Prickly Pear Growth

May 17, 2011 - Prickly Pear Cactus

August 23, 2011 - Prickly Pear Cactus

You know, it really stuns me how fast this prickly pear cactus grew. It was struggling in this small terra cotta pot and the main pad died down (that shrivelly gray mass that all the pads are on) so I finally had enough and decided to stick it in a pot that was clearly too big for it. My reasoning was that I didn't want to repot it any time soon - if ever. I was also hoping it would just die off and I can toss it away and move on.

That didn't happen. Instead it's been growing by leaps and bounds these past three months. I can't believe it. It won't take long before it's too big for THIS pot and I am definitely way too afraid to try and repot it in a larger pot.

I do want to experiment with a pad though. I'm thinking that next spring I'll stick a pad in a fresh pot, let it grow, and then leave it out all winter to see if it'll overwinter like my eastern prickly pear does every winter.

Venus Fly Trap and other updates

The left amaryllis clump has tons of blooms coming up and getting ready to open. The middle clump is my seed-grown batch and there's still only two buds (which I am still ecstatic about!). The right clump is still slow going. In the back are the banana plants. For some reason, the leaves of the largest one is coming out all damaged. I'm not sure what's going on with that one.

A close-up of an amaryllis bud from my seed-grown batch. Fingers tapping impatiently...

My dragon arum plants are still slowly opening. You can see the purple edging on the left one. It's getting close now.

Two purple iris flowers and a pollinated seed pod to the side.

I got to thinking that I really miss my prickly pear flowering every spring so I yanked the plant out of its terrible pot and repotted it in a much larger pot (which is semi-medium). Suddenly one pad just shot out so it's extremely happy at the moment.

It took me a little bit to remember what these are in the amaryllis bed. I knew they weren't weeds and I do remember opening a packet and just scattering the seeds all willy nilly without doing anything else. I believe these are the Blue Queen Salvia seedlings.

And yes.... I finally got a Venus Fly Trap today! It's kinda weird because I usually see Venus Fly Traps in red pots with a plastic 'cup' on top. I've never seen it sold like this before. The pot is very tiny and I can't help but feel I need to repot it so that it doesn't dry out so fast. Either that or I'll just have to set up a dish with some rocks so that water always touches the bottom.

Cactus Seeds!

I suddenly have this overwhelming urge to buy a packet of various cactus seeds but I know that they won't grow under my (neglectful!) care or that I won't have the patience for them to grow up. ;)

Hanging Tomato - Eastern Prickly Pear

I dug up the two eastern prickly pear that I found in the bed. I did kind of regret tossing out the others but once the fire ants sunk them - it just felt like one big mess so I just tossed them. At least now I'm starting over. I just actually wonder if these two came from a fallen pad or if they grew from seed. Hmm...






After discussing it with several people who had experience with hanging tomato planters over several years - I was told that bags tend to fray after a month or two and it gets messy. The idea is to stick to something hard and plastic. This convinced me to re-open my Upsy Downsy tomato garden planter and give this baby a whirl!

Um... Why is the ground above me?

So we'll see if this thing takes off. My prediction - It'll be a very very very happy plant but it won't bother producing tomatoes in the slightest.

I plan to get a little flowerbox type planter and grow some Tiny Tim tomato plants. I still have some seeds left over from the last one.

Eastern Prickly Pear

I threw away my eastern prickly pear last year after the fire ants made a huge mess out of them. What happened was the fire ants just built up a huge mound in the pots and when it rained, the whole thing caved in. It was enough so they were tossed out.

I got to thinking about them, remembering their yellow blooms and thinking, "Maybe I should've saved a pad or two." Every winter, the two pots would be placed at the side of the house to protect them from cold winds. I decided to go check and see if there were any that just happened to fall into the bed.



Whaddyaknow?? There is a couple still around! I'm gonna pot these up when I know there'll be no frost coming. They're ugly suckers but the flowers are neat.

Warm Temps persist...

There was a massive amount of rain that came through the area but what surprises me was that the temperature kept going up all night long. It stopped at 70 degrees. Man, it was humid out there but I can't deny that I loved watching the intense rain drown everything.

Come morning, I went to look around and to my surprise, I found out that a fire ant colony decided to seek a safe haven...



I have two pots of eastern prickly pear (the second in the upper right corner) and this pot is completely overwhelmed by the fire ants.

I can't believe that it is December. It's supposed to be winter with freezing cold temperatures. Who knows though... Starting tonight and tomorrow, it's supposed to plummet into the 30s before it warms up again.

Amaryllis, Lilies, Rose, and Cactus

An update on some going-ons in my little area.


Amaryllis Seed Pods

From the two flower stalks from the red Amaryllis, only these three took. I can't wait to collect the seeds.


Orange Lilies

From the entire bed of lilies, the orange ones are the first to emerge.


Rose

One of the roses that bloomed in the rose bed. This is an unusual color pattern.


Opuntia Pusilla


Opuntia Pusilla


Opuntia Pusilla

I'm pretty surprised that there's tons of buds on the prickly pear! I thought they all bloomed in January and that I had completely missed it. I don't think I've ever seen this many buds on them before.

Opuntia Pusilla - Dune Prickly Pear

Dune Prickly Pear - I have had this cactus for longer than I've had Ms. Jade. I got it in the summer of 1995 and I happen to recall that because that was the summer my nephews and niece came down and we did a lot of traveling.



I know, I know. They're in terrible condition. They're a very ugly plant to have. The only reason I have kept them all this time is because I always find it terribly neat to see them blooming in spring with yellow flowers.

Unfortunately, I missed it this spring. I honestly think they bloomed in January during that long warmspell in order to have fruit that already dropped at this time.



Here's a picture of the two fruits I gathered. The fruits are also protected by some spines/burrs.



I cut open the fruit to try to reveal the seeds inside. You can kinda see them.

I'm personally thinking of ditching the plant I have now and restarting with a fresh pad so that I can deal with a smaller plant instead of a large pot that makes it hard to clean leaves and pine needles.