I had planned a different six for this week, but as I wandered around the garden looking for suitable plants to feature I realised my Queen of the Night Orchid Cactus was about to flower. For anyone who is unfamiliar with this plant, they only flower at night and have the most magnificent flowers and an amazing scent!
My six this Saturday follows the flowers’ progress over the space of a couple of hours starting at around dusk to midnight. This morning the flowers have closed and will then die.
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I still don’t know why the leaves are turning pink. Does anyone else have a cactus orchid and if so, do you have the same issue?
For more six on Saturday gardeners, please check out Mr. P’s Blog
Piglet in Portugal 
Have you seen the fruit of this plant? Last month one of my plants had and that was the first time I saw its fruit.
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Beauty wow.
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Just beautiful!
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So beautiful
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Mine turned pink from a bit of chill over winter. They can get tan and roasted if too exposed to sunlight. It is difficult to say why yours are so uniformly pink so late in the season. I have noticed though that mine bloom better if slightly distressed. The healthiest and greenest plants do not bloom so well. If you fertilize it, you should probably do so after bloom, but soon after bloom, both so that any shock does not affect subsequent bloom, and also so it has the most time possible to recover and grow before the next bloom cycle. If growing too actively next time around, it may now want to bloom so well. Also, it does not want too much fertilizer.
One of my small specimens just finished with a single bloom, but was a disappointment. It opened weakly for one night, and was already sagging by the second night. There was no fragrance. Another larger but – but still rather small – specimen (that was originally a matched pair to the smaller specimen that just bloomed) has at least five fattening floral buds on it. I hope it blooms better. There is also a cutting of a red one out there, with two big buds on it.
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Absolutely beautiful sequence here. Thank you for this post of delights. 🙂
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Thank, MBT 🙂 I think i am going to attempt to paint one for my next watercolour project
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I look forward to seeing your painting. 🙂
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Beautiful flower. I have a few Epis and I love their flamboyant flowers. The reddish leaves are a sign of stress, probably means they are getting a bit sunburnt. But I have found this triggers flowering. I gave one to a friend and after a few years it is enormous and very green and healthy, but never blooms. I din’t think it gets enough sun. I have a prickly Selinocereus ‘Queen of the Night’ which is just about to open its first ever bloom. Oh the excitement.
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Interesting you mention too much sun. the leaves that are in full shade are green.
I hope you will share a picture of your prickly Selinocereus ‘Queen of the Night when it flowers! 🙂
Rewind, I’ve just visited your blog and see you have. 🙂
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A shame we can’t smell it too! Do all the flowers open at the same time or in succession like Daylilies?
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They open in succession. We had several Saturday night and there are more in bloom tonight. Yes, it is a shame we can’t share smells as well as words on our blogs 🙂
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That’s nice then. I remember having a cactus in South Africa that only bloomed at night. And then the flower died. I think it was a much more prickly one than yours.
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These flowers must be incredible! How do you describe the perfume?
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Their scent? ERm… sweet and heady.
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Wow. It reminds me a bit of some alien type thing before it opens fully. Once open it’s beautiful.
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Yep, the plant in its current state is not that pleasing to look at and to be honest if it flowered during the day it would not be positioned in such a prominent position.
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Lovely photo sequence of the flower opening. I have seen some beautiful Epiphyllums over here in various gardens I have visited. Such a pity the flowers only open during the night.
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Yes, it’s a great shame. I was lucky that it started to open just before dusk. There is a trailing variety which I’d love to own. 🙂
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