Opuntia ficus-indica

Nice buy Meanie, Hywel will probably know..

might take them a while to raise funds at that rate ~ it looks a bit scary to me ~ did it come with a warning?

I walked in and there it was SL. Paid for it straight away as I didn't want to walk around stabbing people!

Sticki - it should have had a warning. When I got to the car I thought "how the hell am I going to get this home in one piece?". So I put it on the passengers seat and held it. The end result was me picking the short hairy spines (which surround the long hard ones) out of my left hand all night!

i see the plant stayed in one piece ~ shame about your hand though!!!!

good thing you didnt have to travel by tube or bus!! you might have had to get off for carrying a weapon of massive destruction!!

:)

What a bargain !

That's bordering on cheesy Sticki!!!!!!

Thanks FH and Amy!

;-) sorry ~ tried to improve it but couldnt

Talking of cheese - Marks and Sparks sell an excellent Pave D'affinois Sticki. Totally awesome soft cheese!

Oh, thank you......now this time it was you that starred the food topic! Not me for once!

I shall go and try some out.....can't get there before Tuesday though - I'm in Suffolk!

Is it best eaten with digestive biscuits?

Cream crackers, or just dip your finger in on the way home from the shops!!! Leave it out at room temp for an hour or two first.

Ok thank you.....will definitely do that!

It's so strange seeing this cactus growing indoors. You most likely know this cactus grows wild everywhere here in California.

I'm hoping that warm days and cool nights in the g/house will suit it - best I can offer it in the UK!

I do know most species of Opuntia are extremely hardy. I remember the worst recorded freeze of Dec. of 1990 which hit most of California (with the exception of San Diego Area and parts of Los Angeles) and most of the wild Opuntia survived with the exception of some growing in the coldest inland canyons around the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento Area (which got down to an extremely rare and devastating 16ºF [-8.9ºC]).

I know from experience that desert areas can get quite cool/cold at night.

Typically the high deserts get very cold, with sometimes snow in winter. The mid-level desert don't get quite as cold and the low subtropical deserts very rarely get cold spells.

The San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento Area are not considered desert areas, though. They can receive a lot of rain during the wet (rainy) season.

I could be on the right track then? Will need to come in for the winter though.........

If this is truly Opuntia phaeacantha, I think it'll grow outside there. It's native to Utah, which can get very cold and snow during winter.

I'll not take the chance................

To me your cactus looks a lot like Opuntia ficus-indica, which is one of the most widely grown wild species here in CA. It would not be as hardy as O. phaeacantha.

Thanks Delonix!

You're welcome. Of course, this is just my guess...as I never see them growing in pots. Here they grow wild along the sides of the mesas or in canyons (and they're huge).