Please read the description and our terms and conditions below. By purchasing you are agreeing to them.
These are old stock that we have used over the past couple of seasons for propagation material. They are now in need of a rest and left to re-grow into large plants. As they have been used heavily for taking cuttings and been outside for several seasons they may have insect damage, odd shaped leaves or holes in the leaves. This will all grow out in time and be replaced by fresh pads. The older, damaged lower growth will eventually swell and bark over forming trunk like growth.
Often miss labelled as Opuntia Vulgaris, Opuntia Ficus-indica has been long grown as a food crop in more arid regions across the world. Highly productive even in low rainfall areas producing many succulent and very juicy fruit. The fruit tastes a bit like a sweet water melon but can also ruin a white shirt so eat carefully. The best way to eat the fruit is to refrigerate for a few hours and then peel off and discard the hard outer skin. The rest is eaten including the seeds.
The pads are often used as tortoise food and on mature plants can reach up to 50cm in length. The grey green pads are armed with both large and small spines. The smaller spines are hair like and irritating if you stick yourself with them so thick leather gloves are recommended when handling. The lower main pads eventually develop a course woody type coating forming a trunk so mature plants are tree like.
Very easy to grow indoors or in a cold greenhouse given a very well drained compost with lots of added grit and sharp sand. Water regularly during the warmer months but keep dry for the winter. Reliably hardy in UK zone nine gardens if given sharply drained soil and a hot south facing position such as against a house wall. Our stock plant even survived the -10c we had for several nights during January 2023.
IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ, ESPECIALLY ABOUT TRACKING YOUR ORDER. Typically dispatched within 3 to 5 working days in a single plant in a single 9cm pot. Fully tracked postage. Ebay will give you basic tracking info but to view your parcels full tracking history use the couriers own tracking site. The tracking info ebay provides is usually inaccurate and does not allow you to re-book delivery if you miss the first attempt and are not carded. This is a live, perishable product, we provide you with fully tracked postage, it is your responsibility to keep a track of your order. . Your ebay order details will show the tracking number and who it has been sent with. 30 day Free returns, if you are not happy with your plants just open an ebay returns case and we will send you a prepaid postage label to return the item for a full refund.
We state *other courier* in the postage section. This is due to the fact that we send items via several different couriers as well as Royal Mail. Who we send by will depend entirely on the size and weight of your parcel and the area it is being sent to.
Contacting us. If you have a question relating to your eBay order or an item listed on eBay please contact us via the eBay messenger service so the item details come up. Please do not contact us via our email or website address.
We will no longer reply to messages that have the answer already answered in the description or chasing orders before the stated delivery date is up.
Collections and Visits. The nursery is not a retail nursery so sorry but we do not allow collections or visits under any circumstances. We would like to open the nursery for visits as it would greatly increase turnover but the terms of our lease prohibit us from doing so.