Cactus, a sticky situation

[UncleHoney]

This week is our annual cactus bloom here in Ohio. Yes there are hardy cacti that will live in cold climates. This one has survived -22F, the pads shrivel up like prunes in the winter. I've had this one for over 20 years in various locations around the yard. This year it will have over 100 blossoms.

What look like thorns in the picture are not the real stickers, they come after the soft things fall off. The real thorns are microscopic, about as fine as a mosquitoes beak and very hard to see.

 

[Walt34]

Interesting - I didn't know cactus plants had flowers. But me and most house plants don't have a good history.

A sister gave me a cactus once, figuring that I wouldn't be able to kill it, but I managed to anyhow.

Then she gave me a Venus Flytrap. I think it was the BBQ sauce on the bit of steak that did it in.

 

[Poundkey]

That looks like it's in the same family as the prickly pear we have in Texas. My grandmother used to pick the bulbs before they flowered and make cactus jelly.
Pretty picture.

 

[Goonie]

A friend of mine a few blocks away has a large patch of prickly pear cactus growing at the corner of her property. And where I used to work, we had about an acre or 2 of prickly pears......they were in an area surrounding some abandoned sand quarries. It is quite cool that we can have cactus growing up here in the Lower Arctic Circle (a.k.a. northern IL).

That looks like it's in the same family as the prickly pear we have in Texas. My grandmother used to pick the bulbs before they flowered and make cactus jelly.
Pretty picture.

A guy that I used to work with made jelly from them also.

 

[UncleHoney]

Yep, this one is in the prickly pear family. Very easy to grow, just lay a pad on the ground and it will root itself.

Opuntia compressa

 

[jambo101]

I remember working for a landscape company in Tucson and got a whole new respect for cacti the first time i had an experience with
"Jumping Cholla"
Google Image Result for http://farm1.static.flickr.com/161/434744171_b0534f70f8.jpg?v=0

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

beautiful flowers. love cactus but only have one i've been lugging around and replanting since i was 16 years old on st. croix. i would have done a cactus garden here but i don't get enough direct sunlight through the canopy over my property, but for near the street and i worried about liability there.

here and there throughout town we have a climbing cactus which bloom some summer nights. the smell is intoxicating. and the flowers are really huge and beautiful only it's hard to see them because, well, they only bloom at night.

PLANTS Profile for Epiphyllum (climbing cactus) | USDA PLANTS

here's a photo http://image53.webshots.com/753/6/83/28/2506683280036255222LSBDez_ph.jpg