Prickly Pear

Just before vacation, one of my new gardeners, Sheryl came to visit with her granddaughter. Sheryl has been in touch for quite some time, but had not had the chance to get up to visit as she is from Taunton. As she was not in a permanent home situation, she was unable to take advantage of my numerous plant offerings. In preparing for her move into a beautiful home in Lakeville in just a few weeks now, she contacted me about a plant that she had in her yard which she had moved from her prior garden. She was wondering if I would be interested in having part of it as it had grown quite large and she was getting ready to split it.

Well, it turned out to be Prickly Pear, a form of cactus!! And those of you you have been here know that I have a Yucca in a place of prominence in my gardens, as my son-in-law is a cowboy from Yuma, AZ, and I want my grandkids to become familiar with desert plants as we are able to have them in the Northeast.

So Sheryl generously brought me a very large portion of her Prickly Pear recently. On that very day, another gardener, Sue, stopped by to drop off some things for my sewing classes, and it turned out she had recently lost a prized Prickly Pear that she had been enjoying for several years. As there was plenty that Sheryl had brought, I was able to share it with Sue to add back in to her garden. I believe that all things happen for a reason, and on that day, Sue's spontaneous visit was obviously predestined so that she could share in the desert bounty! Sue was so surprised and I was so happy to be able to share with her.

So this is the prickly pear after being planted in a very sunny, not spot in the gardens. Just one problem.......

I have visited the desert several times when my daughter was living in Tucson. I was taught all about being in the desert, about the creatures one could encounter, about the heat, and most importantly about the cacti. They like to attack, even when not provoked!

And as I have this memory problem that keeps popping up, I prepared myself for the transplant process. I carefully wrapped the plant in layers of newspaper, as a precaution, and put on a pair of heavy duty (or so I thought) thick suede gloves for the job. Oh, yes, you know the drill, I messed up. The gloves were in no way thick enough to handle this particular cactus. I only touched it a bit after getting it into the ground, to get the plant upright, but it was just the opportunity the little bugger was looking for. Boy did it get me good.

One hand was full of pricklies, but they are so fine that they were unable to be seen, so Mia had to help find them. That didn't work, so I tried scotch tape, not strong enough. Went to duct tape, which got a few, and had to wait out the rest, which got out within the next few days. If anyone has had the experience they are just so annoying and painful!! I set the gloves aside in the garage to deal with later, realizing that the pricklies were probably stuck all over the gloves.

Okay, so lesson learned. I need to remember to stay away from close contact with the Prickly Pear. When I went out to check it after vacation, I used my trusty Cape Cod Weeder to move the plant parts to see how it was doing. It is still drooped alot on the ground, but it has transplanted great, with loss of only a small section that didn't have much root on it when it arrived.

Now the interesting part. I went for a long walk in my woods to check on all that grows within. I took my camera, extra batteries, as I am always running out, and tools in case I needed to clear ay paths, etc. Also brought gloves to use for moving any fallen trees, branches in my way, etc.

So are you following me here??

I used the great suede gloves that I had used from the Prickly Pear transplant -LOL - LOL-
Had to remove pricklies all over again!!!

So I have just made a note to self - Pricklies all over suede gloves!!!

Have a great day, I'm out to the gardens!!