>> When you talk about crops, you probably think of corn, wheat, soybeans, even things like apples, oranges or blueberries.

How about something a bit more unusual?

Well, I discovered a family in the Arizona desert who decided decades back that their crop was going to be sharp and spiny cactus.

♪♪ >> Meet Dianne and Dan Bach.

They own a sprawling cactus farm in the heart of America's Sonoran Desert, just outside Tucson.

For decades, they've been raising one of America's most unusual crops - pristine and prickly prized plants.

>> You came on an awesome day.

>> Well, I'm so glad that it, it worked out that way with Mother Nature.

Tell me how big this place is because I've never seen an operation this large with cactus?

>> Well, we're on 10 acres here.

And we have 20 green houses.

>> Some folks consider Dan Bach to be "the king of cactus."

The Bachs Arizona nursery business is well known and so large that we had to hop on board these makeshift carts to take a tour.

Our timing was perfect, however, since on this summer day, cactus flowers were in full bloom.

>> 10 acres Dan.

So much to see.

>> Lots and lots of cactus that I'm looking forward to showing you around.

>> Let's go.

>> We have a great tour planned for you today.

>> Okay.

>> A lot of pretty flowers.

>> Horticulturists estimate there are thousands of varieties of cacti.

On any given day Dan and Dianne have about 500 different kinds.

But over the course of the year, this nursery alone has more than 1200 varieties.

>> Dan, I had no idea there were so many varieties of cacti.

>> You know it's very important for a lot of varieties because people come in and they want to add color to their garden or shape or a form.

So they have, we have mounding plants.

We have tall columnar plants.

We have flowering plants.

We just have plants that make their yards beautiful.

And remember now, all of these plants are low water use.

This is perfect for the time where, we, everybody is concerned about water loss and water use and so everybody is going to xerophytic plants.

>> I keep seeing these huge beds along the way.

What is that over there?

>> Well, that's a, that's an area where we make cuttings.

And we probably get these plants, it accelerates the propagation and the speed if we can make a big cutting rather than growing it from a little tiny seed, which I'm going to show you a little bit later.

>> Well, can we go over there?

>> Let's go!

>> So here's that cutting bed.

And horticulturally I'm fascinated with the cactus because you can do so much so quick?

>> Well, the idea is to accelerate production so what we, we, we, where we can't grow things from seed quick enough, we produce them from cuttings.

>> Okay, how?

>> So this bed here, this bed here would produce, I I think about every year we get about 3,000 cuttings out here.

>> My goodness.

>> And the process is just a matter of doing this.

>> Oh wow.

And then does this just grow?

>> Yes.

>> Oh, it's prickly.

>> You see, yeah, it is prickly.

Right around inside here you can see where the roots would grow out around this ring in the center here.

>> The water storage tissue is out here.

And right around this center here is where the roots are going to grow out from.

>> And this is just one of the Bach's cacti cutting beds.

The nursery produces half a million cactus cuttings each year.

The grafting speeds up the growth process by about 3 years, but the Bach's also plant cactus seeds and graft their own cactus creations.

>> What I love showing is that people can do this at home.

>> Yeah, sure they can.

>> Now that's, people do it all of the time especially members of the local cactus club.

>> Mm-hm.

>> They do this a lot.

I mean they propagate their own plants.

And then share them with the other members of the club.

I'm sure this, we don't do anything here that would, would require smoke and mirrors.

We're just regular ordinary down-to-earth science, you know, basic science.

>> That "basic science" is what's behind these creations.

Dan and his son pollinate and propagate their own varieties of flowering cacti.

>> And perhaps one in a thousand will be worthy of a new name, for example, this is mango.

This is raspberry, epic back here.

And this is sunflower which Dan Jr.

developed doing this very same process.

>> Wow.

So do you name them after special people?

>> No, we name them after anybody you want.

If you grow them, that's the rule, you get to name them.

>> Have you named one after your sweet wife?

>> No, I haven't found one pretty enough yet.

>> Good man.

Many of these plants are show stoppers!

Some, like this prickly pear, can grow 15 feet tall but the star of the show the mighty saguaro.

They can grow to 60 feet tall and it takes decades for an individual saguaro to grow its recognizable arms.

Saguaros can live for more than a century.

>> You said it best when you said that the saguaro is iconic.

>> It is.

Yeah, it's almost hard to believe that this plant that can stand here in the heat in the summer time when the south side of the plant can get, you know, over 120 degrees, 130 degrees and how it can stand there and take all of that abuse.

It's just amazing to me.

I don't know, I don't know how it's possible.

♪♪ >> Rob, come here I want to show you something.

>> Okay.

>> I want to put out, point out this golden barrel cactus here.

>> It's beautiful.

>> As you can see the bright yellow color it's absolutely a spectacular plant, wouldn't you agree?

>> And the greens.

>> Absolutely beautiful.

But look at the flowers here, these flowers are open completely yet they're not very attractive aren't they.

I would just... >> Yeah, hard to see.

>> Yeah, they're hard to see.

They're hard to see them because the plant is so pretty.

Yet earlier, we saw the most in-ornate plants had such beautiful big flowers.

>> Big colorful ones, yes.

>> Big beautiful flowers.

This is, kind of reminds you of people, maybe are, maybe the most in-ornate person might have the most beautiful soul.

>> I like that.

Very well put.

Very well put relating our souls to something that comes right from the earth.

>> Thank you.