[paterson00]

I would like a few flowering cactus in my flower bed but not ones that get too tall. 18 " most really. What are my choices?

[gada]

paterson00 wrote:
I would like a few flowering cactus in my flower bed but not ones that
get too tall. 18 " most really. What are my choices?


Aloe saponaria. Red flowers, long lasting. Often flowering twice a year.
Fast growing, many babies.
Zone 9, 10.

[cardarch]

On May 12, 11:39*am, paterson00
wrote:
I would like a few flowering cactus in my flower bed but not ones that
get too tall. *18 " *most really. *What are my choices?

--
paterson00

Prickly pear cactus plants, when growing wild, often lay flat or near
the ground. Under optimal garden conditions prickly pear will grow one
to two feet tall and produce larger pads. They thrive in rock gardens
or containers and can be effective in a mixed planting, borders and
natural areas. Hardy prickly pear is low-growing and its brilliant
yellow flowers and meandering pads are a welcome addition to the sunny
flower garden.

Prickly Pear (Opuntia humifusa) is a hardy cactus native to the
United States east of the Rockies and grows wild in dry, sandy soils
in open pine woods, prairies, pastures, and dry rocky glades. Native
Opuntia humifusa prickly pear cactus is a prostrate or spreading
cactus with oblong, flattened pads 2 to 8 inches (5.1-15.2 cm) long
with sharp spines. (Some individuals don't have spines.) Prickly pear
spines are easy enough to avoid, but watch out for the tiny hairlike
bristles (glochids) that occur in little tufts over the pad. They are
barbed and treacherous! Prickly Pear Cactus has showy bright yellow 3
to 4 inch wide flowers that appear in mid summer. The edible reddish
green fruits are called tunas and are 2-3 in long. The pulp is ruby
red and tastes a little like watermelon.
There are over 200 species of prickly pear cactuses in southwestern
North America, Mexico, Central America and South America.

Prickly pear prefers full sun but will grow in light shade and is
easy to grow, rooting readily from pads stuck in the ground, or even
just lying on the surface. It is drought tolerant but doesn't like
soggy conditions.

There is a large commercial production of Prickly Pear fruits
(tunas) in other countries where the the sweet juicy fruits are very
popular. World wide the production of prickly pear tunas is larger
than that of strawberries, avocados, or apricots

[John McGaw]

paterson00 wrote:
I would like a few flowering cactus in my flower bed but not ones that
get too tall. 18 " most really. What are my choices?




I would be hard-pressed to suggest something. Not because of the
temperatures in the UK which I know to be mild enough (at least in some
locations) to grow palm trees but because of the excess of moisture. It
seems that it would be awfully difficult to keep the roots of any desert
cactus dry enough. As cardarch pointed out, some Opuntia are extremely
hardy -- they grow at high altitudes in the mountains of Utah where they
get buried in snow for periods but up there it is still relatively dry.
They are even grown by some people in my present area but our climate is
still a lot dryer than in the UK.

I have successfully grown night-blooming Cereus (Peniocereus greggii)with
some of the most amazing flowers I've ever seen in my yard in Las Vegas
where the temperature occasionally got down to near freezing but it was
always dry dry dry and more dry except for a few days a year or when I watered.

--
John McGaw
[Knoxville, TN, USA]
http://johnmcgaw.com