Prickly Perfect!

Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • August 2, 2021

Success!


At the MMA, we have been focusing on better establishing our gardens as pollinator pathways and ensuring that they are full of native species. I have blogged about this several times recently.


One plant, that some may find unusual, is the Eastern Prickly Pear Cactus. Believe it or not, it is found on Nantucket but in limited areas– specifically Coatue and Great Point. It is in fact, native to Nantucket, as well as Massachusetts and New England – and the only cactus that is so it’s incredibly special.


For many years, the MMA had a much different garden in front of the Maria Mitchell Vestal Street Observatory. It was a large native plant and herb garden that took the entire space that is now grass and a small garden. In that old garden, the cactus grew in abundance but over time it almost faded away. When the area was re-landscaped after the 1987 Seminar Room addition to the MMO, a smaller garden was created and the remaining cactus was carefully transplanted into the new one. Unfortunately, it didn’t make the transfer very well and was lost. 


I have been trying to re-establish some here on Vestal Street over the last few years. Thanks to the generosity of several grants from the Nantucket Garden Club, I have been able to purchase quite a few native plants and wildflowers, the cactus among them. Believe it or not, my bunny “friends” love to eat them! So the battle has been raging. My netting and now the myriad of fences has been working – to some degree – and this small group of cacti is trying very hard to thrive. 


Happily, when I was watering the other day, I noted that one had finally flowered! You see two images of it here and then a third is a bud coming along where I planted a few more along the side of the Hinchman House, our Natural Science Museum.

Hooray for small gifts! (And, victories over the bunnies!)


I guess it bloomed in time for Miss Mitchell's 203rd Birthday!  Which was yesterday - August 1.


JNLF

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