Night-blooming cereus, part 3

Just a few more, I promise. There will be one more flower tomorrow, but this is it for the blog. This is the progression through the day.

Morning:

7:30 p.m:
About 9 p.m.:

10:00 p.m.:


This variety has no scent, unlike the other one I have. It will open some more, but I'm off to bed. Back to your regularly-scheduled show soon.

Night-blooming cereus, part 2

I almost missed the first bud! Thank goodness for intuition. I woke up at 4:30 this morning thinking it might hail. I got up and put my car in the garage. As my feet were wet from going out, I went into the laundry room to dry them off. Hmm, maybe I should check the cereus...

Yikes! One of the three buds had bloomed!

Here's what it looked like yesterday in the late afternoon:




And here's what it looked like at 4:30, in the rain (and me without my glasses):




There will definitely be another post about this plant.

Night-blooming cereus

My night-blooming cereus is on the verge of flowering again. Last year I was out of town when it happened. I'm hoping it blooms while I'm here. This is how big the buds were on Saturday:

On Monday:


Wednesday:


Here's the whole plant:


The flowers bloom only for one night. They put out an incredibly strong yet delicate scent that can fill my whole house. Last time I was home for one, at 7:00 p.m., it didn't look like it was going to happen that night. By 9:00 p.m., the blossom had opened completely. It's like watching time-lapse photography in real time!

The key to having these bloom, I've read, is to treat them badly. I've had this plant up on the railing all summer. It has southwestern exposure. I water it occasionally, but mostly just leave it alone. The other NBC I have is a different variety--that's the one from a cutting off my grandmother's plant. I haven't had a blossom on that one in about 12 years.