I agree with John on 2 not being enough and about the magic part too.

Once your garden starts your grass disappears

Great pics Tom. My favorite eye candy

It's not correct in my garden

Nice looking entries Tony You know which one I would have voted for

Andy_CT wrote:I personally need to see a picture of this one before offering my 2 cents.

I agree, a picture is almost a must. Besides, I want to see this 6ft opuntia.

Thanks Hob and Buck, definitely back home

A friend in NM found me a start

Opuntia can be hard to ID at times. If you could give an area or region where the pad came from could help with the ID.

Yeah, can't beat the spiny ones. Well, you could try to beat them but I believe they would win

Peterthecactusguy wrote:Bill,
Those sure do look cool!

Thats why there in my garden

John is correct about O. pottsii and heres what it looks like.

Might be a O. phaeacantha. Heres one of mine showing color like that.

This phaeacantha has a coral colored flower when it blooms.

Not sure yours is O. macrorhiza although I have seen variation in them. Here is one of my O. macrorhiza'a.

Must be some mean critters to warrant a pair of welding gloves
Know the filling to well John, the snows and mostly bitter cold took it's toll on some of my opuntias.
Some I can replace and others will be hard to replace

There not really hair, they are spines. The one in my avator looks friendly but would draw blood in a heartbeat.
Heres another one- O. trichaphora.