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 Florida with heated protective covering during the coldest months.

Up until now, the cactus has been an underutilized big player in Florida yards, but now that an unstable climate, irrigation and fertilizer concerns, high building material prices and widespread fatal palm diseases are upon us, landscaping alternatives that use fewer resources are well worth examining for their beauty and versatility. In ground trenches amended with the right well-draining cactus soil mix for our climate, these species in quantity would make a stunningly beautiful and highly effective security fence, as has been employed throughout the Caribbean and Mexico for ages. Unlike an expensive wooden or synthetic fence that will deteriorate over time, a living cactus fence is renewable and can be propagated by making cuttings, actually increasing your available natural fence material. A hurricane-damaged cactus hedge fence will always regenerate and detached stems can be dried, cured and re-rooted to fill open spots or add thickness for privacy and security. You can even sell off excess stem cuttings, so that in time, a fence not only pays for itself but can keep paying you dividends while contributing to environmental sustainability. A number of the large cactus species I offer are endemic and native to Florida.

Landscaping architects and garden designers stand to gain a lot by getting ahead of the curve on using new alternatives to the standard big showcase plants. Large cycads and cactus could offset the risk of relying solely on palm for large foliage. I’m starting to see more of the big African Encephalartos cycads in Central and South Florida landscaping, which could round out the niche left by many urban and suburban palm if a treatment for Lethal Bronzing Disease isn’t found. The popular Peruvian apple cactus (Cereus species) is ubiquitous and perhaps the overused Chevrolet of cacti in Florida. Though it is a beauty with very tasty fruit, there are so many novel shades of pastel turquoise, pastel mint green, blue-green, lime green and powder blue available with genera and species of cactus that are Florida-able yet unheard of in the trade. In other words, not found at your big box store, period. Many in the genus Pilosocereus have interesting textures in the combination of dense amber needles and thick wool on stems, further enhancing the designer’s palette. Additionally, there are many ball, barrel and pad cactus types that are suitable for Florida and compliment columnar cacti with shape variety. Just in the variety of native Florida cactus species alone, there is a complete design suite of possibility for cactus for your landscaping, which is appealing to those dedicated to keeping a yard strictly of native Florida plants.

As I learn about the threat our native and introduced palm species face with yet-incurable disease, I recall that a forestry professional told me last year of the link between lawn grass, Cixiid leaf hoppers (Haplaxus crudus) that eat the grass and are the vectors of Lethal Bronzing Disease, and close proximity of lawn grass (and thus leaf hoppers) to palms, which they bite and infect. According to this person, groves of cabbage palm in forest preserves where there is no understory of grasses do not appear to face much of a risk of infection. Could it be that trading out all of your lawn grass and replacing it with native Florida groundcover and mulch might reduce the risk to your ornamental palm? Let’s hope that someone successfully uses CRISPR to modify these Cixiids and stop the disease without unintended consequences.

Check out this article to see Caribbean and Florida cacti in our garden setting: https://cactusislandacres.com/native-florida-cactus-and-the-caribbean-florida-stone-cactus-garden-2024-highlights/

My very largest cacti are between $300 and $600 apiece, and I have many that are large at $80-$200 each. Large “torpedo-wrapped” plants are easier to ship than you’d think. Contact me to inquire about these special plants, and I will send photos and shipping estimates (native Florida cacti not for sale outside of Florida). I’ll save you money on most orders by using Shippo for a substantial USPS discount. Extremely large plants would go by FedEx. Cactus Island Nursery is a popular, reputable and licensed specialty cactus nursery. Open by appointment – ask for Jim. We’re just southwest of Gainesville on the north end of Williston, FL. I can ship these to the lower 48 except California which has expensive and rigorous nematode requirements.