About Cactus Island Nursery

Bio:

James Freeman is a cactus farmer living in Williston, Florida who specializes in growing columnar cacti from seed.  His farm, Cactus Island Nursery, specializes in growing mostly columnar cacti of Florida and the Caribbean.  He also grows some species from Brazil, Mexico and the American western desert.  Cactus Island is open by appointment. 

I grow cactus from seed…..lots of them. It all began with my surprising discovery some years ago that a number of large cactus species naturally occur in Florida and the Caribbean, and it quite captivated me. I wasted no time after moving here in 2014, learning about Cactaceae while experimenting with what would grow well in North and South Florida. My initial successes in germinating and retaining seedlings led to refinement of process, innovative techniques, optimum soil mixes and an armada of robust cacti as I started and learned to run a cactus farm. Already, botanical museums are starting to buy plants from Cactus Island. I maintain a standard of taxonomic accuracy and pedigree without hybridization.

One of the highlight specialties of Cactus Island is the cultivation and propagation of all endemic Florida cacti, including two species of shrubby tree cactus: Harrisia aboriginum (“Gulf Coast prickly apple” – coastal S.W. Florida) and Harrisia fragrans (“fragrant prickly apple” – Eastern coastal locations, Everglades). I bought provenanced seeds of these from major cactus seed companies three years ago and now both are yielding fruit, seed and seedlings.  Other genera and species will become available once I have them firmly in cultivation and producing seed.  As these are critically endangered, I am only permitted to sell them in Florida to Florida clients. Because of habitat loss and plant destruction from land development, these two cactus species almost went extinct in the wild. They occur on coastal shell berms and adjacent areas with poorly drained sandy soil mixed with organic matter. In a richly organic but well-drained substrate, they grow fast, tall and seem to enjoy our heavy rain.  

Cactus Island is also growing a large number of Florida Key tree cactus and also participating in a project with cactus botanists to propagate over 40 threatened Brazilian columnar species and subspecies from seed, eventually bringing seeds and plants into the botanical garden network and others into cultivation.