Tom Whaples' Pathetic Ice Cactus.

We've got prickly pears growing here in Virginia (USDA hardiness zone 7) and they get iced several times a winter and survive just fine. They're tougher than you'd think.

Planting them? It's in a pot. *shrug*

Prickly pears are everywhere out here in Tucson. You think this is pathetic, you should see what happens when there is a winter that is unusually cold and very wet: they suck up all that extra water (can't help themselves, they're born that way) and it all pools in the bottom of every pear, the cell structure of which must be destroyed by freezing (in my unscientific opinion). After that, slow death, with bloat, ugliness, and a weird sickly smell.

So while this may be the most pathetic cacti you have seen, there is a whole world of pathetic, bloated, doomed cacti and succulents out there to discover.

BTW, what the hey, planting prickly pears back east???!!?!?!?