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 continuing to restock my friend in Big Pine Key for his own land replenishment. He reports that the first load of seedlings of Key tree cactus and Simpson’s prickly apple cactus have adapted nicely to planting in the ground. They have been selling well, as have the other Florida endemic/native cactus that I grow. As always, I can legally only sell protected native Florida cactus species in Florida. Everything else I sell throughout the lower 48 except California.

I took the salvaged odd pavers that we’d boneyarded off of local listings last year and put them to new use as the decorative maintenance pathway in and around the Caribbean and Florida stone cactus display gardens. I plan to permanently plant these cacti in the stone beds and then erect a leveled, structurally fortified, smooth-edged RV carport over it. During winter months I’ll cover and heat it. There are several small, slow-growing buccaneer palm – Pseudophoenix sargentii – planned for its future.

Though I specialize in columnar cactus, I love the variety of form that other types of cactus bring to a display garden. There are tall Opuntia keyensis and Consolea corallicola Florida semaphore cactus in the gardens along with short, spreading Opuntia abjecta. Any kind of Opuntiad, which includes prickly pear, Cholla and Consolea, is vulnerable to the invasive South American cactus moth – Cactoblastis cactorum. Systemic insecticide doesn’t do a completely reliable job in preventing the caterpillars from eating out the pads occasionally, but I’ve learned recently that preventatively spraying the cactus pads with Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) effectively kills the hatching caterpillars when they bite into the epidermis and thus ingest the Bt. I like using both.

Cactus Island’s logo was inspired by our Florida semaphore cactus and its endearingly comical, curved papaya-shaped pads. I use my Keys beach sign for videos and the square logo for product stickers, now trademarked.