The thornless hardy Prickly Pear is a smooth and good-looking cactus that displays large, single yellow flowers in summer. Although it doesn't have thorns, it still has fine glaucids on the pads that can painfully stab into your hands and are a pain to remove. To get rid of them, you can use duct tape, which is successful.
The cactus has large, big, round pads that pile onto each other up to 4 feet tall and quickly form multiplying patches up to 8 feet across. It has some of the best ability to deal with our winter wet. However, it's still important to heavily amend the soil with gravel and pumice to ensure sharp drainage, which is key. It thrives on sunny slopes with sharp drainage and is excellent under the south-facing eaves of a house. It also works well in containers, but they need to be protected from extreme winter wet, and you should move them under cover in winter.
The cactus is cold hardy below 10ºF, but the combination of wet and then arctic cold can shrivel some pads. Recovery in spring is rapid. Anticipate that it will spread quickly and allocate room if needed. It's moderately deer-resistant.
