• 🔴 You may have tried a Dragon fruit from the store l, but do you know how it grows? On a cactus tree!
• 🔴 Names: varieties of Hylocereus and Selenicereus - these fruit bearing cactus plants are also called Dragon Fruit or Pitaya.
• 🔴 Commercially grown fruit sold in a grocery store may be tasteless. You need to grow your own good variety to have tasty, sweet, flavorful fruit!
• 🔴 Dragon fruit comes in many varieties. Colors of flesh differ: white, pink, dark red and even purple. The outside of the fruit can be red/pink or yellow.
• 🔴 In commercial groves, Pitayas grow like cactus trees, over a strong support - big "umbrella frames" ☂️
• 🔴 It is an easy plant, with low water needs, takes both sun and semi-shade.
• 🔴 Our favorite variety is Yellow Dragon Fruit Palora, (Selenicereus megalanthus). It is the sweetest and has the most flavor of all. We shared some recipes earlier.
• 🔴 Can be grown in container with a wooden trellis. And the flower is beautiful, too!

🐰 What cactus vine produces gooseberries? Barbados Gooseberry!

• 🙂 Perescia aculeata - Barbados Gooseberry - unique cactus with edible leaves and edible fruit, fast-growing vine. It is a tropical treasure that combines beauty with edible delights.
• 🙂 The fruit is yellow with a juicy, subacid pulp, and has a flavor that closely resembles a gooseberry. The fruits can be enjoyed fresh, stewed, or made into jams and jellies.
• 🙂 The young leaves are also edible, making them a nutritious addition to your meals.
• 🙂 A fast growing vining cactus, the Barbados Gooseberry prefers good drainage but likes its soil to remain moist during the summer, while being kept drier in the winter.
• 🙂 Can be grown in container on a trellis.

📚 Learn more from previous posts:

🌵 Stop! Don't touch! Just smell that magic fragrance... 😭

• 💠 Easter Lily Cactus (Echinopsis sp) is native to Brazil and Argentina. It is a globular cactus that produces splendid night-blooming, white fragrant flowers up to 10" long!
• 💠 Big, white or pink, fragrant blooms.
• 💠 Flowers open at night or early morning, creating a magical experience.
• 💠 Blooms last only a day or two, making each one special.
• 💠 Cool shapes: unique, spiny, ribbed bodies come in different forms and sizes.
• 💠 Easy Care: low-maintenance, very little water, lots of sunlight, and well-draining soil. Adapted to survive in harsh, dry environments, it can take both drought (obviously - cactus) and rainy seasons (like we have in Florida).
• 💠 Great for water-saving gardens and container culture.
• 💠 Many species and hybrids to collect, with a range of colors and forms.

Botanical bedhead: curly, crazy, and full of surprises

• This wild-looking jungle cactus doesn't grow straight - it spirals, twirls, and twists! Meet Epiphyllum guatemalense Monstrosa - Orchid Cactus, or Curly Locks.
• A natural mutation of Epiphyllum guatemalense, Curly Locks creates a tangled cascade of curly stems that look like botanical noodles!
• Perfect for hanging baskets, it blooms fragrant, orchid-like flowers at night and produces juicy, edible pink fruit.
• It's self-pollinating and thrives in bright, indirect light. Let it get root-bound to encourage blooms, and water moderately.
• A must-have oddity for cactus lovers and collectors!

📚 More about exotic epiphytic cacti: