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 the Florida cactus species are available for sale here, and only to Florida residents at Florida addresses, as they are protected species. It is my hope to someday realize a mature forest of huge Florida and other cacti in professional, permanent museum-grade enclosures.

The Florida Keys semaphore cactus – Consolea corallicola, though they put forth a gorgeous red flower that fully opens, are sexually sterile, like many island endemic plants that have chromosomal triploidy, so rooted offsets from droppage or hurricanes is the only way for them to survive as a species. The pericarpel drops to the ground after flowering and roots like a pad – thus having vegetatively propagated to become a new plant. I’ve been collecting and rooting them in 4″ pots, pups already emerging from sterile fruit areoles, and I should have nice little 1gallon potted candelabras by next year. This cactus, like most of Florida’s native and endemic cacti, is almost extinct and would likely be gone without the effort of conservation botanists. Thanks to botanic gardens and growers, they and the rest of Florida’s endemic and native cactus species will at least remain in cultivation if the Keys and coasts end up underwater someday. My two large plants are just over 40″ tall and nearly as wide.

Most of Florida’s opuntiads (Opuntia, Consolea and Cylindropuntia) are also seriously threatened by a hungry moth from South American called Cactoblastis cactorum. The caterpillar eats through pads and leaves behind a translucent, white papery husk, like a burrito wrapper. Eggs are laid on tips of needles and the egg stick looks like a Ramen noodle. A sprayed mixture of BTK dry-flow and Spinosad applied to pads every couple of weeks has prevented hatching and infestation since I started using it in Spring of 2025.

The potted Opuntia keyensis have also grown huge, and my over 50 cut and rooted pads of Opuntia abjecta from various keys localities have grown new pads. Already, the parent plants have regrown most of those pads since my fall trimming and have bloomed early, well before the local Opuntia do. Recently added to the Florida cactus garden section here are pads of Opuntia zebrina from Matecumbe Key and Opuntia ochrocentra “bull sucker” from Big Pine Key, along with a lot more Consolea, Leptocereus and Opuntia species for the Caribbean sections. I’m hoping they produce a lot of pads for offset planting.