When we were in town the other day, we took a roundabout way home along a street known to have a lot of prickly pears in the homes’ landscape gardens. I was not disappointed when I saw that a few of their flowers had begun to open.
I couldn’t tell you which variety of prickly pear (opuntia) these were on, but they differed in flower color, paddle color and needle arrangements. The flower on the left is deep orange in color (it looked reddish from a distance) and the one on the right is a more common yellow color. Click on either image to enlarge.
Other than the beavertail variety, none of the prickly pears in our yard have open flowers, but there will be some for sure. I’m looking forward to seeing the flowers open on our lawyer’s tongue cactus that currently has several flower buds for the first time since we planted it in the rock and cactus garden.