Here is a good example...

"You are bidding on a Purple Prickly Pear. This plant will be between 8-10 inches tall and comes with the bag of dirt. You just need a pot and a sunny window or patio. Easy to grow and care for. This plant is interesting in that the colder it gets, the darker purple in color it becomes. It also produces beautiful bright yellow flowers.This is not a common cactus. I only have one of these in my yard to get cuttings from. E-mail any questions and thanks for looking."

$6.99 + $7.99 shipping = $14.98

Thats almost $15 for a bag of dirt and a cactus pad.

Travis

Here is a link that might be useful: E-Bay Auction Referanced

Is that expensive for Purple Prickly Pear? Mine gets purple in the winter and Spring. I thought they all colored up when stressed.

I would think a large plant could put out 20-50 new pads per year... something that plentiful seems to be overpriced at $15.

Travis

Okay, I thought it was high. I thought you were saying it was a good deal. LOL!!!

One of the reasons I don't do EBay, these folks must be smoking somethin!!

Why on earth buy a bag of dirt??? One leaf, this most common, ordinary back yard plant.

Seems it's all about taking advantage that there's a sucker born every minute, who doesn't know better & in their rush to buy, can't take a few minutes to shop around. Sheeeeesh. Rant over!

Karen

Travis try midwest cactus. I assume they have a website. They used to be pretty reasonable.

What about a grocery store?. We sell the here on the shelves, just like any other vegetable, by the pound, what ever the size. Norma

Norma you beat me to it. Try a Latin grocery store and you can pick them up by the pound.

Also try the plant trade page. I know there are a couple of people I traded outdoor stuff who grow prickly pear.

I have a concern or two about "nopales" in the store. One, they have had their spines removed. Doesn't that make them susceptible to infection or bacteria invasion? Or have they calloused enough to be okay? Will they ever regrow their spines?

I think you overlooked Miles2go's site, there are several varieties of Opuntia available as unrooted pads - at about $4 each. Shipping is free for orders over $20

H

travis -
i can go cut you some pads and send by mail for the cost of postage. they wont be named; cant tell ya the color unless they happen to be in bloom (there's mostly pink, yellow, purple around here); they will be species, no hybrids; they WILL have their spines but NO dirt. i promise to knock off the cow patties before shipping....LOL. email me. jo

Travis - what a deal from Jo. I can vouch for her, she is very genuine with her words and deeds.

Some of the nopales are sold with their spines on. They will root & do just fine.

Travis,

First of all, let me say I am VERY new to cacti gardening and this is the first day on this forum. Saw your post and want to tell you that I can offer you all the prickly pear pads that you want. They are growing in my back yard. I understand that there are multiple types and I can't say that I can identify them all (just know they are prickly pear) but some are smaller pads that bloom yellow or a pinkish-purple color and some have larger pads that bloom yellow. Not real familiar with this forum yet, but I could send you some for just the shipping charges. I live outside of ABQ, NM, where it can get down to single digits in the winter, just not sure how they could handle the winters in WI since I used to live in SE MN. Let me know if I can help.

David

Hey David, can you hit me with an e-mail so I can contact you back... your addy isnt showing up :-)

Thanks,
Travis Maciejewski
TMaciejewski@gmail.com

P.S. Thanks to everyone that is offering them to me.

hey travis -
well, the baby is finally over his strep throat and i have been able to get out of the house (yeehaw!!!)! i went out to a couple of pastures and collected you some pads. one i know for sure will have purple blooms. i cut a variety of shapes and sizes for you. will send them out tomorrow. wait til u see the spines on these bad boys! hope they ride well. get your tongs ready and watch for the mail...enjoy!
jo
ps - hey dana! long time no hear. having a good summer? hope it hasnt been as hot as ours!!!

Hi Travis,

I sent you an e-mail with my e-mail address indicating that I could send you some pads, but copied and pasted your address into Outlook instead of replying through the forum. (Told you, I'm new at the forum and cacti growing.) Anyway, contact me at DavidE0901@msn.com if still interested. I check e-mail more often than I log on to GardenWeb.

David

Someone please tell me what cactus is cold hardy in wv, looks like a prickley pear, and grows about 3 feet tall with 2-3 inch needles, and the pads are more round than pear shaped. smurfboy77@aol.com

hmmm...can you post a pic Smurfboy?

Hi, I have a form of prickly pear growing out by my house. It has lots of little spines that when you remotely touch you, they stick, and slowly work their way into you skin! They have yellow flowers, and the pads tend to fall off of the main plant before reaching a height of 1.5 feet. I intend to completely obliterate them and replace them with a more friendly and vertical species, with purple flowers hopefully. There are some kinds that grow real thick pads and as it grows the stem pads turn into a trunk. And by friendly I mean no big or little spines whatsoever.

I'm not sure if nopales will grow but I would bet they do. If you get a pad that has the spines removed, no that pad will not grow the spines back, but all the pads that grow out from it will be normal. There are prickly pear that naturally never grow spines but I rarely see them. I have left my prickly pear out in many freezes and it has never been noticably damaged. Then again I live in San Antonio and not someplace that's actually cold.

I know that the spines won't grow back. I have seen several prickly pear in the better homes and gardens magazine with no spines and grew quite unpright. Pads that grew sideways were cut off and left the ones growing upward nicely. The joints on the lower pads expand into a trunk and can uphold the higher pads. As for freezes I haven't ever seen prickly pear die from that myself. No, prickly pear can handle freezing temperatures.