This past week four have opened so far, and many more are budding on the aboriginal prickly apples. The mahogany and rose colors on the hypanthium and sepals distinguish this species’ flowers. I’ll be mesh bagging others now that both species are in bloom at the same time, to avoid possible hybridizations. Here are the largest of both species of prickly apple and the mama Royen’s in their new “cactus cairn” raised stone beds. I’ll add onto the sides of this large round one a couple of smaller satellite beds with Consolea moniliformis, to make it a habitat garden.

One year later, the other Florida Harrisia species I’m growing has finally come into bloom! The aboriginal prickly apple cactus, Harrisia aboriginum, is sporting flower morphology true to description and with luck will produce bright yellow fruit. Because of habitat destruction, this endemic cactus is critically endangered and almost went extinct in it’s Southwest Florida coastal hammock range. The dedicated species tent, now called the Aboriginarium, will have to be built up higher as these are reaching 7-9ft tall and potentially twenty feet. It is quickly gaining popularity with Florida gardeners who can grow it in their yard sanctuaries. Last year’s Harrisia fragrans yielded a lot of the bright red…

The downside of mega propagation of cactus is where to put them all come Winter. The last couple months of Fall bring worry over preparedness, then ideas and effort prevail. I am getting closer after setting up and securing cactus greenhouses #5-8. Now comes the heavy work of building doorjambs and insulated doors on all of them. Heating the greenhouses to keep temps at or above 43f over the nights until March will not be fun or cheap. I’m already moving our army of spiky green things into the shelters as the weather changes. The Outsunny plastic and metal greenhouse kits, when modified with improvements, have worked great. The warm…

This mantis has been eating well, because everything in there looks healthy enough to put on such a show in the absence of destructive bugs, though tonight the place was abuzz with pollinators. That horsefly in the video at 0.38 was following me as I walked through making it. I’m looking at a dozen flowers that will likely all fruit, with more opening this week. These are open one night only and close up at sunrise.

No, this is not some unusual variety of dwarf watermelon we’re growing at Cactus Island. That little black cactus bud I shared on June 8th? It flowered, fruited and grew into by far the largest fruit I’ve ever seen on any species of Pilosocereus. This eight foot plus Brazilian P. azureus took about 12 years to flower from germination and I’ve had it since 2012 when I bought it as an 8-10 inch potted pair. This biggie has to be an anomaly, because the seed count after cleaning was 5374 – way more than the normal, roughly 1800 I’ve been seeing in this genus. Maybe, just maybe, the two winters…

Tonight the flowers and bugs are out in Tent #2, so I made and spliced together three video clips of six Harrisia fragrans buds swelling to open, expanding and finally, nearly open. That side of the tent provided a bit of a miracle and the right conditions because three quarters of the stems are now in some stage of flowering. We’re looking forward to seeing lots of bright red fruit to make it look like Christmas in July in there.