Calling All Epi Specialists.....Is My Baby An Epi?

Hello Friends,

A couple of years ago when I was new to E-Bay (without reading the whole description of course) I bid on a picture of a bloom *lol*. If I remember right, it had either a pink or purple flower unlike anything I had ever seen before. I fell in love with it and won it for $14.50. I couldn't wait to get this beatiful blooming houseplant in the mail! I made the perfect place for it and anxiously awaited my mail lady on a daily basis.

Well......One day she is carrying this TINY box *lol* and I thought "this can't be it". Needless to say, I opened the box and there was 1 huge leaf with NO roots. I was mortified! I put the leaf on top of the TV wall unit and wrote the person asking what happened to my plant? That is when I learned that I was bidding on an unrooted cutting and to READ the description before bidding *lol*. $14.50 was WAAAAY more than I wanted to spend (I don't have much of a plant budget but LOVE them so much).

Needless to say, I was not a happy camper. I let that cutting sit on top of the cabinet for a few days while I cooled off a little. Then one day I decided it wasn't the plant's fault I couldn't read and decided that I would stick the poor thing in some soil.

It is now going to be celebrating it's 2 year bithday and after looking at everyone's pictures here I don't know for sure what I have but it looks so different than what all of the epi's Iook like.

When it first starts out (I knocked a branch over and took every piece I could and stuck it in the soil so I have quite a few babies) is seems to have some hairy (not pricky though, more soft) features. As the stalk matures it loses it's hair and gets leaf notches and the leaves tend to thin out (but not as thin as what the epi pictures look like).

I have it staked but I think it's supposed to flop as you can see in the pictures below the top tends to want to droop but I'm afraid the weight is going to kill the main "trunk".

Any info. on what I may have here would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you all,
Kim

This message was edited Oct 28, 2005 8:26 AM

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Oh, I bet you WERE upset! Especially about that one because it's leaves are really narrow. I bet you felt like you had nothing,lol. I'm no specialist, but I have a disocactus that has leaves just like that. Maybe this spring you'll get blooms since it's getting a little older. Mine hasn't bloomed yet either but it's only a year old. Your plant looks nice and healthy. I finally figured out with my Night blooming cereus to really put the fertilize to it in the spring.

doesn't the plant in your thread look a lot like this one in Fancyvan's thread?

http://davesgarden.com/forums/fp.php?pid=1756876

It does from the thick leaf down but mine doesn't have the round "trunks"?
Maybe mine is much younger?
Boy, that really isn't as pretty as I remember paying $14.50 for *liol*
I read her thread too and I don't think it has been identified yet?

Thank you,
Kim

Ruk I was thinking exactly the same thing! I believe the final decision(?) was mine is an epi/cactus cross. Whatever it is (mine is 10 years old and quite large) it is wierd and wonderful.

It looks like my Disocactus ackermannii did when I first got it. 5 Years later it bloomed! http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/60332/index.html

Now, in the 7th year I've had it, it has put out flatter, wider leaves.

Kim the narrow stems/eaves(?) are the older growth and the way it was given to me. The newer growth since I got it is wider and flatter. It was 10 yrs old and only bloomed once. A month after I got it I had 2 blooms!
I suspect it didnt have good light.

This message was edited Oct 28, 2005 3:46 PM

This message was edited Oct 28, 2005 3:46 PM

Quite honestly, I'm going to give it next summer in the sun and if it doesn't do anything for me, to the auction block it goes *lol*.
I don't have 10 years to wait for the thing to bloom and in Maine we only get 4 good months of nice sunlight.
I don't remember bidding on a red flower (I'm not usually a red person) but maybe I did. Maybe I will never know *lol*.
It has next summer or else it's being replaced with something that WILL bloom for me *lol*.

Thank you all,
Kim

If it is a disocactus that doesn't mean it's definitely red blooming. I was looking online to see what color mine was supposed to be. I saw a purple, red and a yellow one that had the same name as mine. So who knows what color it is. If you're not much on red I'm sure it must not be. But, you can always send it to me next year if it doesn't bloom,LOL,just kidding.
Good luck and I hope you get a bloom in the spring.
Gina

Like I said, one summer outside or else so you may here from me next Fall Gina *lol*....ESPECIALLY if it IS red!

Kim