In the spring of 2012, I attempted to graft a Pear scion onto my apple tree using Winter Banana Apple as an inter stem. (All of he grafting i do is "Whip and Tongue" grafts wrapped in grafting tape. I then coat the wrapped union with grafting wax) The parent branch was a Winesap Apple branch with a grafted Winter Banana Apple scion from a few years before. (I actually have two of these paired branches.) I then attempted to graft two "Kieffer" Pear scions onto my two Winter Banana Apple inter stems. The "Kieffer" Pear scions started to grow, but died a few weeks later. This spring (2014) I attempted to graft this Apple / Pear union again using the same Winter Banana Apple inter stems. I had just enough branch on my Winter Banana branches to try this experiment one more time. This time around, I used "Sunrise Pear" scionwood. The grafting was a screaming success! (I had enough "Sunrise Pear" scionwood to graft two branches onto my apple tree, and two more onto an ornamental pear. All four pear grafts were a success!) I have no idea why this experiment failed in 2012 and was a success in 2014. I do not know if it had to do with the pear variety used, or if it had to do with environmental circumstances. I will re-post in 2015 with an update. There are a few different treads on this subject so I will be re-posting on those threats also. Below are pictures taken on 07/27/2014.

Where are you located Annamaria? This will dictate everything. If you are in a mild climate, you won't want to bother with one of the wild species, but should definitely get a cultivar of Opuntia ficus-indica. These should be readily available from warm-climate nurseries. If you're in a colder zone, you could try Opuntia engelmannii or related wild types. Many of these are available through mail order nurseries specializing in cacti and succulents as well as unusual edibles. I see that Edible Landscaping sells one that is hardy to zone 7. Of course, anywhere in the arid but not-too-cold western part of the country you are likely to see some growing wild or as part of landscaping. Just collect some pads from a variety of plants and wait a year or two to taste the fruit!

This is my Asian Pear Tree. The bricks are temporary, and only to keep water in the area. I am going to get nice bricks like in the top right. The little line in soil is about the size of container, which was about 14 inches wide, so I did 7 inches around it so about 21 inch wide hole. I first spray painted around the container in the spot I wanted to plant it, and dug out that sod, then measured 7 inches around the hole, and laid a stick, and spray painted a line, and I basically made an octagon around my 14 inch hole, and spray painted the roundness into it, and dug up sod. I also made a line with surround grass to know direct center of hole. I dug a deep hole, that was completely flat (not a cone), it was probably about 1 foot below the bottom of the tree's lowest part of root! I dug it that much depper to get the good soil mix in there and pull out a lot of the big rocks. I filled it with a soil mix 2/3 native 1/3 new stuff, I filled enough for the tree to still be above ground, and gave it a good foot stomping. (don't worry my soil drains awesome). I pulled the pear tree out of container, and the dirt just fell everywhere, and I could see every root, (which was shocking cause my Maple, had tons of roots that needed cutting all around the sides), so I made sure all the roots were separated, and lightly held it in air so that the top root is 2 inches above the dirt line (not letting them get damaged. I then started filling it in with my native soil mixed with good stuff (2/3rds mix), having someone hold it straight up in my perfect spot, and filled her with that soil mix to what you see. You can't see it, but there is a root slightly above ground on other side. I then laced it with bricks, and then I put 2 gallons of water that was mixed with "root starter" in a Lowes bucket, it was filled with tons of nutrients and prevents root shock.I went back when water drained a little, like 10-20 minutes later, and gave her a good rinsing. *I was slightly concerned because she seemed to wabble with light tapping of stem, but after I watered her, she seemed to be in pretty good. I wanted to go buy a stick to help it keep straight, but I was afraid of stabbing a root.

a complete guess, you have opuntia ficus indica???? The second picture looks much better. The bumps are the fruits, though most will change color when ripe. Perhaps your cacti is not old enough to hold fruit to maturity? Some plants the fruit will remain green or turn a slight orange, others will get DARK puple, and all sorts of variation in between. Usually late summer early fall (about now) you will see the ripe fruit appearing in stores, esp. ethnic ones. The pads are edible too, they are called nopales. If in doubt, pick one of the fruits, flame off the spines, cut in half and try. The section with the hard seeds to me tastes the best, the closer to the skin, the more "cacti" you taste. The best "tuna" I've had tasted like an extremely rich watermelon with mullberry undertones. Others were very insipid. -Ethan