Pastures and House Lawn
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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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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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New Videos
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The Key Tree Cactus at Cactus Island
This is the cactus that started it all for me: the Florida Key tree cactus, Pilosocereus robinii. It is our largest – a green, branching columnar cactus that can reach 33 feet in height with many arms, and what a few of us here call “Florida’s own saguaro”. Occurring only in the Florida Keys inside the U.S, it also is found in a few spots in Cuba and their coastal keys, reportedly also on a few islands of the northern Bahamas as well. Stems can get 4”+ thick and thicker at support base. Flowers are nocturnal for one night only and have somewhat of a garlic odor. Unlike many others…
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WUFT Artistry in Motion Features paintings of James V. Freeman
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Spring Cactus Flowers Everywhere
I don’t think I’ve ever had so many flowers at the cactus farm at one time, and some uncommon ones at that. The really wooly blue Pilosocereus with curly white wool on every areole is some kind of hybrid from California, and I’m guessing someone crossed Brazilian P. pachycladus with Mexican P. leucocephalus or P. leucocephalus palmeri. The single muted mauve flower on the turquoise P. aff. flexibilispinus (CS140 Sitio Grande, Bahia, Brazil) was an early surprise for 4.7 year old plants. Twin flower bells with green hypanthium on what is likely Xiquexique gounelei ssp zehntneri are a knockout, while the 20-some buds on the patio gem Harrisia aboriginum candelabro…
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Bluebird Chicks
“Somebody gimme a treatstick! I’m hungry! Oh goodie…..it’s Bird Lady! Maybe she’s got one in her pocket for me!” I don’t think this bluebird chick would have cared which hand or beak fed it, had I reached over onto the roses and pulled off one of the grasshoppers to give it. The parents work in tandem but hold at a distance on the pear trees with bugs in beak until we leave the porch, in this case a trip to the store. I can almost hear “will you guys get outa here!? This thing’s getting stale.” For anyone close to us who knows the symbolism of these brightly colored birds…
Cactus Island Nursery