The one bud on my oxypetalum has finally begun the process ...
3:30 this afternoon:
Epiphyllum Oxypetalum Blooming!
8:45 pm:
9:45 p.m.
10:35 p.m.
10:38 p.m.
From back 10:39 p.m.
We had horrible thunderstorms and lots of rain this evening ... it's still very wet and humid outside. I am going to go out one more time before I go to bed and try to get one last picture!
11:00 p.m.
11:10 p.m.
G'nite everyone!
Well, I checked at 7:00 a.m. this morning and the bloom had closed back up.
And, now at noon today the stem has totally dropped.
It was great fun watching this take place. I've had this plant for a long time and this is the first time I've ever seen it bloom!
My husband thought it was pretty cool too but said it's a shame the bloom is so short lived and only at night. I'm sure everyone feels that way about that gorgeous flower! He also said it had amazing fragrance but with my sinuses I could barely detect anything! Hopefully the next blooms I will be able to smell it!
Beautiful! Congrats for finally seeing this bloom --somewhere I read that someone had been waiting for 30 years for theirs to bloom! Thank goodness I was able to see one open both in DeLand and Hot Springs Village last year. The one in DeLand is my grandmothers and she (the epi) is pretty old; we calculate around 75 or so. I have 5 of her offsprings in the Village, one of which produced 7 blooms this year, while we were away, of course! I have been feeding it banana peels!
Thanks Jean! It sure was fun watching the progression and seeing the beautiful bloom. I can't wait to see more buds on this thing. It started out with three or four teeny buds but the others blasted and fell off! I'm glad I got to see the flower finally. I have another night bloomer (E. hookeri) that is in bud now too. I've had that plant since the mid 1970's and last year is the very first time I saw the blooms on it. I had no idea until joining DG that these plants were night bloomers, LOL.
So, you live in Deland part of the year and Arkansas the rest of the time? I'm in Daytona Beach, not far from Deland ... always loved it over there, quaint area! I tried talking my husband into moving to Deland a few times but he is so spoiled being a mile from work!
We spend part of December, January, Februay and March in DeLand, then head back to AR, therefore enjoying two springs each year. We pop back to DeLand several times during the summer and fall just to take care of things. Last September, we happened to be in DeLand and our daughter from Arizona visited us there, and she was able to see her great-grandmother's plant bloom, too! Two years ago, I saw a bud forming on one of the epis in Hot Springs and got so excited that I knocked it off while trying to lug it into the sunroom for the winter. This year, I just left them where they were and they seemed to like it. My husband liked it, too, as the plant has become so big that he is now the epi mover!
LOL, My E. hookeri is very large and heavy too. I can move it using a hand truck, but because of the size of the thing, it's still difficult for me. I usually get my husband to move heavy plants nowadays! I don't have the strongest back and have hurt my back moving plants in the past. He is always yelling at me to let him do it .. so now I do!
Congratulations on the plant finally blooming. I am happy that you were able to see it make its debut and also take photos. Wonderful.
It was so much fun watching the progression of one bloom! My husband even got a kick out of it and would go out every so often to check for changes! Now I'm waiting for the other Epi buds to fatten up and bloom. It's another one with a white bloom but different looking and very pretty too. The one I really look forward to seeing in bloom is my large Ric Rac. I missed it last year and from looking at pictures in Plant Files, it looks really pretty and is supposed to be fragrant too! So far this year it has no sign of buds.
Congratulation!!! Glad you saw it. I have been gone most of the day, then worked in the yard.
Sandy
Sandy, it was so exciting to watch, and the bloom is really beautiful! Are there any day blooming Epi's with flowers as pretty? I need to find some day blooming epi's now!
There are a million that are even prettier!!!!! My first one was as large with dark dark pink outer petals and pale pink inter pink. Why do you think I have over 230 epis now.
Sandy
I think this is one of my first ones. http://www.epigalleria.com/images/LPaula%20Knebel.jpg
Add four more to my list!!!! Darn some one stop me!!!!!! IMPOSSIBLE DREAM
IVAN THE TERRIBLE
PAULA KNEBEL (I have been looking for this one for years.!!!!!!!!!!)
SHERMAN E. BEAHM
UNFORGETABLE
Sandy the EPI NUT!!!!!!!
Wow! Sandy, That is a GORGEOUS bloom! Do you know the names of some that are daytime bloomers? I sure would love to have one or two with beautiful big blooms that would be open during the day! ^_^
95% of the ones on my list are day bloomers. Including that one. So just check my list and look them up. Here is a good site Go to town!!!!! ( Just be warned there are a lot of lovely ones out there.) http://www.epigalleria.com/ The ones starting in Epiphyllum on my list are all night bloomers. I think the Zig Zag's are also night bloomer.
Sandy
Sandy, that Paula Knebel is absolutely georgeous. I have a terrible case of epiitis and all I can say is.....so many eipis, so little time! When we got back from a month-long trip, here is what we found. We are leaving again on Saturday for about a month, and I can't tell if I am getting more buds or more leaves -- they start out so small.
Jean
That is sad. Sorry you did not see them.
Can you get a close up of the new growth-maybe we can tell if they are buds or not.
I am going to did out my old slides and see if I have a picture of the old plant I use to have. See If my memory is working or not.
Sandy
Lyn, congrats!!! too bad you couldn't smell it. Maybe next time.
I am collecting way too many different plants.
These things are so small, it's hard to get a picture, however, I thought since this is an old leaf, I have a better chance of it being a bud. Now they are about the size of a pinhead, and it will take it awhile before you know what it is. It is on the plant that just bloomed and I have several more with little "pinheads" on them -- Since we are going to be gone about a month, I hope we can get back in time if this is truly more buds.
It looks like it might very well be a bud! At least that's exactly what my buds looked like in the very beginning.
This time we won't be gone quite as long as we were before. With a little luck we will be back just in time if those are indeed buds. They seem to love the sunroom, which means no lifting -- they are on wheels, and I can move them easily. There was also another motive in leaving them inside. Does anyone know about chiggers? If you don't, you are lucky. We seem to have a bumper crop of them this year and in spite of spraying myself, wearing long pants tucked into my boots, they still get me when I go outside.
Jean
Congratulations on your bloomimg baby...Mine is getting buds too again for the second year in a row. I think it is kind of early this year too. I remember last year it bloomed in August!
Here we go again with the show! It is very exciting.
Yes I know all about chiggers!!!!!! Ouch!!!!
Clemen: Mine bloomed twice last year,once in May-June and then again about August-September, or let's just say any time we are away for a long period of time it does its thing. This year I was tempted to rush back from NC and miss a grand-niece's wedding when my neighbor e-mailed me that I had no less than 7 buds on the one pictured above. I didn't feel too bad -- they missed it, too. A friend suggested that my husband and I go out and talk about a trip within hearing range of them, at which time they will promptly begin to set buds. Then we just stay home and watch them bloom!
Wow Jean...blooming so many times a year. So I guess you keep her in FL right? Mine is here in NY and sits on a deck all summer. This Spring has been so cold and most nights are still in the upper 50's, low 60's and I think she is loving the cool temps at night. I am thrilled mine will bloom soon. I am already fertilizing her with lots of phosphate once a week.
Clemen: I have one in FL (believe it or not, it belonged to my grandmother). She has several offspring in AR which are the ones that just bloomed and I think have more buds forming. When we left FL the end of May, no sign of buds there, but she did bloom last September when we happened to be there. I feed mine banana peels! You know the old saying "Waste not, want not".... after we eat the bananas, I cut the peels in little crosswise strips and just put on top of the soil. I do this several times a month and all of our other banana peels go in the compost. If you do this and yours sits outside, you might want to scratch them into the soil a little bit so they won't attract critters.
Epi's love the extra boost of potassium from banana peels. I need to try to remember to use them more often for my plants. Years ago I had a few stag horn ferns and they loved banana peels ... I would just drape an entire banana peel over each fern and let it rot away.
The spent bud is still hanging ...
Hanging but beautiful to my eyes!!!
So now I gotta throw banana peels on mine...See you learn something new everyday..........I love this thread!
We got back from a trip last Thursday and I fully expected to see drooping blooms on my two epis, but SURPRISE -- just 10 lovely little buds -- we won't be leaving again until the end of August, so you can imagine I am going to check them very carefully EVERY DAY!
Jean
I've a suprise bud showing!!! Wooohooo, this is ways too early for mine bloomed much later last year.
Clemen, how are yours coming along? Let's see some pix. Congrats to you Lady and Jeannek.
Sandy, I'm so envious of your collection, it has got to be heaven to have all those beauties!!!