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.
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.
I saw the most beautiful sight I have ever seen last night in my garden. I witnessed this wonder alone at midnight.
I consider this plant a miracle. I believe its flowers are a living link to something magic and cosmic.
My friend The Fairy(Madge) gave me this dream of a plant. I thought of her and my father last night as I sat under the stars watching these blooms quiver with energy. My daddy sometimes exclaimed “How could heaven be better than this?” I cannot imagine that, Bop.
I knew this second blooming from this plant was coming. That has never happened before. The buds turned up like pipes and started expanding two days ago.
When I saw the shape last evening, I knew this was the night. I was determined not to miss it, so I set my alarm. I could not go to sleep. I decided to go sit beside the plant in the dark and wait.
Epiphyllum oxypetalum
Its flowers were almost fully opened. They were quivering. There was no breeze. The blooms have their own energy.
The white, threadlike stamen form a tunnel through the flower.
The opalescent pistil has a strange star-shaped end.
The flowers are as big as my opened hand.
The back has finger-like sepals that splay as the bloom opens.
What wondrous, glorious blooms this “Queen of the Night” has!
The surprises just keep coming here. This post was supposed to be entitled ‘Catching a Queen’ but something else happened out there in the dark last night. I would have missed it, but I assigned Mr. Flower night duty. I went out around 9:30PM to catch the late bloom of the “Queen of the Night.” I caught myself dozing while waiting. I knew if I fell asleep, I would have no blood by morning due to the mosquitoes.
I asked Mr. Flower to catch later photos when he finished watching television. This was a fortuitous move because when he went out late in the night, he noticed that his fifty-year-old Giant Cactus (given to him by his grandmother) which is beside the Night Blooming Cereus was ALSO blooming that very same night.
So here we go with the Queen and the Cactus blooming side by side. It was not a full moon, just a 50% quarter moon. The two plants must have been communicating. They are touching each other and tied to the same deck pole.
Here is the Queen alone at 9:30PM. Click to enlarge.
Notice the base of the large cactus to the left.
Here are side by side photos and Queen late in the night. Cactus left. Queen right.
Cactus bloom openQueen bloom open
Cactus side view left. Queen side view right.
THIS is what makes my heart sing. Catching a Queen and a cactus blooming on the same night. My thanks to Mr. Flower for the assist. This Flower needs her sleep!
My first love was leaves. I collected leaves. Pressed leaves into pictures. Made stationery with embedded leaves…
In my home there are leaves on the rugs and floor clothes and walls and sofas…
So today I want to share an unusual leaf.
I have been watching this plant grow for months.
It was a gift from ” My Friend the Fairy.” (See post. She is adorable)
The plant is a “Queen of the Night” , “Night Blooming Cereus” or Epiphyllum oxypetallum.
Its nickname is also Gooseneck cactus. Now I know why. One leaf decided it needed to be longer. So it added another lobe on the tip.
This stem and leaf first looked like a rising cobra’s head several months ago.
It elongated and has now sprouted side leaflets.
The leaves are very thick and the venation is visually absent,
except for the midrib seen underneath.
The midrib sends vein offshoots to each leaflet.
The underside of the main leaf has rootlets which is typical of an epiphyte.
Lastly, I would like to include a photo that those who know me will appreciate.
Photo shoot carnage. Positioning leaves lead to a spill. Another mess. I wonder what punishment will be bestowed upon me by my facedown fairy godmother. She’s mean.
The Queen only blooms once every couple of years, so I will enjoy its leaves in the meantime.
floweralley 