Winter hardy cactus beds

My first task of the day was to join B... and Al... as we cleaned the outdoor cactus bed at the front door of the greenhouse. I began by removing and rolling the nylon netting, cleaning out the debris stuck in the netting, then carefully rolling up the netting for storage until next Fall. Under the netting, the bed was covered with long pine needles which protect the small cactus plants and yuccas. Many of the Opuntias (O. macrorhiza and O. fragilis) looked to be in fine shape, having survived the winter well. They looked green and healthy. I read that Opuntia fragilis is native to Minnesota. The task took about 3 hours for the three of us to pick away most of the pine needles from around the cacti, quite delicate, knee-bending, and back-stretching work.

I spent 20 minutes tending to the vine bench. There were several vines that had stolons stretching onto neighboring plants. These had to be removed or pruned to prevent the plants from becoming hopelessly entangled.

Finally, I was able to repot the Cotoneaster frigidus tree which I had intended to do last week. This week, Curator J... had sourced a plastic pot large enough for the root ball. Before potting the plant, I had to clean out the pot with the outdoor garden hose located between the buildings. I removed the old pot from the root ball, really ‘tho most of theold plastic pot shattered as I pulled on the edges. It was quite easy to expose the root ball. Once fully exposed, teased away the root fibers and cut off the lower 2 inches of the root ball. This will allow the new roots to find the

new potting soil.

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