@ampersand I wanted to update you on the pads you sent. take a look, they are happy! the spineless one is apart from these so there’s no photo of it
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Desert dream and desert glow haven’t been as hardy as advertised for me here in central texas zone 8b. Neither survived this past winter, which wasn’t even a terribly cold one. The only one from my fruitwood nursery collection to survive was actually “desert green.” It has really interesting circular pads rather than the long ovals of ficus indica. I suppose from the lindheimerii cross.
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@resonanteye Looking good! Try to get some more sun on them if possible, looks like they are stretching.
@joe_8b Thanks for sharing your experience. Were they small plants, in the ground? Mine are still in pots that I will move in for the winter, maybe next year I will plant some.
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They were all in the ground. Here’s a few pictures of them in January. I don’t have any fresh pictures of desert green since it’s been too hot for me to make it out to this property lately, but last I checked it was growing pretty vigorously with very minor damage. All the others just melted and never recovered.
Typical of every ficus-indica type besides desert green.
Desert green on the right, something else (desert apple?) on the left.
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One more thing, if you live in a place where the ground gets soft after a deep rain sometimes they will uproot themselves and tip over. Here was my largest desert apple last year. It actually survived the winter with significant damage because of its favorable microclimate near the south side of the house.
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I just started rotating them to different spots- one side of the railing gets full sun, but I realized that the other side was making them stretch a lot. I’m trying to get them all on the sunny side! thanks again. every one of them took!
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I’m disappointed to hear about desert dream and desert glow as they were advertised as being more cold hardy than the others in the collection. I have some growing now, but haven’t exposed them to winter temperatures yet. Interesting information on desert green, which wasn’t described as being as cold hardy as those two, but does have different genetics. Maybe I’ll pick that one up and its sister variety desert oasis.
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Desert oasis was not hardy for me in central texas.
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i had a bunch of fruits hang on a potted humifusa all winter. They were shriveled up some by the time i set them put, but have plumped up some and seem to possibly be ripening further.
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i bought a couple of packs of seed but didnt get to starting them this spring since space was at a premium. time too, i spose. just wondering how hard they were to germinate. what was your process? I haven’t stratified mine yet. seems like knicking or abrading the seed coat might be a good idea. They DO sound promising. Curious to hear more about yours.
i have 3 selections of humifusa- 2 thornless and a thorny one from SW florida. The first 2 live outside, the 3rd not. I also have a taller Opuntia collected in SW florida- probably stricta. Its fruits were the most substantial by far. Juicy and tasty, unlike humifusa which has fruits more like seeds coated with a smattering of sweet mucus.
A friend has some pink flowered humifusas
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I just bought a couple of nopales cactus pads in the grocery store and planted them. They will definitely rot in the bag, but I planted them in the gravel. One has already rooted.
John S
PDX OR
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Eastern prickly pear mixed with a little poison ivy on the right. The cactus petals are delicious! Burn the thorns off with a torch and fry them up. They make me feel great when i eat them. They taste like a cross between peppers and have a little slime like okra. Have eaten petals many times. Beautiful flowers and soon fruit! Look at all those forming now! The seeds are to hard to eat but you can juice the fruit.
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Beautiful flowers! Yes the cactus pads are very good for diabetes. The"slime" is supposed to be good for detox. Diversify your gut microbiome. I’m not a doctor. I just play one on TV.
John S
PDX OR
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I like to mix it with pineapple juice.
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I started some Echinocereus and Escobaria seeds a few weeks ago. So far, so good. I plan to grow them out under lights over the winter, and hopefully plant them outside in the spring.
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interesting. where are the seeds from?
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I got my seeds from https://mesagarden.com/
They’ve got probably the best selection there is, but you kind of have to know what you’re looking for beforehand. The descriptions consist of species name, collection number and location, sometimes a few words about the appearance. There are also sometimes some cryptic germination and growing codes at the end (if you see an 18, that variety should be good to at least zone 6). The last time I ordered was maybe 12 years ago, and they just had a seed/price list they’d publish once a year. The original owner sold his business and the new owners basically transposed those over to a modern e-commerce platform.
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which species did you wind up with @jcguarneri ? Where were the seeds for each collected? It sounds like site conditions are a big factor for their hardiness. What temps do you think these capable of enduring?
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