Mammillaria nivosa, the wooly nipple cactus, is native to a number of Caribbean islands. I bought these two mature plants a couple of years ago and they’ve grown into large display specimens. Origin is Mesa Garden #811 seed.  They’ve come a long way since I harvested and germinated first seeds two years ago, and there are now around 200 nickel and quarter-sized cactus.  The fruit had no flavor and just a barely perceptible sweetness. They are a colorful companion species for the specialty Caribbean cactus garden, and more so when the smaller, cluster-forming Melocactus prolifera goes in with it. The YouTube short below is of one of these guys in…

The giant Indian comb cacti that I grew from seed germinated in summer of 2018 have grown into cannons. I just shipped out the largest one to a customer yesterday. Most are 40-44 inches tall and growing vigorously. Pachycereus pecten-aboriginum is one of the world’s largest species with the potential to reach 49ft in height and stems ten inches thick. I have sold all of the pupped stumps from which I cut these stems. https://cactusislandacres.com/product/pachycereus-pecten-aboriginum/ to purchase and see more. You’d think large, spiky cactus like these would be impossible to mail, but I do it with ease and also use Shippo for a decent discount price on fast and…

These little guys are Consolea corallicola – the Florida semaphore cactus – sporting some new tiny pads growing out of sterile fruit that have flowered and dropped to the ground, thus having vegetatively propagated to become new plants. I picked each up with long pliers and rooted them by sticking the detached ends in potted mix; others I laid on their side to root from areoles. Planting vertically may yield more eventual plants to root into larger pots, as these guys sometimes have three or even four forming at the moment. The dried, spent red flowers shrivel and sometimes remain on the fruit for a few weeks; others come off…

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…

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…

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…