Yucca protection

TimMAz6 · Post by **TimMAz6** » Tue Jan 08, 2013 6:17 pm

Hi Aaron,

I tried Opuntia ellisiana and it died it's first year and we are zone 6b.........not far from 7a.

Cow's tongue survived a winter here with minimal damage.....then it died. I have 2 upright large padded cactus which have survived for 8+ years. Those are my winners but sunlight is being lost to my mamouth S. magnolia tree.

O. ellisiana back in 2005 (on right)
<img src=http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c309/ ... 070065.jpg>

Cow's tongue before it died.
<img src=http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c309/ ... 200643.jpg>

Hardy upright with very few spines......still alive.
<img src=http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c309/ ... 200633.jpg>

Mesa Garden's hardy engelmannii back in 2006......still alive.
<img src=http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c309/ ... 200651.jpg>

DesertZone · Post by **DesertZone** » Tue Jan 08, 2013 7:13 pm

lucky1 wrote:That's attractively done!

Looks good when they're not caught in chicken wire or the like.

Barb

Barb, I agree. This town is mainly retired people (Sunsites) and is the place I like the most. But it is starting to become a gost town, becuase of the economy. The locals said they have seen it before, wont be long before poeple start moving in again.

DesertZone · Post by **DesertZone** » Tue Jan 08, 2013 7:23 pm

WOW...you have tried just about everything Tim.

Always nice to know about hardy facts rather than posted zones. I always dought most plant zones, low or high.

Here's a cow's tongue for you.

igor.glukhovtsev · Post by **igor.glukhovtsev** » Tue Jan 08, 2013 7:34 pm

Aaron, it seems that cactus in Amarillo a picture of which I posted in November is Opuntia ellisiana! Thanks for sharing your incredible knowledge about all this cacti stuff. Tim makes us more knowledgeable about various yucca sitting in the East, you do the same from the West. Great, Guys!

DesertZone · Post by **DesertZone** » Tue Jan 08, 2013 7:57 pm

igor.glukhovtsev wrote:Aaron, it seems that cactus in Amarillo a picture of which I posted in November is Opuntia ellisiana! Thanks for sharing your incredible knowledge about all this cacti stuff. Tim makes us more knowledgeable about various yucca sitting in the East, you do the same from the West. Great, Guys!

Always interesting to here about the over seas yucca and cactus. I can't wait to here how you plants are after this winter.

igor.glukhovtsev · Post by **igor.glukhovtsev** » Tue Jan 08, 2013 11:51 pm

Most of my yucca and all of agave plants are inside this winter so I won't surprise you guys soon...
By the way what's is an opuntia with the purple pads? It looks lovely.

TimMAz6 · Post by **TimMAz6** » Wed Jan 09, 2013 4:34 am

Hi Igor,

I usually think of 'santa rita' as the Opuntia with reddish pads.............they are marginal in my area..........they will survive a year or two before dying.......they seem more moisture sensitive than other Opuntias. There are several forms of 'santa rita' type pads..........perhaps there is one out there better suited for my climate.

DesertZone · Post by **DesertZone** » Wed Jan 09, 2013 6:18 am

igor.glukhovtsev wrote:Most of my yucca and all of agave plants are inside this winter so I won't surprise you guys soon...
By the way what's is an opuntia with the purple pads? It looks lovely.

There is a few, but like Tim said O. santa rita is by far the most popular. From what I have seen, it is no more hardy then the W. filifera (desert palm) but every season I try one.

Paul Ont · Post by **Paul Ont** » Wed Jan 09, 2013 8:22 am

I have a very reddish O. macrocentra that is listed as hardy to zone 6. It is half hardy in my zone 4b/5a. I'd say it would be a good one for you zone 6ers to try. It's a lovely purple and fairly upright.

http://opuntiads.com/oblog/2009/cold-ha ... acrocentra

igor.glukhovtsev · Post by **igor.glukhovtsev** » Wed Jan 09, 2013 8:48 am

Tim, Aaron, thanks for clarification.
Paul, yes! Thanks for reminding a name of a purple opuntia that is fully hardy in my town. I've seen the one somehow.

hardyjim · Post by **hardyjim** » Wed Jan 09, 2013 8:58 am

I think the only reason my tree Opuntia lived the first year is because it didn't have
enough roots to bloat out with water,it really filled up the next year and was getting
some size but very quickly froze out in December.....

DesertZone · Post by **DesertZone** » Wed Jan 16, 2013 8:41 pm

Here you go Jim, just think in 20 years yours would have looked like this.

Yuma AZ

TimMAz6 · Post by **TimMAz6** » Thu Jan 17, 2013 1:05 pm

so cool! Maybe I should grow one of those monsters and protect it in winter!

DesertZone · Post by **DesertZone** » Tue Jan 22, 2013 6:33 pm

Here is some plant pics Tim of my area of AZ before the freeze.
Sunsites

These are/were huge!

These are the biggest W. filifera's in town.

I could not find this cactus after the "big freeze"
Trichocereus tersheckii

I should have taken pics of the Y. rostrata's, hard to see in the yards.

And the saguaro up the road from me.

TimMAz6 · Post by **TimMAz6** » Tue Jan 22, 2013 6:50 pm

great shots Aaron......do you think Trichocereus tersheckii is less hardy than Seguario?

DesertZone · Post by **DesertZone** » Wed Jan 23, 2013 11:42 am

TimMAz6 wrote:great shots Aaron......do you think Trichocereus tersheckii is less hardy than Seguario?

I'am not sure? I do know the ones I seen at St David at the post office had lots of winter burn but were alive.

It could be that I missed it when I was looking? Of cource it is not a big town and I went down every street I could think of?

It also could be saguaro's are bigger and can take more cold? I have seen many smaller saguaro cactus dead in garden every year I've been there. But it could be from other things?

DesertZone · Post by **DesertZone** » Wed Jan 23, 2013 7:06 pm

Trichocereus sp.
St David, AZ. Post office

igor.glukhovtsev · Post by **igor.glukhovtsev** » Thu Jan 24, 2013 12:20 am

Looks like some mealybugs attack a last picture cactus?
Thanks Aaron for great pics of so exotic plants!

TimMAz6 · Post by **TimMAz6** » Thu Jan 24, 2013 2:49 am

Nice to see Trichocereus......perhaps they were not dormant?

canadianplant · Post by **canadianplant** » Thu Jan 24, 2013 3:56 am

Really nice cacti Tim and Aaron.

I like seeing natural yard in AZ, less maintainance, and they look bad ass. Gives a good look into how the desert used to look before we got here Definitely not a plantless, wasteland like more people think!!

DesertZone · Post by **DesertZone** » Thu Jan 24, 2013 8:45 am

TimMAz6 wrote:Nice to see Trichocereus......perhaps they were not dormant?

Could be Tim.
I believe they were planted the year before the freeze. So they probably had not got established yet?

DesertZone · Post by **DesertZone** » Thu Jan 24, 2013 8:47 am

igor.glukhovtsev wrote:Looks like some mealybugs attack a last picture cactus?
Thanks Aaron for great pics of so exotic plants!

Yes it looks like mealybugs at the top, but was part of the cactus. I thought the same thing until I got close up.

DesertZone · Post by **DesertZone** » Thu Jan 24, 2013 8:49 am

canadianplant wrote:Really nice cacti Tim and Aaron.

I like seeing natural yard in AZ, less maintainance, and they look bad ass. Gives a good look into how the desert used to look before we got here Definitely not a plantless, wasteland like more people think!!

Thanks!

I also love the natural landscapes in the yards, I think the look good everywhere, but my favorite is the desert scapes.

DesertZone · Post by **DesertZone** » Mon Feb 04, 2013 6:52 pm

TimMAz6 wrote:great shots Aaron......do you think Trichocereus tersheckii is less hardy than Seguario?

Tim, they finaly have google maps of Sunsites AZ. The ground view is from May 2011 just a few weeaks before I got there in the same month of that year. This was the spring after the "big freeze". I was able to locate that Trichocereus tersheckii and it is standing but looks like it was bruned badly. Still surprises me how well most of the plants did after 1F or lower. I did not see any burn or very little burn on the Italian pines, when other places like El paso had many Italian pines die. All the saguaros I could find looked alive, and with the google maps I find a few I did not see when I was last there.

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Sunsites ... 51,,0,3.73

TimMAz6 · Post by **TimMAz6** » Mon Feb 04, 2013 7:17 pm

nice find Aaron................I'm impressed they didn't die after 1F too..............but isn't Arizona cold 'a dry cold'?

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Mon Feb 04, 2013 9:46 pm

Cool satellite link, Aaron.

Neat streetviews there.

Barb

DesertZone · Post by **DesertZone** » Tue Feb 05, 2013 10:36 am

lucky1 wrote:Cool satellite link, Aaron.

Neat streetviews there.

Barb

Did you look around? I came close to buying a house there, very nice little town. It's not sleavy like some places around Bisbee.

My wife and I pedaled our bikes all around town, not one biting dog, just a lot of retired people staring at us.

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Tue Feb 05, 2013 6:27 pm

Did you look around?

You know I did

Kinda liked that corner lot, was already picturing house/landscape there.
And then I woke up.

That'll be a nice community as long as it doesn't get over-built.

Looks as dry as a popcorn fart.
Barb

DesertZone · Post by **DesertZone** » Tue Feb 05, 2013 8:11 pm

lucky1 wrote: You know I did

Barb

I thought you would, because I know I would.

Anytime someone posts a street view, I go for a walk.

DesertZone · Post by **DesertZone** » Tue Feb 05, 2013 8:20 pm

lucky1 wrote: That'll be a nice community as long as it doesn't get over-built.

Barb

That's true, things can change fast in AZ.

DesertZone · Post by **DesertZone** » Tue Feb 05, 2013 8:22 pm

TimMAz6 wrote:but isn't Arizona cold 'a dry cold'?

That's funny, I'll have to tell them that, next time I hear them complian about the cold.

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