Cereus

Palmer and his Queen

| Flower Roberts

My friend Lucy’s husband is a plant whisperer. I gave Palmer a cutting from my Queen of the Night. His is now way bigger than mine and always has more blooms.

I am proud of my little Queen surviving up here on the mountain. It’s cooler here. There is more wind and rain.

I was thinking she was doing great until Palmer and Lucy sent me photos. I am trying not to be green with envy, but good grief. My Queen doesn’t even have buds yet.

Palmer and his Queen of the Night

Here is Palmer beside his Queen. It has had three nights of blooming. Lucy stayed up and took photos for me. Wow could they be any whiter?

Cereus blooms
The Queens face

I will patiently await buds and blooms from my acclimating baby on the mountain. Until then, enjoy these crazy beautiful blooms from my flatlander friends.

Cereus bloom

FLOWERLESS

Judy of Automatic Gardener asked what fertilizer he uses. Here is a photo.

Palmer says he uses Flower Fuel the most.

More Green on the Queen

| Flower Roberts

My plants that got moved to the mountain have been in a slump. I have been puzzled by their lack of progress. I water and feed them consistantly, but no new growth had shown up for months… until lately.

Limbs in limbo. Ho hum

Three weeks ago the Night Blooming Cereus started sending up some little flat blades. Sprouts started sprouting!

Sprouting

The Queen of the Night started putting out new leaves and stems.  I was happy to see anything new. This plant has doubled in size! The lovely baby leaves are soft, bright green and shiny.

More green on the Queen

Then the leaves elongated and put out leaflets.

Leaves and new leaflets

Even my new starts sent up shoots. What inspired this development?

New stems.

I know the days are getting longer.  I choose believe this is my first sign of spring coming.


The Cereus seems to suddenly be serious about growing. Let’s hope they get this excited about blooming.


FLOW