That's pretty much what I would do speedster1. I don't get in a hurry about planting them because they will develop a good amount of roots in the refrigerator. Sometimes plant them straight in a pot with the seed still damp and sprout them using soil mixed with ash. Both methods work but if you use a grow light place It just over the apples so they don't get spindly trying to reach for the light and keep a fan on them part of the day to simulate wind which makes them stocky and hardens them off. The top leaves should rest almost on the fluorescent bulb and as they grow raise the bulb slightly.In Kansas it's very windy so they won't survive if you don't do use a fan. If you have a Seedling you like on its own root you can cut off some new growth and dip the cutting in clonex rooting gel stick it in a pot of sand and place a jar over it to control humidity and clone your cuttings in that way. If you want seedlings or clones to grow faster place them on a heat mat. You get the idea. Cloning is faster with some plants. What no one tells you is that seedlings roots are always better than layered cuttings of rootstock because they have a tap root vs side roots only. Tap roots head straight down but side roots are more shallow. There are more ways to do this stuff than what I mentioned but that's a few tricks.

Prickly pear sounds neat! I recall seeing some native plant registrars for Wisconsin done in the 1920's-1950's. Some counties in WI had stands of native prickly pear cactus. I always wanted to someday try and find them assuming they still exist. Supposed to be some in Adams county as quite dry/sandy. I have family there but never did find a cactus. When I was in grade school, a classmate had prickly pear at their house. How amazed I was as a 3rd grader seeing cactus surviving the cold/snow of Wisconsin. It blew my mind. I have never eaten them but did see how they burn the pads on some of the Mexican cooking shows on T.V. (hooray for PBS or I would have nothing decent to watch).

According to Gladwell: "The great accomplishment of Jobs's life is how effectively he put his idiosyncrasies, his petulance, his narcissism, and his rudeness,in the service of perfection. "I look at his airplane and mine," Ellison says, "and everything he changed was better." I don't agree with Gladwell at all that Gates's philanthropy represents a superior kind of imagination to that of Steve Jobs. The (alas defunct) Constance Spry hedge and the Rothko paintings make up for a lot , IMO. Philanthropy also represents a kind of tinkering, and not always for the good, as with Gates's abominable educational policies, which are based on the slenderest of evidence -- on no evidence whatsoever, in fact. Great power confers power to do harm as well as good, and there numerous ways to be an egomaniac and not listen to other people and to ride roughshod over them in the service of an ideology.

I am a nature-lover. My yard is a nice variety of canopy trees, understory vegetation, and tons of flowers and grasses, most of which are native. This attracts an incredible amount of birds and other wildlife. I have spent $3K on treework and many hours of hard labor to remove non-native invasive plants. (The trees were mostly Norway maples - the rest some of the worst woody invasives in northeast.) I'm organic, except for herbicides that are used judiciously on certain invasive plants. I LIKE bugs. I get a little thrill when I see a snake, toad, or tree frog. About a dozen dead tree snags stand in my back yard, to attract the woodpeckers and provide nesting sites for birds- which they do! I am also an artist and have a degree in art. "Constructive staring", using color and foliage, making things out of natural wood, placing a rotting log here and there, etc. The front gardens are more formal than the back, and my favorite gardens are in the back! The only power gardening tool I own is a push lawn mower that's 20 years old (but own LOTS of power carpentry tools.) I am a major putzer. I'm a little bit of a collector, pertaining to native plants only. I successfully propogated 46 native species from seed this year, and have plans to obtain seed for dozens more. I will probably count and detail the total native species growing on the lot someday. It's kinda fun to define and categorize (maybe that's the scientist??), but that is secondary. Another wild, passionate, and defiant gardener here!