Spotlight on: Eastern Prickly Pear Cactus (Opuntia humifusa)

The Eastern Prickly Pear (Opuntia humifusa) is an under-appreciated native plant that has great landscape potential.  One of the few native cacti found here in the Midwest, it’s a very low-growing plant with amazing yellow flowers up to 4″ across.  The edible, pear-shaped fruit is red when ripe.  In fact, Native American Indians ate almost every part of the plant, including the fruit, pads and flowers.  Eastern Prickly Pear is most often found in dry sandy sites, but if you have dry clay it should also do well there.

Last summer I was happy to learn that our garden crew planned to build a raised bed under the eave of our new building for a number of clipped Opuntia humifusa cactus pads left over from the spring plant-shipping season.  The new raised bed is on the south side of our building, just under the window to my office space, so I enjoyed watching the progress of the plants throughout the summer.  I’m sorry to say I didn’t take more pictures, but here is the planting in August (about 2 months later):

You can see the original pad and healthy new growth emerging. The old pad will become a harder ‘parent pad’ this year and the new growth will most likely flower.

Humphrey told me he put about 6″ of washed sand directly on top of soil, enclosed by a 2′x8′ wood frame.  Then, the crew simply stuck the pads in the sand and watered them a little throughout the summer ( DO wear thick gloves when planting these cactus pads to avoid picking needles out of your skin for days after. Right, Humphrey?!).

A customer shared this image of his bed of Eastern Prickly Pear, also in a sandy bed under the eaves of his home, just one year after ordering the pads from us:
Note how not even the laundry vent seems to bother the Cactus.  And, an obvious clover problem outside the raised bed doesn’t enter because the extreme sandy conditions keep the weeds from taking hold.

Our  pads are clipped from the plant in the spring, allowed to dry out for a few days, and then are ready to ship.  They don’t have to be refrigerated to be kept in a dormant state like our freshly-dug bare root plants.  Unrooted cactus pads of the Eastern or Fragile Prickly Pear (Opuntia fragilis) can be shipped simply in a box, without peat moss. This photo shows the recommended planting depth and the minimum size pad you can expect to receive:

Check back on this blog later this summer for more photos of the progress of our Cactus bed!