Cactus needlepoint patterns

Cactus, among them an upright saguaro with two arms and a potted prickly pear of flat round pads, each drawn in more than one style.

The saguaro is a tall ribbed column, its top blunt or rounded, with two arms that leave the trunk and turn upward. The ribs are upright lines, steady to count; work the trunk first and add the arms from it. The prickly pear grows in a terracotta pot: green and dark green pads set one on another, each marked with a few short pale green spines, with raspberry flowers on the upper pads. Work the pot and the lowest pad first and build the other pads up from it. All are four inches square on 18 mesh, and many are marked intermediate.