​Hardy Cactus Hunting

By Felicia Fredd
Enchanted Garden Productions
​
My second garden design project in the 'badland' foothills of Abiquiu, NM is my own place. The landscape around me is dry, fragile, and ruggedly picturesque, and I have a great view of the Chama River corridor just a 1/2 mile away. I often take note of the dramatic shift in vegetation from rio grande cottonwood and willows along the riverbank to the sparse pinon juniper scrubland beginning just 200' beyond.

I don't know that it is actually any hotter, or colder, living in the foothill slopes, but it is definitely more exposed. Beginning in June, leaving the house can feel like stepping onto a hot tarmac. The soil is essentially bare, the light very intense, and it is indeed hot. Also, I do not have a well. Instead, I have an above ground cistern to which precious water is delivered about four times a year. All of this is to say that a tender, leafy, oasis is out of the question for me, but to have no garden, in my case 'yarden', is also out of the question. The value of diverse plant life has become much clearer living in the desert.

After three years of considering the many opportunity/constraint variables, I've moved forward with several big edible THORNLESS 'nopal' type prickly pear cactus (henceforth referred to as nopal) as a primary structural element for the space. It is one of few plants that will hopefully allow me to create fullness, shade, food, beauty, and conserve soil with an extremely limited water supply.

I do not make a habit of experimenting with plants outside of their established climate & soil range, and I would never have thought about trying nopal if I hadn't spotted a large specimen growing nearby. My first propagative cuttings came about a year and a half ago from a mother plant growing in someone's front yard in La Mesilla, just 30 minutes south of Abiquiu. The owner said it had gotten so big (about 5x8 feet) that she was happy to give several pads away.

The proximity of this gorgeous plant was encouraging, but not a guarantee that it would survive even colder temperatures in Abiquiu. But it did survive, and last spring each pad pushed out 3-5 new leaf buds, and nearly tripled in size in one growing season.

The cactus I brought home is probably a variety of Opuntia ellisiana - one that is generally not expected to survive below 10F. We have even colder temperature dips and wind chills, so it could be a unique hybrid with a slight advantage. After quite a bit of research, I'd say I've learned that nothing is certain in the world of cactus - opuntia in particular. The entire genus is referred to simply as "prickly pear cactus". They are known to be 'promiscuous' plants that hybridize freely.
I can also now say that I’ve had success with from cuttings of Opuntia erinacea (Grizzly Bear Prickly Pear) from Idaho, Opuntia violacea (Santa Rita Prickly Pear), Echinocerus coccineus (Spiny hedgehog Cactus) from Santa Fe, and Escobaria vivipara (New Mexico Spinystar). These low growing cacti are for stabilizing some gravelly slopes, bees, color, texture. None of these plants are on invasive species watch lists

(https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4318432/).

The best approach for anyone wanting cactus hardy to our elevation will be to find donor plants that have been growing reasonably close by, and ideally, for at least a few years having different weather patterns. I'm giving a shout out here to Roger Montoya at Moving Arts Espanola for sharing cuttings of his nopal type cactus that grow right in the parking lot 'hellstrips' of the facility.

Opuntia ellisiana

Echinocereus coccineus

Opuntia violacea

Escobaria vivipara

Opuntia erinacea var. Ursina

And here are a few softer plants that have the drought and soil tolerance for my hot and sandy location: ephedra, palafoxia, astragalus, gaura, evening primrose, datura: ​

Astragalus sp

Palafoxia sphacelata

Ephedra

Gaura coccinea

Datura

Tufted Evening Primrose