Let's brainstorm what cactus flower could be for now.

[Wonz]

Everyone let's think of anything that could use cactus flower.

Some people are feeling the cactus flower has little use now. Just shirt and salad.

Shirt + chilled amulet are really good if you can give up a backpack but most people won't.

It's season locked so if the purpose is related to summer you get bonus points. Most of us apparently doesn't like season unrelated stuff being locked behind season what the latest hermit home change showed.

My suggestion:

An upgrade module to flingomatic. Crafted from cactus flowers and maybe something else, spoils. 
What it does: Flingo will react to smoldering and things burning even in emergency mode. Emergency mode serves now only just as mode which will ignore campfires as long as the flower is not spoiled. 

[loopuleasa]

Cactus flower gives healing, and you can wear it.

That is all that we need.

Don't listen to other people, my dear cactus flower.

You are more than enough. You are beautiful. You are a flower.

My dear cactus flower.

[Archswifter]

Summer Garland?

[Mike23Ua]

Well if Klei ever reworks the games biomes and adds new mechanics and mobs- I kinda want to picture a cactus flower being a food item you could lure something like idk Sand Scarabs out of the Sandy Dunes of the “Reworked” Desert Biome.

Or Maybe some kind of protective “Roofing” to go over the top of your Gardens to allow them to grow in Winter/Summer- similar to a Glass House protecting crops from extreme cold/extreme heat.

Or Maybe collecting enough of them let’s you build a “Lily Pad” like temporary boat, just to get around at sea if you get stranded somewhere on a desert island with no wood/grass to build boats with.

As far as what it could be used for that’s in the game currently.. I haven’t got a clue.

[Lovens]

I would absolutely love some decoration items crafted with cactus flower! Maybe a potted cactus flower, or a way to decorate marble statues with cactus flowers. 

Another craft I'd really like to see as an alternative to desert goggles/eyebrella for summer: a flower hat (an upgraded version of the straw hat that has 120 summer insulation and some sanity gain). Basically a pretty looking hat decorated with cactus flowers that has all the perks of the desert goggles except the sandstorm protection but is also easier to craft and doesn't require to fish out the blueprint. Maybe it could have some cool garden-related perks (like making crops grow faster or tending to them in a small radius). 

[Lokena]

I'm not sure how desirable it will be, considering how quickly it spoils and that it's only available for one season, but... Put cactus flower in a vase on decorative table? We already can put moon flowers and forget-me-lots there, so why not cactus flower? Just maybe increase its durability to make it worth it. Like... plant it in still on a small piece of cactus or something, and the cactus is unpretentious?  And while we're at it, add bouquets of dark flowers too. Again, we can plant other flowers, so why not these? I'm sure someone like Wendy will appreciate the grim entourage.

By the way, about the flowers in the vase, maybe add the ability to water them from a watering can so that they don't wilt? Like a bird in a cage that needs to be fed periodically, and there is a phrase when inspecting it that the flowers don't look very good, and they should be watered? So you can put the flower up once and theoretically keep it there forever while you take care of it. This will solve the problem of rapid deterioration and the need for constant replacements when the desired flower is no longer easy to obtain. Just a thought.