Epiphyllum Oxypetalum Blooming!

It will be if I get any blooms. Thanks to the snails all the buds this year get ate!!!! I am slowly winning the war on the snails. I have the only snails in the world that do not like beer. LOL

Sandy

Well, the little tiny buds I saw before are still there, not dried doing nothing..I have a feeling they will fall of..NOW I have one GROWING BIG, YAY YAY....


Lets keep the thread going...he he he and have fun!

Sis, guess what? I'm beating you to the punch this year. Tehehehehe, mine are blooming before yours this year. Remember last year yours were first to be in blooms? I'll post pix in the morning. Goodnight to you sis, and to all a good night -- nice dreaming about our epi. Oxypetalum blooms!

WEll well, big sis....I want to see the pics...Mine did not bloom until August of last year.....Glad yours is doing its thing now..pray that my buds keep it up! Sleep well, if you can , lol.........those thoughts will be following you..he he he!!! I am bad I l know...

Plantladylin...you know us already.....we come a long long way....

Zzzzzzzzz, snoring, wake up with dreams, then fall back to sleep. LOL.

I am really thrilled that I am going to see more than one bloom on my two -- the one I call Big Bertha has 3 and her sister has 7 buds, but I think one is going to blast, but I will take what I can get. This year I left them in the sunroom because they are really too big to move and they seem to love it there. WoooHooo! I can see tiny buds trying to form in addition to the ones that are doing nicely so far. When DH gets my camera straightened out, I will post pictures. Don't have another trip scheduled until the end of August so I will see these open!

Jean

thats great. I think I am winning the war of the snails, thought the plants look like it has snowed in the shade house. I need to rinse them off soon. LOL

Sandy

I'm happy for you Jean. Sandy it's aggravating with those snail and slugs! Hope you won the battles and have ton of blooms for the growing season.

Here is mine, likes Clemen's. Last year mine didn't bloom until the cool breeze of autumn. But this year -- what a surprise!

Lily, your bud looks about the same size as mine. If those things that I see are tiny buds coming that will make the third time I have had blooms this year -- amazing! Keeping up the banana diet!

Sandy, do hope your snail problem is under control. The critters seem to go for what we love best, and leave everything else alone! When we got back from vacation, I could see nothing but stalks on almost all of my hostas. The deer seem to love to feast on them. Among the reasons I decided to keep my epis inside this year was the fact that grasshoppers, katy-dids and other vermin have chewed holes in many of the leaves and they look like they have been used for target practice. At least I know these are OLD leaves, and can check for new buds on them. LOL

Jean

Is your epi. in Fla. or in Ar. Jean?

Lily: These epis are in AR. Haven't seen the one in FL since we left there in June, but at that time, there were no signs of blooms. Last year it bloomed in September.

Jean

Thank Jean, I was just wondering how the local climate influents the flower formation. Currently I've but two buds. Last year I had a flush of 7-8 flowers at one time. I was ectastic. And besides, last year was my very first time seeing those magical blooms in person. I called neighbors and shared the wonderful experience with them.

This year the neighbors have moved back to Ga. hopefully the cuttings I gave them will repeat the 'tradition', rarely you know of flowering plants that can last from generation to the next like this Epi. Oxypetalum.

Gee .. sorry I've been missing in action on this forum! I seem to play around with my watched threads and then lose half of them that I was "watching" for awhile.

My Epiphyllum hookeri has been blooming twice a year, in late spring/early summer and again late fall/early winter. I was hoping to see the oxypetalum bloom again before next year. It began with three buds ... blasted two and the bud that remained, grew and produced that gorgeous bloom last month!

I moved my small Epi's (about ten) out to a corner of the backyard under a tree. They were taking up space on the deck that I needed for other plants. The large E. hookeri stays out there year round so I hope the little ones will be okay out there too. They are sitting on an old pvc/plastic table. I am getting ready to repot my big oxypetalum that bloomed last month and then will move it out to the yard also. We had a horrible storm this evening and the winds blew the pot over and I noticed many roots growing out the bottom of the pot so I figure it's time to repot.

I look forward to seeing pictures of everyone's pretty blooms! Lily, you are going to have one before long with the looks of that bud!

I am looking forward to everyones blooms to. Looks like this year will be a dud for me. I washed the powder off the epis this morning. Need to wait and see if that get all the snails or not. We are going to put a wall on the back and north side and fix the shade cloth on the others so that it fits from top to bottom. Am also going to finish putting the copper tape around any area that they can get into. Also going to build a second shade house for the Christmas cactus and hanging epis and any seedling I start-no non epis will go in the main shade house. Learned my lesson-that is what get the snails in there in the first place.

Wonder what else will happen. LOL

I am going to finish repotting all the plants that are in plastic pots into the clay. That is when I recover from the latest dental work.

Sandy

It just now clear to me what Plantladyin meant by

Yes but it looks like it has a few more days to go.

Sandy

Agreed, Sandy. I'll post more pix as the bud developes over the next few days.

Here is mine from last year the evening it bloomed.

I have taken some pictures of my buds but can't post until my new reader arrives. Seems that on the large memory stick I have for my new camera can't be read by our old reader. Thought I had lost half my vacation pictures unil research revealed we just needed a different reader. It's hard to keep up with all the new technology that keeps coming faster and faster!

Post those pictures when your epis bloom, gals!

Here is a picture I took on Friday 7-24. The buds are still hanging straight down.

Jean From your picture you have a week or more to go. It will get a LOT bigger.

This is one from last year the evening that it opened. That is my hand.

Hope this keeps you from running out to many night to see it. LOL

Darn No sign of buds on anything this year. Darn snails.
Sandy the epi nut.

Wooohooo, 5 days later, Jean. How big are those buds now? I saw two of mine have fully curved upward, though the size still are small, maybe, maybe this weekend.

Sandy, so sorry your season is dampened by snails. Hope the plants will recover soon.

Thank you. I think it is a combination of things. Was way to cold out there this winter and then way to hot. Than a caterpillar killed two of my larger olants. Then a massive army of snails get in there. Now I hate killing anything. But the caterpillar ended up in a bird feeder and I throw the snails up against the house when I find them. I tried to bait them with beer but I must have the only snails in the world that do not like beer. LOL

I have put copper tape around the posts and around the most of the bottom pipes. This fall we will close off two sides with fiberglass sheets . and get a wider piece of alum. shade cloth that I can fasten at top and bottom which will both close it off and reflect some of the heat. May also get a small solar panel that will run a small fan. It hit a 110 out there one day. Could have been higer but the hi-lo temperature broke. LOL

Sandy

Here is one of the buds this morning. Most of them are about the same size so with a little luck I should have several open at one time. DH tells me that looking at them so frequently isn't going to make them open any sooner!

Jean

It is hard to judge size with out something to compare with. Keep a eye on the type, it will start to open a little in the early evening.

Here goes! Plantladyin, and Sandy, will this pop tonite?

It might, I would check about 9pm. If not tonight very soon.

Good luck.

Sandy

Phews! I went to bed early last evening and forgot to check the bloom progression. Luckily, it didn't open last night. It has got to be tonight. Tonight is the night! Here it's this early morning:

Lily: Keep repeating after me, "I must not go to bed without checking epi buds." I did this once and boy did I regret it the next morning. Looks like it may pop tonight. Good luck! Mine are on the verge too

Yes Ma'am, I must not go to bed without checking on my epi's buds, and repeat (again and again, lol).

Yeppie! Here it comes! Pix was taken rough 45 mins. ago. Please stay tuned, more to come as this flower unfurls this evening. I tell you what, the thing that we do, even risking losing sleep to enjoy our night-blooming flowers. lol

At 7:20pm, although the sun hasn't set yet. But it was hidden under the cloud.

way to go. It should be fully open by 11:00 to 11:30

I will try to stay up but the old body is not happy with me tonight.

Sandy

Gorgeous! Don't think mine will pop tonight. We will keep everyone up another night. Hehehe!

Jean

This one was taken by DH a little while ago. Roughly around 8:30pm
editted to correct typo.

This message was edited Jul 31, 2009 9:15 PM

At 9:10pm:

9:30pm I'm getting really sleepy, but I couldn't afford to miss this blooms as Jean has suggested. lol.

Side view:

That's it! I'm giving out. lol, the brugmansia's blooms and their fragrance is lovely out there. I saw moths, nocturnal moths are flying about. If I'm lucky enough one of these Epi Oxy will be pollinated. So I'll stop disturbing the moths and let them do their thing. Good night everyone, 'til we meet again.

Loved the show. Maybe tonight for mine. Perhaps I will take a nap this afternoon, just in case! Your brugmansia is beautiful, too. Left mine outside in their pots last winter, and I thought they were dead, however, two of the three are coming back from the roots. Are yours in the ground or in pots?

Jean