Here’s another favorite winter combination in our parking lot drought border, involving Opuntia aurea ‘Coombes Winter Glow’, Agave x loferox ‘Stairway to Heaven’, a new gold variegated Yucca flaccida, all backed by Phlomis monocephala and a lovely tan-colored Andropogon.
Opuntia is a rather large genus of cacti, containing some 200 or more species native to the deserts of the Americas. Opuntia are amazingly adaptable and can be found native in almost every US state and Canada. Plant Delights Nursery at Juniper Level Botanic Garden has a large collection of opuntia with over 300 unique clones.
Many of our opuntia clumps have gotten quite large over the years and are in need of dividing. We will be offering pads of select clones to give away (pick up only) during our 2020 Summer Open Nursery & Garden Days. What a great time to start an opuntia collection!
Opuntia species have a distinctive look, with flat pads, beautiful, large flowers and fig-sized, maroon fruits. Both the fruits and the young pads are edible provided that you carefully remove all of the thorns and hairs.
Here are some seed and seedpods from the gardens and the greenhouses today.
Here are more interesting fruit and seedpods from the garden. Happy Holidays!
Here are some seed pods from the garden and nursery this week.
For those who didn’t get to our Open Nursery and Garden last week, here are some of the hardy cactus you missed in the new Souto Garden section. We’re passionate about hardy cactus, and have been so since we were hooked by a jumping cholla about 45 years ago. I hope you enjoy the photos of this amazing group of plants.
Echinocereus nivosus
Echinocereus reichenbachii var. caespitosus
Echinocereus triglochiditis v. mojavensis
Gymnocalycium ‘Bridal Showers’ – a Mike Papay hybrid
Gymnocalycium doppianum
Gymnocalycium ‘Panama Pink’ – a Mike Papay hybrid
Notocactus paucidentatus
Notocactus submamulosus
Opuntia basilaris v. aurea ‘Golden Carpet’
Opuntia ‘Claude Arno’
Opuntia polycantha ‘Crystal Tide’
Opuntia polycantha var. hystracina
Opuntia ‘Little Monk’
Opuntia sp. nov. pink flowers
Trichocereus ‘Big Time’ (a Mike Papay hybrid of T. bruchii)
Trichocereus ‘Irridescent Watermelon’ – a Mike Papay hybrid
Trichocereus bruchii