My Buckhorn Cholla (Cylindropuntia acanthocarpa)
Since I was a kid I’ve always liked cactus (or to be grammatically correct, cacti). My first “hands on” interaction with one was quite memorable. It was 1984, in a backyard in Placentia, California, and I was laying on a cot during a family get-together with a really bad stomach ache. It was the first time I ever knew the taste of Kaopectate. I laid on my left side and for reasons I still do not understand to this day— I reached out and gripped a somewhat tall, slender cactus, in a red clay pot, with fine, lengthy rust-colored spines. We’re talkin’ Ouch City.
But obviously that never deterred me!
This bad boy you see up above is planted in the front yard here in Chandler, Arizona. I found it at a Home Depot in Tempe during my first year here. It was about, maybe, seven or eight inches tall in a half-gallon pot. Next to it was a (now dead ‘n gone) Teddy Bear Cholla— that I also bought.
The Buckhorn never really grew after I soon planted it. Stayed the same pretty much until last year. We had some immense monsoonal rainfall in 2010 and not long after that— more “arms” grew and sprouts and its probably 2½ times the size from when I got it.
And again this year— its growing again. I’m real happy and pleased with this little guy. I saw the new growth on it earlier this week and this morning it looked more pronounced with the deep purples. I would love to take it with me back to California, but seeing it’s size and now that it’s established— I can’t quite do that.
BUT…that’s not gonna stop me from clipping off a couple of the “arms,” or stems of it as most cacti is quite easily transplantable. I’m serious. You just pluck, cut or snip and put it in desert soil— and they grow whole new plants!
Trick is— gotta be very, very careful with these. Cholla’s aren’t just any cactus…they’re quite painful as their spines have microscopic barbs. Thus a very feared cactus by many who won’t even go near them. The little known secret to these things, when you go tromping out here in the Sonoran Desert, is to carry with you a simple hair comb. It’s the best way to “extract” these things out of your skin as the barbs won’t break off—and the comb steadies it.
That’s your desert life lesson for the day and a chance for me to show this thing off!
UPDATE 03/20/11 @ 12:47PM: It was tricky alright— but I was able to get one “arm” off and transplanted into a 10″ clay pot. It wasn’t easy as the spines stuck in pretty good to my gloves, but luckily not into my hands. It took a bit of finessing with my garden shears to hold it up by the spines while I placed it into the new pot and surrounded it with cacti soil. Just gonna leave it at one transplant and call it a day!
