Five People and a Queen

The first thing that happened was the Cereus ‘Queen of the Night’ plant that I gave to my friend, Palmer, had sixty buds on it, many of which bloomed last night.

His wife, Lucy, was with me in the mountains, so he was texting photos of the angelic blooms to his wife well after dark. The unusual thing about that is these sixty blooms are the third round of blooms on Palmer’s Cereus plant. Palmer is a plant whisperer.

Palmer the Plant Whisperer

I have been admiring a fabulous garden that I pass several times each week, so I finally had time to pull over and leave my card in the mailbox with a note asking if I could write a post about the exuberant garden.

More about this garden in next post.

The gardener and I have been texting back and forth for days. We decided to meet for lunch on Labor Day(today) at a restaurant near her home. I took Lucy with me to lunch.

I told this new friend, Alice, that I would bring her two of my favorite potted plants to add to her collection. The two plants were Queen of the Night/ Night- blooming Cereus/Epipyhllum oxypetalum with the angelic white blooms and Epiphyllum orchid cactus ‘Over the Top” which blooms pink.

A baby Cereus plant for my new friend, Alice

As we ate lunch, we three shared the photos that Palmer sent of his Queen of the Night blooming and Alice was excited about adopting such a glorious type of plant. I have blogged on this Cereus before and have stated many times that if an angel were a bloom, it would be a Cereus bloom.

Palmer’s Cereus blooms

Since Alice saw on my blog that I did decoupage, she wanted to show me a lamp made by her late mother-in-law using a reverse decoupage technique. She had just moved her sister-in law, Opal, into the house next door. It was Opal’s lamp. I was very interested in seeing it, so we went to pop in on Opal to get a look at this reverse decoupage.

Here is when the universe showed itself!

The lamp was decoupaged with a large picture of a Queen of the Night bloom.

Reverse decaupage lamp

There were gasps and waves of goosebumps. We hugged each other knowing fate had brought us four together with an assist from Palmer and his cell phone. I had to go home and lie down because the connections were too complex to be coincidence and I needed time to process all the events leading up to the magic.

Orchid cactus bloom

You do the math. Palmer’s plant bloomed last night. Lucy was staying with me, so I got to see the pics. Alice met us for the first time today. I brought her a Cereus as a gift. Her sister-in-law, Opal, just moved here with the lamp that has a Queen of the Night bloom on it.

WOWZA!

FLOWER

The Cactus and the Moon

We had a big day yesterday here in the USA.

A total eclipse traveled across the country from Oregon to South Carolina.

My family drove down to an empty field in South Carolina to experience it

with the crickets, cicadas and roosters.

I wanted to see what nature would do.  People are too noisy.

Insects and birds reacted as if on cue.  It was lovely.

The adventure did not end when we got home.

My husband’s cactus knew it was a new moon, too.

After thirty years of waiting and one “dud bud” last August,

it finally bloomed. It had one big ruffly white flower.

I saw it was about to open last night, while I was hanging laundry in the dark.

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Mr. Flower and I teamed up to produce these photos at 5:30 AM.

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He stood on a bucket and I held the flashlight.

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We enjoy the simple things here. The sun disappearing, hearing panicked roosters screaming, hanging laundry in the dark, a flower blooming before dawn…

You know, the real stuff.

MoonFLOWER

Spring Easter Cactus

This little bloomer is from the forests of Mexico and South America.

It needs porous soil and indirect light.

The simple, pink, tubular flowers open during the day and close at dusk.

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The buds just began to open this week, though they have been fully formed for weeks.

Its name is Rhipsalidopsis.  Its leaf sections look similar to Schlumbergera except there are no points.

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Happy Easter

FLOWER