Santa Rita prickly pear cactus provides year-long color with its purple pads, yellow flowers, and red fruit. Here’s everything you need to know about planting and caring for this native Sonoran Desert cactus.
Santa Rita prickly pear (Opuntia ‘Santa Rita’) is a native cactus found in the Sonoran, Chihuahuan, and Baja California Deserts.
The name Santa Rita refers to its being especially common in the foothills of Tucson’s Santa Rita Mountains.
This cactus has so many attractive features, it’s hard to believe it’s a native and not a nursery-bred hybrid. Its pads are blue-purple which turn more green with age.
Every spring it bursts forth with showy yellow flowers. And when the flowers die, they are replaced with dark reddish-purple fruits.
Santa Rita prickly pear thrives in full and even reflected heat, but can also survive in part shade. It’s cold-hardy down to 15℉.
Oddly, a little stress makes this plant even more attractive. The blue-gray pads turn more purple when stressed by heat, drought, or cold.
Santa Rita prickly pear is an extremely low-maintenance plant. Once established, it can exist on rainfall alone and requires almost no pruning. And it’s long-lived. Plants can live for 80 years!
Its pads and fruit attract all kinds of wildlife. And many humans enjoy prickly pear fruit, too.
Why I Like This Plant
- Adds a rainbow of colors to your garden all year long
- Tough desert survivor
- Virtually maintenance free
- Attracts hummingbirds and bees
- Has edible pads and fruit
Things to Watch Out For
It is very prone to developing an insect pest called cochineal scale.
Santa Rita prickly pear pads are covered with spines, and both fruit and pads are covered with glochids, tiny, barely visible thorns that are extremely irritating. If you’ve ever gotten a handful of glochids, you know it’s an extremely unpleasant experience.
Plants attract wildlife, both welcome and unwelcome. The flowers attract bees and hummingbirds.
Amazingly, many desert animals don’t mind the spines and glochids. Javelinas, especially, like prickly pears — they are the mainstay of their diet. Pack rats eat them and like to burrow under them. Coyotes, desert tortoises, and jackrabbits will also munch on the pads and fruit.
Optimal Growing Conditions
If you’re thinking of adding a prickly pear plant to your garden, you need to find a suitable place that will keep your plant healthy and looking good… while minimizing maintenance for you.
Here are the key factors to keep in mind.
Temperature
Santa Rita prickly pear should be grown in USDA Hardiness Zones 9 – 11. Being a native, it can handle the temperature extremes of the Sonoran Desert and is cold-hardy down to 15℉.
Sun Exposure
Santa Rita prickly pear thrives in full sun but will tolerate part shade. Note that the more sun it receives, the more flowers it will produce.
Size and Growth Rate
Santa Rita prickly pear is a moderate-growing cactus that ultimately reaches 6’ high x 6’ wide if left unpruned. Be sure to give this plant plenty of room. You don’t want it near sidewalks, driveways, pools, or anywhere else people or pets are likely to bump into it.
Soil
Santa Rita prickly pear prefers poor, well-draining soil that’s sandy or rocky and alkaline. If you can, plant on a berm or mound, which plants seem to prefer over flat ground.
Other Location Considerations
Santa Rita prickly pear can be planted in a container, provided it has excellent drainage. You can expect a potted plant to be smaller than those planted in the ground.
Santa Rita Prickly Pear:
The Essentials
| Common Names | Santa Rita prickly pear, purple prickly pear |
| Scientific Name | Opuntia ‘Santa Rita’ |
| Origin | Sonoran, Chihuahuan, Baja California Deserts |
| Plant Type | Segmented cactus |
| USDA Zones | Zones 9 – 11 |
| Cold Hardiness | To 15℉ |
| Flower Color | Yellow |
| Flower Season | Spring |
| Mature Size | 6′ high x 6’ wide |
| Growth Rate | Moderate |
| Sun Tolerance | Full, reflected, part sun |
| Water Needs | Low |
| Pests & Diseases | Cochineal, root rot if overwatered |
| Cautions | Glochids |
| Wildlife | Attracts many desert species Deer, rabbit resistant |
How to Plant
Dig a hole as deep as and twice as wide as the nursery container. Carefully remove the plant from the container, put it in the hole, and press the soil to remove any air pockets.
It’s generally recommended that you backfill with native soil and not add any amendments.
However, good drainage is critical. So if you know your soil is slow draining, amend with coarse sand or small gravel until you have a loose, well-drained mix.
Plant your cactus in the same direction that it faced in the nursery. Better nurseries will mark the pot so you know which direction your cactus has been facing. Surprisingly, cactus can get sunburned, and planting them in the same orientation can minimize this.
When to Plant
The best time to plant cactus is in the spring or early summer when warm soil temperatures encourage root development.
How to Care for Santa Rita Prickly Pear
Whether you’ve recently planted a prickly pear or have an existing plant in your yard, here’s how to take care of it to keep it healthy and looking its best.
How to Water
You’re probably used to giving plants a good soaking immediately after transplanting, but that isn’t the best practice with cactus.
The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum advises not to water succulents for one to two weeks after planting.
When your cactus is young, water it once per month during the hot spring and summer, unless you’ve had rains of ½ “ or more. It should not need any irrigation during the winter. Too much water can cause this cactus to rot.
Once it’s established it should not need supplemental water unless there is severe drought.
Should You Fertilize?
There is no need to fertilize Santa Rita prickly pear if planted in the ground, but for maximum blooms, you might want to fertilize sparingly in the spring. But if you keep it in a pot, fertilize lightly a few times a year when it’s actively growing.
How to Prune and Propagate
This plant rarely needs pruning except to remove dead or damaged pads or to keep its size in check. If you have trouble with pack rats, you may want to remove the lower pads, since that’s where they like to hang out.
If you decide to prune, always cut at pad joints.
You can use any extra pads to easily propagate new plants. Let the pads dry and callus for a week or two, and then lay them flat on the ground or on the soil in a pot. They send out new roots from each areole (glochid bearing structure). It’s recommended that you not water them for the next month to avoid root rot.
Pro Tip!
A good rule of thumb for propagating succulents is “no roots, no water”.
Until roots have formed, watering will only cause rot.
Dealing with Litter and Critters
While Santa Rita prickly pear has no leaf litter, it does shed messy fruits during the summer. Some people gather the fruit and extract the juice, but even if you have no interest in this prickly affair, you’ll probably want to pick up the fruits.
When left on the ground to rot, they become a magnet for critters you might not want in your yard, including javelinas, pack rats, wasps, flies, and gnats.
Unfortunately, cochineal scale is a common problem on Santa Rita prickly pear. An infestation looks like small balls of white cotton and can be removed by cutting off infested pads or by spraying them using the high-pressure setting on your hose nozzle.
When left untreated, these sucking insects can eventually damage or even kill your plant. It can be such a nuisance that the Arizona State University Plant Library recommends you not plant Santa Rita prickly pear unless you’re willing to regularly monitor and take active measures to protect it.
Santa Rita Prickly Pear Cultivars
Santa Rita prickly pear has one horticultural variety you might come across, Opuntia gosseliniana Tubac™. The only noticeable difference is that it doesn’t get quite as tall — about 4 feet vs 6 feet.
Don’t Confuse Santa Rita Prickly Pear With…
There’s another similar cactus that goes by the common name of purple prickly pear. Its scientific name is Opuntia macrocentra. It is also a native and is considerably smaller, topping out at 2 feet tall. It has pros and cons compared to Santa Rita. It’s resistant to cochineal scale, however it’s less cold-tolerant.
Plant Lover Facts
Santa Rita prickly pear (Opuntia ‘Santa Rita’) is one of the 200+ species in the Opuntia (prickly pear) genus.
Prickly pear cactus is historically a very useful plant. Both the pads and the fruit are highly nutritious and traditional staples of the Mexican diet. The pads (called nopals or nopalitos) are eaten like a vegetable.
The prickly pear fruits are, confusingly to English speakers, called tunas. They are often used to make juice, jelly, syrup, and candy.
If you want to try either the pads or the fruits, be sure to remove the spines first. It’s not that easy. The University of Nevada offers instructions here.
Cochineal scale bodies contain carminic acid, a compound that can be used to create a bright red dye. It has been harvested for this purpose for thousands of years.
Incredulously, it’s still used today.
This FDA-approved coloring can be found in a wide variety of commercial products ranging from lipstick to snacks, beverages, and meats.
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Author Bio
Deane Alban is the creator of Southwest Gardener. She is a science writer with a bachelor’s degree in botany from the University of South Florida. Gardening is her lifelong passion. She’s been gardening in Tucson for 15 years.
Additional Reference
Arizona State University’s Virtual Library of Phoenix Landscape Plants