It's worth it

When prickly pear cactus (Opuntia macroorhiza) blooms, it is beautiful! One forgets the pain it's little barbed spines (glochids) earlier inflicted on you as you weeded the patch. How hard the spines were to pick out of your gardening gloves or worse your skin. These barbs are tiny and transparent, making them hard to see. And you must find them and pick them out or else the irritation will not stop. Because of the pain inflicted by the barbs and the difficulty removing them, I would really wonder about it's value if I had small children around.

We planted a patch of prickly pear cactus on our property. It is out-of-the-way on a hillside. We will watch the beautiful flowers turn into fruits. The fruits and seeds are browsed by many animals: rabbits, skunks, ground squirrels, mice and some birds.

It really is worth it!