It
is a long lasting, nearly invisible stock suited for all the small
globular sort of cacti and used for the cacti we have on sale. Also useful for
monstrose and crested forms. Simple growing tips are provided in the
index page.
All
frost resistant North American species do the best when grafted on this stock (Pediocactus,
Sclerocactus, Toumeya and also South American winter hardy
and delicate Andean species)
Cacti
grafted on Prickly Pear
don't
growso
quicklyas on
the commonly usedstocks like Hylocereus
and Myrtillocactus,
but the
plants appearance is very natural, both in aspect and dimension.
Earlier
bloom even in very young plants and greater flower production of the
cacti grafted on prickly pear compared to those on other
stocks. Take a look at the photo of a very young Mammillaria
sancez-mejorade (at left) and in comparison see the photograph of a
three year old specimen grafted on Trichocereus, bigger but bearing
only a few flowers.
During the
winter months the stocks cladodes dehydrate a lot (this does not matter) this water
reduction confer a frost hardiness to the plants. At present I
grow anything in a non heated greenhouse, not one of my thousands of
plants have died from the frost!!
In
a few years the scion hides the stock completely, so you can grow your slow growing
and delicate cacti as ordinary non grafted plants.
See the bottom photograph of a three year old Strombocactus.
Last
but not least, young cacti grafted on Prickly Pear stocks look very nice. At
the beginning I made this kind of graft only for growing the
plants of my own collection (as I hate the unnatural appearance of the
ordinary grafts usually seen ) I was induced to start producing some of
these
cacti for
sale by the compliment of the people who found these plants very
beautiful and asked me for one. Now I have many of these specimens
and they will soon be on sale. Among them: Yavia criptocarpa,
Micropuntia berckleyana, Ferobergia Hybrid, Ariocarpus scapharostrus
(some crested!!!), Astrophytum cv. superkabuto and cv. Onzuka,
Sulcorebutia rauschii v. violacidermis, Puna and Lobivia bonnieae,
Sclerocactus, Pediocactus, Toumeya (more than one hundred beautiful species
some of them very rare)
"English text kindly corrected by John Chippindale"
