Actual size and flowering may vary slightly based on season.
Snowball Prickly Pear
Snowball Prickly Pear is a low, mounding prickly pear covered in dense golden spines, grown for its rare white flowers. The flowers open in late spring and early summer, a color few prickly pears have. It comes from a mountain form of the rose prickly pear and takes hard cold, yet it also grows in warm, low-desert gardens. It stays low, forming a mound about 2 feet wide.
Best for: rock gardens, low mounds at the front of a desert bed, and cold-proof cactus plantings.
It stays low and forms a mound of pads about 2 feet wide. The dense golden spines glow in low sun among rocks.
White flowers are rare among prickly pears. They open in late spring and early summer, most heavily on older plants.
This mountain form takes sub-zero cold, so no Valley frost will hurt it. It still grows well in warm, low-desert gardens.
The dense spines and glochids stick at a touch, so keep it back from walks and play areas. Soil that stays wet rots the roots.
- Tight group3 ft apart
- Plant to plant3-4 ft apart
Wait about a week after planting before the first water. In the hottest months, water it 2 or 3 times a month once rooted. Give it little water the rest of the year and none in winter.
Wear thick leather gloves and use tongs or folded newspaper. Cut whole pads at the joint if you need to trim it.
It is hardy to sub-zero cold, so it needs no frost cover in the Valley. Keep the soil dry through winter.
Plant it with the side that faced the sun still facing south. A newly planted cactus can sunburn in its first summer, so light shade cloth helps until fall.
Drainage test first. Dig the hole and fill it with water. If water is still sitting in the hole a day later, you likely hit caliche, clay or hard soil, so fix the drainage before planting. If it drains very fast, the soil is sandy. Standing water around roots is a common reason new plants fail.
Weed cloth. Cut it away from the planting hole and where the roots will spread. Remove any plastic sheeting completely, since it keeps water and air out of the soil.
Rock or decomposed granite with no soil underneath. Bring in soil close in texture to your native soil, mix it with the soil below, and build up enough depth for roots before planting.
If you can break through. Use a breaker bar, pick, or jackhammer. Dig through the caliche and break out the solid chunks. Backfill with the soil you dug out, with no compost or manure in the hole. Confirm drainage before planting.
If you cannot break through. Dig narrow holes through the hard layer beside the root ball, not under it, and refill them with the same soil, not gravel. If it still will not drain, plant on a low mound of the same soil.
Root ball. Check the outside edges for any roots circling around. Loosen or cut those so they grow outward. Do not break up the center of the root ball.
Depth. The top of the root ball should sit at or just slightly above the surrounding soil level. Planting too deep can lead to rot and kill the plant.
Drip emitters. At planting, put the emitters on the root ball, on different sides of the plant. After about 2 months, move them to the outer edge of the root ball. Over the first year, add emitters farther out toward the edge of the branches as roots grow. Once a plant is rooted, never water only at the trunk.
Does Snowball prickly pear really have white flowers?
Yes. White is a rare flower color for a prickly pear. They open in late spring and early summer, most on older plants.
How big does it get?
It stays low, a few inches to about 8 inches tall, and mounds to about 2 feet wide.
Can it handle Phoenix heat?
Yes. It comes from a mountain form, but it grows in most climates from highlands to lowlands, including warm deserts.
How often should I water it?
In the hottest months, water it 2 or 3 times a month. The rest of the year it needs little, and none in winter.
How cold can it take?
It is hardy to sub-zero cold, so it needs no frost cover in the Valley.
How do I handle it without getting stuck?
Wear thick leather gloves and use tongs. Tape or white glue, dried and peeled off, lifts glochids out of skin.
Does it attract bees?
Yes. Bees visit prickly pear flowers, and some native cactus bees feed almost only on prickly pear and cholla.
How is it different from Snow prickly pear?
Snow prickly pear is a different plant, with long white hair-like spines and yellow or pink flowers. Snowball has dense golden spines and white flowers.
Snowball Prickly Pear for sale in Arizona, delivered to you
Snowball Prickly Pear (Opuntia rhodantha) is a low, densely spined prickly pear from a mountain form with white flowers. This page covers its size, flowers, water, cold and handling in the Valley.
Sourced from trusted Arizona growers and delivered directly to your door, job site, or property. We deliver across the Valley and to nearby towns, and quote delivery anywhere else in Arizona.
What is Snowball prickly pear?
It is a white-flowered, golden-spined selection of Opuntia rhodantha, the rose prickly pear.
Snowball prickly pear flowers
Rare white flowers open in late spring and early summer.
How big does it get?
It stays low and mounds to about 2 feet wide.
Watering Snowball in Phoenix
Water 2 or 3 times a month in the hottest months, and little the rest of the year.
Is Snowball prickly pear cold hardy?
Yes. It takes sub-zero cold, so it needs no frost cover here.
Snowball vs Snow prickly pear
Snow has long white hair-like spines. Snowball has dense golden spines and white flowers.
We deliver across the Valley, from Phoenix, Scottsdale and Mesa out to San Tan Valley, Maricopa and Casa Grande, and up to Prescott, Sedona, Payson and Globe. See delivery areas and rates.