Cow's Tongue is pretty cool. It would be even nicer if they developed that color on there own - without being stress induced. Purple is a favorite color with most members of my family. That's the one reason I just had to get a division from this awesome purple Clematis. It's a bit off topic but I've just gotta share it. 
Check it out!

Wow Bill,

Yes, Bill, that's gorgeous! I wonder if a Clematis could handle the north side of my house in Tucson? Probably a bit of a stretch.

This is an actual photo I took with my cheap little, Kodak Easy Share, camera. It was a bright sunny day but the color of this Clematis really just glows even on a cloudy day. They are almost unbelievable in person.

The first time I saw these in this neghborhood I could hardly believe my eyes. I made the turn onto this road & just stopped my car & stared a bit. On my way back, I stopped to talk to the owner. Turns out she happens to be the mother of my neighbor who lives about 1/4 mile down the road from me! Small town :-) . 

My neighbor got me a small division back in the fall. I thought I had killed mine but it did manage to send up one very nice bloom this spring. I hope I can keep it alive long enough to get it established in my yard. I never really got too excited about clematis before this one because I thought the colors where too gaudy. I guess the brilliant purple on this particular one just won me over.

I've seen plenty other purple clematis but this one seems to be in a class of it's own.

Glad you enjoyed the photos.