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Monday, April 16, 2012

PRICKLY PROBLEMS

I noticed today my prickly pears, Opuntia, are starting to bloom.


Vicious as this plant may be if you happen to brush up against any of its spines or glochids, the flowers are spectacular. Some have a more orange throat.....


 and some are pure yellow.


Either way bees and beetles are not afraid to enter the flower and bury themselves among the pollen-bearing stamens.


But all is not well. On the same plant I notice shriveled flowers. At first I thought it must be caused by the lack of rainfall. Then I notice a plumply normal flower among the shriveled. The pads seem healthy enough. Is this some disease? I can find nothing on the internet about such a problem. Any ideas?

8 comments:

  1. Hej!gracias por tus lindas fotos , no entiendo ingles , espero vos entiendas español,es una belleza la flora autoctona que mostras , tu jardin me motiva para salir a buscar autoctonas locales aca del sudeste de la provincia de Buenos Aires , Argentina , la verbena bonairensis está en los jardines de todo el mundo menos en los nuestros!!Saluda Alicia.

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    1. Hi Alicia-Thanks for visiting and adding a comment. I understand a little Spanish and think I managed to translate your words. My husband just visited Argentina and took some lovely photos of your native wild flowers.

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  2. Wow...the specimens with orange throats on the blooms are very cool. Interesting plant issue that I've never heard of, but I'm a layperson on plants. I'll pass on your post to some cactus fans I know, since perhaps they might know? (and maybe Daphne is a closet cactus nerd?)

    Ordinarily, Danger Garden would like prickly problems, but probably not this kind.

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    1. I will ask Daphne if she knows what is going on. It almost looks like some kind of fungus. Another new problem this year would not surprise me. Everything seems to be changing around here.

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  3. Oh I definitely don't like this, those orange yellow flowers are too good to loose! I hope someone can help...

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    1. Yes, I was hoping for a phenomenal display this year. My hopes have been dashed.

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  4. I love that orange one. Would love to have one. There are only the yellow ones, around here.
    Not sure what the problem would be with the buds. Would they have been bitten with a frost? It's been a while since we had a frost here, though.
    Hope you find out what's going on.

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  5. My purple prickly pear recently bloomed too. I was too busy to get a photo, alas. Yours are lovely.

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