Tropicals & Tender Perennials: Night Blooming Cereus - Queen of the Night - 2008 , 1 by kljflower

kljflower wrote:
This plant has been in the family since I was a child, so I'm guessing it to be 50+ years old and as you can see, it's a little on the gangly side. But what a thrill late Saturday evening, to find it with seven blooms. By the time I got over there, my brother had already cut off two and put in the refrigerator to try to save the blooms a little longer, so I didn't get a picture of all seven. (He did not know I was coming over to take pictures and Mom did get to enjoy the fragrance the next day.)

Finding this forum was so helpful because last week, someone posted their bud the day before it opened that night, so that helped us to know when ours was going to bloom. The explanation about "cereus" in an earlier thread was so informative also. As a kid, I could never get it right - kept calling it Night Blooming Series, so when I got one of my own later on, I just call it my Nightbloomer.

No blooms on mine this year, but it is still alive. I tried putting it in too much sun last summer and burnt it up. It was so unsightly, so I cut it way back - I should probably pitch it, but it too is very old and the blessed thing bloomed on our anniversary when I was going through chemo, so since it gave me a promise of hope like that, I will keep lugging it inside in winter and taking it out in the summer, and maybe it will bloom again one day. It has sprouted back out with a lot of new growth this year, so maybe it will revive.