I posted a photo of three and four-sided cactus here http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/511085/ that I had thought was an epiphyllum, but now I am wondering.
Can someone who knows these things take a look and tell me what they think.
The Epis Are Here, The Epis Are Here!! 2005 PART THREE
Clare, this one is a night bloomer, but it lasts for 2-3 days. The first bloom I had was lovely for 2 full days and only started to slowly wilt after that. By the end of the 3rd day it was toast. E oxi is toast the next morning after it blooms.....but the fragrance lingers the whole day (well, at least the single bloom on the E oxi that I had all those years ago reacted this way. LOL).
As for the aphids, I was hosing them off, but they are just intensely disgusting this year! I ended up using systemic on them (which I hate to do unless absolutely 'necessary' due to the harm to the 'good bugs'). That was last week. I even had a 'stay away from that almond tree' rule for the kids and left the systemic on for several days.....washed it off yesterday. This morning I noticed aphids again and checked out the tree....sure enough, the tree was loaded with them again. And they fly around and land on me and my hair constantly. It's worse that a swarm of annoying gnats... completely impossible to enjoy the garden with those disgusting creatures around. I'm going to try soap tomorrow, but my garden might end up being rather sudsy by the time this aphid plague has passed! LOL
-Julie
Ugh! In my tantrum about the aphids, I forgot to post my most recent pic. LOL! This was taken at exactly 11 pm. :-)
-Julie
LOL, Julie! So sorry about those darn aphids. That is just awful. You might try hanging some yellow sticky traps from the tree also and see if that helps. If they fly into them or land on them, they get stuck to the traps.
Thanks for the explanation about the Epi. I see what you mean now. It must just be a night-blooming white fragrant Epi hybrid of some sort. Very interesting!
The flower is a real beauty.
Think pink!
Beautiful! It was worth the wait!
Thanks, Mary!
Clare, it's beautiful. I love the orangey streak through the pink.
Gorgeous Clare! I love the orange tone to the center of the petals too.....really a show stopping color display :-). And it looks so lovely with the sun sprinkled across it :-)
-Julie
Well, here's my flower this morning. I'm being a post pig because I've only got one bud left. Then I'm done til next year LOL
-Julie
Julie, is this the one that lasts a while. The Oxy... is so beautiful but mine opens late, maybe 11p.m. and closes at the first hint of dawn. Of use only to a night owl. Yours is as pretty and if it stays open longer then one could enjoy. Hope someone here in the states has one, I woulld like some.
Thanks George :-)! I think the oxi is way prettier than mine and smells much better too :-). But there is definitely an advantage to a flower that doesn't only stay awake when we're asleep ;-)
The pics all of you are posting are just delightful!!! Now, I want all mine to bloom NOW!!!! Darn those guys, I will feed them and hope soon,.
I would love a Forum!!! Yes yes yes, lot's to talk about all year long, Annie
Thanks, guys! I'm pretty sure that this one is "Padre" that Antoinette sent me. I had it written down, but it was not labeled. I found another couple of sites that look pretty interesting about epi's: http://www.angelfire.com/ca/SSaSSSy/Epiphyllum.html and http://www.cactusmama.com/private/pageepiphyllum.htm
Julie, your flower is magnificent! I agree that it is wonderful to have a fragrant white one that lasts a few days. You post that one as often as you like. I never tire of seeing it.
Julie your flower is just wonderful! I think it is very similar to my white one which sometimes blooms nights, sometimes days and also lasts several days with great aroma.
Clare - I am thinking pink.....pink like yours for one of my cuttings from last year!
Thanks for the additional links. :-) I just love this one:
http://www.cactusmama.com/private/Disocactus%20macranthus.htm
Not much to report here, more pinks opening and the white buds getting bigger each day.....soon. I'd like to take a moment to thank all the dead fish that are responsible for this great display of my pinks. I think they've been sacrificed for an excellent cause!
Clare, you're very sweet. And a ush like that is more than my willpower can resist ;o)...so, you've asked for it! Here's my last flower. It opened up tonight as last night's flower began to fade. Out with the old, in with the new:
-Julie
Clare, thanks for the CactusMama site, gorgeous pictures, I'm drooling! Annie
Julie what a great picture and a beautiful flower! You should frame that one!
I went out to deadhead the faded pinks and found a few of the smaller dark pink ones have opened....didn't even notice them among the others. I've marked them (I always think I'm going to do this, but never have gotten to it. Now I know which ones are different from the rest.)
Here's one of them in the sun, followed by one in the shade where the color isn't reflected so much by the sunlight:
And in the shade.
More stunning pictures!
Candy, I love that one that you linked. It is so unique! I received a Epiphyllum crenatum var. kimnachii "Cooperii" last year, and I am thrilled to have that one and to see what the flowers will look like. Candy, when you say marked, do you use a marker of some sort right on the cactus, or do you use some other method of identification?
Julie, your new flower is breath-taking. That is a great picture! More, more...:-)
I see a couple of tiny little nubs on my Disocactus akermannii. Too early to tell if it's flower buds though. I need to fertilize but the current rain just washes it out immediately. : (
Here's another site: http://www.epigalleria.com/catalog.htm I notice that I also have Paradise, which is supposed to be a large pink. I'll have to see if I can find what that one looks like.
Fingers crossed for you, Darius. Sorry about all the rain you are having!
Yeah, and another line of storms approaching... getting dark again. I don't mind the rain so much as the lightning, esp, since my surge protector recently got fried from a storm 8 miles away.
Okay, what I have blooming is definitely Padre and not Paradise. I just found Paradise, and it is different. Here are another couple of links which are fun: http://www.flowerpictures.net/epiphyllum/epihybrids/index.htm and http://www.epigalleria.com/
Clare -
The ones I got from Epis by Pat last year came marked with a permanent black marker written right on the cutting. Some of those marks have begun to fade, but I did keep all the individual print out sheets she sends with each plant that has pictures of what I purchased.
I marked these with a piece of blue masking tape near the base of the two groups of leaves. I'll watch it and see if it lasts, if not I may go to the black marker. My goal is to seperate out the smaller pink ones and get them into another container.
Darius - I sure hope our recent storms diminish by the time they reach you across the country.....for so late in our season these were not gentle spring rains. I'm cutting back a lot of my roses because of all the wind/rain damage. An army of snails and slugs appeared since this batch of storms, so I'm baiting again...... once a week is a bit much this time of year. :-) Thinking buds for you and hoping you get some flowers to share soon!
Clare - you gotta just stop with all the links!! I can see this could really become an obsession. There are so many beautiful ones.
I was thinking about this earlier.....I should really order some now and start giving them some lovin' care because it will probably be a couple years before they bloom. Make sense???? LOL
Many of the cuttings I got from Gourd were marked right on them with black permanent marker. They have all faded now. Sigh.
Just walked by and another one has opened. Smaller in size than my large pinks, much more white present,
Candy, that is a lovely one also! I really like the two-tone effect. By the way, are any of your pink ones fragrant?
Thanks for all the information on labeling, Candy and Darius. Mine have black marker written on them too, but I decided that I really didn't want to continue to mark new leaves so I started putting in some plastic markers right next to the cuttings like the picture below.
Darius, I hope those storms pass very quickly for you and that you get lots of buds soon. Darius, since I got cuttings from Antoinette too, I'll help you identify yours when they bloom. She sent me these and some others: Cream/Gold, Tropical Night, Calypso, small orange, Salmon, Tel Star, Pegasus, Padre, and Flora Dora.
Candy, many of the ones that I got last summer are starting to bloom now so I don't think you will have to wait years and years for blooms, but it makes sense to get more now! LOL! If you can wait until I have a little more growth, I can send you some cuttings of mine when I trim.
Clare, Thanks for the offer to help ID when mine bloom! Some of the names sound familiar...
Thankfully, the storm passed with just heavy rain and thunder in the distance.
That's good news, Darius. I'm glad the storm missed you. Yes, I bet you got some of the same epi's from Antoinette as I did. Antoinette is missing from this thread. I'll have to find her so she can see some of her blooms.
Here is "Padre" tonight. He got a little bit more pink:
Candy and Clare, thank you both :-). I'm having fun checking on him every now and then. :-)
Candy, I love that shocking pink one! But I've just fallen in love with your white streaked pink! WOW!
I told my husband that he'd better come look at the Epi or he'll have lost his chance until next year. So he went outside. And then, perfectly serious, he says "Definitely a lovely flower. But what's the point keeping something like that in the garden if it's only good for one or two nights a year?" I just rolled my eyes at him and shooed him away from my plant. LOL
-Julie
Clare, that's so cool how he turned a deeper shade of pink! Now he's like a dark salmon....very pretty! :-)
-Julie
Yahoo, My big Epis gonna bloom. Three small blooms. Marilynne
Clare -
Only my white one (gonna open, open, open.....soon!) is fragrant. None of the pinks have any aroma and my very unscientific mind is wondering if it has to do with generations of hybridizing that eventually eliminates the aroma, while the species have plenty of scent for the bats and moths that pollinate them?
'Padre' is a great color as he ages!
Julie -
The mainly white with pink streaks is one I've never seen before!! Either it hasn't bloomed in all these years or these things are being cross pollinated and coming up with new versions of themselves??? Is that a possibility?
I don't think my DH will ever "get it" ........ but he loves Gardenias which I grow only for him because I think they are finicky and a lot of bother! I had guests (non-plant people) in the garden last evening. You have to walk around the three big pots on the patio to even move around.....none of them even noticed the hundreds of open blossoms. I need to get some new friends! LOL
Marilynne -
Keep us posted on the progress of your buds! Do you know what color they will be?
I have no clue. I got tired of waiting for it to bloom and fed it alphalfa fertilizer last sat. The actual plant is huge 2 years old so will share some of it. Thanks, Marilynne
ROTFL Candy. Need to get some new friends... :-D I know what you mean! :-) I'm sorry your friends didn't notice all those incredible buds and flowers! You should rethink inviting them over again ;-) I promise if I were ever in your neck of the woods this time of year, I'd be sure to drop by (with notice of course) and oooooooooo and aaaaaaaaaaaa and probably actually drool quite literally over your plants. I guess you better rethink ever agreeing to let me come over if I'm in the area.....you may think I'm a total nutcase if Epis are in bloom at the time! LOL
-Julie
LOL, Julie! I have to drag my husband outside too to see blooms, and then I shoo him away also! He doesn't "get it" either, but he tries. He too loves gardenias too, Candy, and so I pick the blossoms and bring them inside for him:-) My friends aren't plant-minded either. I finally stopped giving them plants when I saw that they just aren't important to them. I've given my mom lots of plants too, but I wonder how many of them have survived since she is away from her home for weeks at a time visiting her mother. I'm afraid to even ask.
Julie, that picture is the best one, I think. That flower is incredible.
Candy, you are probably right that the fragrance has been bred out of them, or perhaps the color of the blooms are enough to attract daytime pollinators where as the white night-blooming ones need scent to attract pollinators? I don't know either, but I like the ones with fragrance the best:-)
Marilynne, those leaves look like the very flat stems of Epiphyllum oxypetalum, the white night-blooming fragrant variety, but I could be mistaken. Congrats on your buds! I can't wait to see the flowers.
Edited to fix spelling error:-)
This message was edited May 21, 2005 12:58 PM
Thank you Clare. :-) Mine are done now. Unless my plant decides to surprise me but I doubt it. Hopefully my ric-rac (or is it rik-rak? LOL) cactus will give me some flowers in the fall :-). Still very much enjoying everyone else's flowers though! Please keep them coming! :-)
-Julie
Ah, Julie. It's so sad when they pass. Are we supposed to deadhead? I hope you get flowers too on your Ric-Rac. LOL! I don't know, maybe its Rick-Rack! LOL!