careyana
There are many varieties of epiphytes. The typical night blooming cereus will do well for you in Austin preferably in filtered shade or early morning sun. Just avoid direct hot afternoon sun as they will burn. I got mine from my mother's plant in San Antonio. They do freeze easily, so I have to drag mine in for winter. The blooms only come off second year stalks/leaves, and I've noticed that once that leaf blooms (throws a flower or two), it usually dies off.
In the best year, I had 3-4 flushes and a total of about 20 blooms, followed by a big die back. Most other years I have 2, maybe three flushes with only a couple buds making it to maturity. Rather disheartening to see about a dozen buds forming on several leaves, and then they die and fall off leaving 1-2 per leaf. It is a slow process, but the reward is great when you do get one, and stay up till midnight watching it unfold. However, by morning sunrise, it's wilted and gone. I've also noticed they tend to bloom near the full moon. I've also missed some blooms as they just explode in size on that last day or so, and it's easy to underestimate the bloom timing.
There are many other types of epi's that bloom during the day and/or ongoing. You might look into some of these that are not so difficult to bloom. This lady has a fabulous collection that I will purchase from soon. I want a quicker reward and more enjoyment.
http://www.epies.net/
In tropics (Florida has a lot of them), there is a variety that grows on and around tree trunks, with very little to no leaf. Looks more like a green snaking tendril that will toss out dozens, if not hundreds of blooms in one night. Check this round of pics!
http://www.aboatbuildingjournal.com/night_blooming_cirrus_in_paradise.htm
MSTISH
Cuttings - likely not a problem. See the pic from Dec 2010 to understand the shipping dilemma. These have now water rooted or have nice nubbies. They have made it fine in the garage, and I have not done anything special except pouring (probably 2-3 tblsp) of Hydrogen Peroxide in the water when I changed it every few weeks. Let me see if I have some small ones for shipping size. Send me a dmail and I'll let you know what develops.
The large cuttings were the main branches off the bigger plants. The bouquet was cut mainly from the ends of these larger branch cuttings. They were so heavy I had to tie em to the fence as they bowed over, but would have been an easy 8-10 feet height overall. These were from 12-18 inch water rooted cuttings from the previous year!!! Yeah they got fed a lot good organic fertilizer and one of the brugs special recipes. I left the stumps, but the brutal freeze got em, so now I'll have to get my ax out!!! LOL
