I’ve had it (Opuntia humifusa) for years. Every year it got a little bigger but never flowered. Looks like this year was finally the year! They’re all gone now, but the fruits have taken their place. Can’t wait to have some 🤤
Those flowers! Wow I was not expecting such a show! What zone are you in?
6b, southeast Pennsylvania, U.S.A. Afaik these are the only opuntias native here? They seem pretty happy and low maintenance!
Wow and you can eat them? You’ll have to report back what it’s like
Yup! I haven’t had the fruit from this particular Opuntia species but they generally taste a lot like watermelon to me. You can eat the pads themselves too, but mine is so small I don’t wanna inconvenience it 🥺
I have had this one prickly pear for 10 years and it’s never flowered.
Looked it up and it appears that it may be a fragilis which mostly just propagate vegetatively. 😪
It survived many northern Minnesota winters before I had it at my grandparents house though.
Well if it propagates particularly quickly, the pads are also pretty tasty! Use a flame to remove the glocids and scrape with a knife to remove the spines. Look up “nopal” for recipes, they have kind of a nice gel instead that’s good for thickening stuff, kinda like okra!
