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Cacti & Succulents

Prickly Pear Flowering from Newly Rooted Pads

fabaceae_native

16 years ago

Anybody know how common this is? I got four pads off a big and beautiful prickly pear plant (probably some variety of Opuntia engelmannii) and rooted them in January. By March they were showing new growth, which has proven to be mostly flower buds, at least on three of the four pads. One has a total of six flowers ready to open.

I remember seeing a picture in some cactus book of a single pad flowering and the caption under the photograph said something about how rare this is.

I am ecstatic about this prickly pear for other reasons (big, beautiful, spineless, glochidless pads and plants), and I just wonder if it could be special in terms of is precocity?

Thanks for any input...

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Comments (3)

joscience
16 years ago
The flower buds were present in the pad *before* you even cut it off the parent plant (ever wonder what plants do during dormancy? make buds!). Since Opuntia (the pad-forming ones anyway) generally roots quickly and easily, it was able to gather enough water to continue growing the flower buds and even have them bloom.

The real test will come next season. If you get flowers then, you really are seeing something a little more rare...
queenb
16 years ago
I don't think it's all that rare. I've had pads of O. macrorhiza do the same thing, but then it doesn't require near as much energy as a bigger O. englemannii would. I've had an O. var. lindheimeri for about 5 years now and it has yet to bloom. I agree, though, that the pad had probably already formed the buds while dormant in January and just happened to get enough energy to make them bloom this spring.
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You can really use any of them, though I've found the more mature pads seem to root quicker. It helps if you let it dry out for a week or so before you plant it into the ground or a pot, then easy on the watering. I've had pads in my work area sitting on shelves for months and they will *still* root if I put them in the ground.
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I am throwing in a wild guess of Opuntia cochinellifera. It can put on some size so watch out. I have seen one 12' tall before our nast nasty cold front did it in. The pads a re a bit elongated and the flowers are red and more closed in structure. I might have misspelled that name. Ithink it is cold hardy to about 20 or so. The big one was planted under a tree in town and it is dead now that we had low teens for three nights last year. There is a varigated version also Here is a link that might be useful: O. ochinellifera
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Yes they will probably root, but orchid compost is not ideal, try something more inorganic (but free-draining). The seeds do not need any special treatment, but it can improve germination. I have sown this type of Opuntia with almost 100% germination without pretreatment. They can germinate after a few weeks or several months. For this kind, do not give up until after about 3 months. Growth rate is difficult to predict, it depends so much on soil, temperature, light and other things. They grow faster than most other "desert" cacti but slower than ordinary plants.
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Adding to what saturn said...PP are very easy to root from cuttings. You won't hurt the plant if you remove a pad. If you choose to go the cutting route...wait until spring to increase your chances of success. Unless you plan to do this indoors that is.
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fabaceae_native
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks alot for the feedback, it definitely answered my question.

In terms of when the buds came about, I was under the impression that buds form during the growing season, either a year before they bloom (as I've read of most fruit trees) or shortly before they bloom (as in most cacti).

Perhaps proof of the latter part I have also seen with another cactus this spring, an Echinocereus from California that I planted in April with a bunch of large flower buds almost ready to open. Several nights of cold temps in successive weeks (we had a low of 19 degrees at the very end of April) maybe combined with transplant stress, killed all but one of these buds. Now, a couple of weeks later, tiny new buds are popping out the side like crazy. I read something in a biology of cacti book (Nobel, author) that cacti are unusual in that a flower bud initiates as little as 40 days before it becomes an opened blossom. Go figure.

Well, as you said, joscience, next spring will be a good test. If I don't get any flowering then what I've read could be false, and we can assume that such a young plant just could not get enough energy to produce flower buds in it's first real bud-forming season since being rooted. Fun stuff!

Thanks again

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