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Padhenge: Born Last Fall on a Trade and a Whim
Padhenge materialized last fall in an unexpected trade with highly knowlegeable friends and customers from way north Florida near the Georgia border. This blank part of the house lawn was screaming out for completion, vexing in its unrealized potential for six years. I specialize primarily in Columnar and native Florida cactus species, but after driving up to Monticello, FL to see their gorgeous food plant homestead and the stunningly large Opuntia pad varieties they had, I was instantly hooked. Some of the pads are almost two feet long! Turns out, they are also all extremely cold-hardy, drought-resistant hybrids that yield high-brix fruit. Developed at University of California at Davis and…
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Cactus Cannons and Candelabros for Sale
These things are getting huge! Lots of wooly blue torch Pilosocereus pachycladus, giant Indian comb Pachycereus pecten-aboriginum, Cuban organpipe Stenocereus fimbriatus, Pilosocereus pachycladus ssp. viridis, Mexican blueberry cactus Myrtillocactus geometrizans, and many more. $100-$300 for most really large plants depending on height and rarity. We’re open by appointment and just southwest of Gainesville, FL. We also ship large cactus regularly with ease and reliability, and are apparently one of the few in the country that will ship large, display garden-sized cacti. Can’t ship to California – sorry. Nematode compliance too costly between FL and CA. Most of these are for hardiness zone 10a or higher but can thrive in heated…
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Native Florida Cactus, Winter Highlights
Despite a horribly cold winter beyond what I hoped possible with weeks of nights at or below freezing as low as 17f, all of the greenhouse cacti made it through just fine with propane heat. And, the Florida and Caribbean cactus stone garden has been productive in fruit and bloom while covered in its phase as Museum Tent #13. The big, tasty red fruit on Harrisia fragrans showing behind the giant Key tree cactus pair could have been my holiday card for December. Many plants within have grown stem height, new pads and new arms. There is noticeable winter growth on the Key tree cacti – Pilosocereus robinii. Most of…
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Summer Cactus Promenade Walk plus the Three Florida Harrisia species – Three Videos
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Taller Cacti and More Pups
We’re enjoying the notable growth in height, thickness, pups and arms on the seed-stock plants in Cactus Island’s permanent collection this summer. The fastest growing of the Key tree cactus batch put growth into roots after I up-potted to 1gal pots, then resumed skyward growth. The rest of them are catching up since spring. The most vigorous of the Pilosocereus polygonus are going one-by-one into 7gal pots. The Cuban organpipe are blowing my mind with all of the arms and pups still forming as others from a year or two ago grow even bigger on their main stems. Specimen and project plants aside, most everything at Cactus Island Nursery is…
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Four Fruit on Pilosocereus aff. flexibilispinus CS140
Pilosocereus aff. flexibilispinus yielded four hard-won, controlled pollination fruit this spring. I’ve cleaned and dried the third out four fruit and waiting for the last one to pop. This is the second of four harvested yesterday afternoon. I almost missed seeing it, with all of the work I had for the day. This morning’s fruit, the third of four. Last nigh’s bloom closed now for a few hours. I’m letting the rest of the buds open without pollination to continually monitor frequency of accidental pollination. Only had one open-pollination fruit, which I excised and discarded before it could grow, out of maybe 50 blooms this year so far.
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Tall, Mature and Uncommon Cacti for the Luxury Estate
Cactus Island Nursery is about the only place in Florida where you can find very large and uncommon columnar cactus for sale. I grow nearly every one of them from seed and it takes many years to get these gorgeous, spiky plants to 3ft, 4ft and even 6ft tall. If you’re looking to design and build the dream xeric oasis within your indoor or outdoor garden sanctuary but don’t want to wait forever for plants to slowly grow to museum exhibit size, Cactus Island has what you need. Most of what I offer for sale will only grow outdoors without protection in coastal Tampa and South Florida, and in North…
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Native Florida Cactus and the Caribbean & Florida Stone Cactus Garden: 2024 Highlights
Everything I’ve grown and built at Cactus Island Nursery has exceeded what I’d hoped for after over five years of work and a big move to North Central Florida. My mother and I have built and maintain a productive homestead on top of that. The first two Key tree cactus – Pilosocereus robinii – are over three feet tall and the Big Pine Key planting of the species has put on some real growth since March. It is the state’s largest cactus by far, referred to by some as Florida’s own “saguaro”. The 25 or so “batch champs” I have set aside and will I’ll keep for seed production while…
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Three Distinct Island Populations of Royen’s Tree Cactus – A Short Video
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Pilosocereus aff. flexibilispinus Flowers and Fruit
The huge spiny cannons from Sitio Grande, Bahia in Brazil finally produced flowers on more than one stem, and close enough together in time that I was able to gather and freeze the pollen from one plant and tap it on another flower, yielding my first fruit. Tonight I did another and might have a seed factory going shortly. I germinated these in August 2018 and have enjoyed their rapid growth to dizzying heights. Someone collected seed of this species in 2009 and listed it as CS140 but it was misidentified by that collector as another in the genus. Luckily, a famous cactus botanist/explorer pointed it out as wrong and…
Cactus Island Nursery