"Night Blooming Cereus"

This is one of the blooms on the plant featured at the top, introductory page of this blog. The plant is one of a number of different plants commonly referred to as a "Night Blooming Cereus." However, a little research has revealed to me that while it is night blooming, it is not a cereus. I believe that its scientific name is Epiphyllum Oxypetalum. I could be wrong about the Oxypetalum part, but I'm pretty sure about the Epiphyllum part.

I love my Epiphyllums! Somebody at my work gave me a little piece of one about ten years ago, and I brought it home and cared for it for years. It grew and grew and took up nearly a whole room of my house before, finally, after about four years, it finally bloomed. I have since rooted any number of the things, and they bloom every summer, several times. The young ones don't bloom, though -- they have to have some maturity before they'll bloom.

What happens is that at some point in the summer you'll see buds start to appear on your plants. The buds will grow and grow, over a period of about three weeks, until all of a sudden one night they'll open. They're really spectacular to look at and they give off this really wonderful, intriguing smell. The blooms reach their peak of openness about midnight. By dawn the next morning, they're over. They're limp and droopy.

It's hard to tell exactly when they're going to bloom. As long as I've had my plants, I still sometimes get fooled. That is, I'll think the thing is for sure going to bloom tonight, and it does not. Or, I'll check on the buds in the late afternoon, decide that tonight's not the night, and wake up the next morning only to realize that I've missed the show.

I love to give impromptu Night Blooming Cereus parties! If I'm pretty sure that one of my plants is going to do its thing on that night, I get on the telephone and call my neighbors to come watch. Some of my neighbors get more excited about this event than others do.

For a real experience, click on the flower photo.