CactiGuide.com

Always great to see the Opuntia hybrids and selections. There are some great ones and you have quite a nice collection. I also have the "Taylors Red". Mine insists on growing new pads this year when all I really want is a flower or two.
I see your not faint hearted when it comes to handling Opuntia pads bare handed. It takes a real "Opuntimaniac" to pull that off. Every time I try that, I regret my arrogance. Funny thing is, I never learn.

I think sunrise is my fav in that bunch. Although, they are all excellent! Don't forget some overview shots of your garden Jason!

So its been 14 years since I posted in this thread......

I started another business, and retired again.

I lost my whole collection along the way, so its time to build a new one.

I just constructed an 8 x 16 lean too on the south side of my house, wow that was expensive. I decided to go with solexx for my covering the frame is made from cedar. Ill be starting seed in it soon, probably end of feb, its sealed, and already getting up to 110 in the day if I leave it shut up.

I anticipating constructing a 30 x 60 cold frame in the next year or so.

When I figure out how to get pictures from my phone to this website, ill show some pics of the lean to.

Most of my seed is very old, so I dont know what to expect from germination rates. Will be eninocereus, corypantha, scleros, pedios, various diminuative opunitas.

Im not dead yet

best regards, mendel

Welcome back! Good luck rebuilding!

Yeah, welcome back. Are you planning on growing more outdoor cacti?

Best of luck rebuilding your collection. We had a similar hiatus from cactus growing for about twenty years. But when we started we only thought opuntias would survive up here in the northern Midwest and unfortunately never experimented with many other species. Then we tried to clean up the cactus bed but were never able to exterminate the buggers through hacking, fire, glyphosate and other herbicides at 5x label rate, etc. - At least we learned how to weed around the cactus
We are enjoying experimenting with various ball cactus now, and have even found somewhat local escobaria to play with. Even trying some interesting well-behaved opuntia that likely won't colonize our lawns through errant pads or have goals of world domination. You are fortunate with your climate in eastern Colorado to try a wide range of cactus outdoors, sunlight and grandkids allowing.