Tropicals & Tender Perennials: Night blooming ???????, 3 by beckygardener

beckygardener wrote:
I was reading this thread with interest. I received a cutting of E.oxypetalum years ago from another DGer in memory of her mother. The cutting came from her Mother's plant. I have since gotten numerous plants from that one cutting. I also live in Florida (east coast of central FL). I have a few other Epi species, but by far the oxypetalum grows the best here for me. It is also the least bothered by pests or disease. And is still the only one that has ever bloomed for me. Each year I get more and more blooms from them. I am still waiting on the other epi species to bloom. They often take 3-5 years to bloom from cuttings.

After much research on how and what to grow them in, I realized that they get far too big to be growing in a hanging basket. Mine were literally out of control. I found this very informative video on YouTube:
http://lolclassic.com/?w=0OQo6qghjQI&title=trellising-epiphy...

I have since been growing the majority of my Epi's this way using the tomato cages and gallon nursery pots. It is an excellent way to grow the larger epi plants!

Here are some photos of my E.oxypetalum blooming this past June. So far, mine have only bloomed once a season. But it may be over a 2 week period. It seems like a long wait and a lot of care to finally see the first bloom. I was about to give up after 4 1/2 years when I saw my first bloom 2 years ago. Let me just say that the wait was well worth it! The large blooms are some of the most beautiful I've ever seen. The fragrance is amazing! And the timing adds to the sheer thrill of it all. This species bloom at night typically between dusk and midnight. I smelled the fragrance before I even saw the blooms. It is a very strong, sweet fragrance that drifted through my backdoor. Seeing the blooms was just an amazing experience! My dh rarely gets excited about any of my plants ... but the E.oxypetalum blew him away. Be sure to have your camera ready! You will want to snap a lot of photos!

The most helpful website I've used is (it answered a lot of my questions):
http://www.theamateursdigest.com/epis.htm


This message was edited Sep 4, 2013 8:15 PM