Cactus Nursery

Uncommon Columnar Cacti growing in the Nursery

May 11, 2020 /
Pilosocereus aff. flexibilispinus “Sitio Grande, Bahia”, Brazil)
Harrisia Aboriginum, endemic to S.W. Florida
H. Aboriginum
Pilosocereus Royenii “Sebucan”, (Puerto Rico)
Pilosocereus Leucocephalus palmeri
Pilosocereus pachycladus “azureus”
Pilosocereus chrysostele
Pilosocereus Catingicola ssp catingicola (Brazil)
H. Aboriginum
H. fragrans seedlings
P. Royenii with “mini-me”
P. Royenii near 5ft
P. Leucocephalus palmeri
Xiquexique gounellei ssp. zehntneri
P. Chrysostele
P. pachycladus “azureus”
P. aff. flexibilispinus “Sitio Grande, Bahia”
P. aff. flexibilispinus “Sitio Grande, Bahia”
P. aff. flexibilispinus “Sitio Grande, Bahia”
Stenocereus Griseus next to wooly blue Pilosocereus
Myrtillocactus Geometrizans “Blueberry cactus”
I’m just nuts about columnar cacti! Here are some photos from my “little green Ferrari parking lot” section of the nursery. They are grown from seeds that I’ve patiently sought and acquired. Many years ago I was stunned to learn that several genera of columnar cactus occurred in Florida and Caribbean islands, not just out West and south of the border, and with that revelation I began my interest in growing cactus. The small tree cactus Harrisia Aboriginum is found only in S.W. Florida and is protected, though I bought my seeds from a nursery in NM that has a large collection of old plants from which they harvest their seeds. It grows in semi-shady understory of palmetto, palm and live oak of Gulf Coast scrub land.

Pilosocereus is a medium sized tree cactus genus that occurs in Cuba, Florida Keys, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Bahamas, Mexico and South America. It has a particularly strong and unusually diverse presence in the semi-arid scrub lands of Brazil. Some in the genus can reach 30ft tall and 4-5 inches thick, and many species sport a flower bearing wooly cephalium or pseudocephalium near the tips, depending on the species. I am growing a number of Pilosocereus species that are rare in cultivation and I plan to sell most of these when they are a bit larger, but I’ll keep a few from each species for my own seed production. Where I can, I’ll add specimens from different provenanced field collection numbers to avoid perpetuating the same clone before I hand-pollinate flowers for seed.

A third genus of medium-large tree cactus found in the Caribbean is Stenocereus: Stenocereus Griseus (one in photo above) is common in the ABC Islands and referred to there as Kadushi, and the similar but more densely needled powdery blue-green Stenocereus Hystrix is found in Cuba and Jamaica. I’d like to get my hands on a couple of these rare gems but the few times I’ve seen them for sale they were prohibitively expensive, so it’s looking like I’ll be starting them from seed for now. Our S. Griseus should eventually yield tasty cactus fruit and seed.

Finally, I had to add a picture of the “cactus blueberry” Myrtillocactus Geometrizans. The mid-winter fruit, called bilberry, looks and tastes like blueberry. Commonly used as grafting stock for those red, orange and yellow ball cacti at your local box store, they can reach 9ft x 15ft shrub size if allowed to grow naturally in ideal conditions. Our bilberry cacti are about to get divided today and planted in amended ground beds that were started by the previous owner (and finished by me two days ago) up near the wild blueberry patch. It’s worth the time to surf the web and see mature specimen pictures of all of these beauties.

James V. Freeman is an established visual artist (oil painting) with a deep interest in natural history, plants and farming. He has had numerous solo shows, a solo museum show, an upcoming museum show and his work has been featured in many publications to date. He currently has a studio in Williston, Fl at the family farm and homestead, "Cactus Island", and as a farmer, specializes in growing columnar cacti of the Caribbean and Gulf countries as well as the aquatic Madegascar Lace Plant. James and his mom Sharon manage and develop the permaculture homestead.

2 Comments

    • James V Freeman

      May 11, 2020 at 8:28 pm

      Thanks! When I was in my early 20’s I would hear the phrase “green thumb” and wonder why that attribute skipped me. Art and botany turned it around, starting with the lace plants. It’s addictive stuff.