Ric Rac Blooming

I have been busy for a couple of weeks and haven't had time to post the pictures. The Ric Rac is blooming, about 8 flowers so far. More open every day. Here is one of the blooms that I shot yesterday.

Here is another one

Picabo,
this is just gorgeous!! Oh I wish, I could get mine to do that. Thank you for sharing, what a treat!!!

I'm with Ursula......it's gorgeous and mine hasn't bloomed yet either!

Beautiful. Wish mine would bloom.
Patti

Mine hasn't bloomed either. Betty must have the magic touch. What a beautiful flower, Betty, and the photography is wonderful too:-) Thanks so much for sharing this rare beautiful flower with us.

Thank you all. It is such a pretty flower. It is getting some bad rust spots I hope I can eliminate those pretty quickly.

Betty, I get rust spots too on my E. anguliger, more than any other epi. Leaves also turn yellow and die here and there. It sure is a fussy one.

Gorgeous!!

Picabo,

Thanks for posting your blooms on your Ric-rac Cactus!

I was about to do the same, but you beat me to it! Mine have not yet opened up, but I just found these buds today. NEVER thought to look, as I have had this plant for several years, have shared a lot of rooted cuttings with folks on DG, and now----seems it is MY turn!!!. Do they also need to be root-bound to set bloom?

I was mowing my lawn today and was going around the pole that I hang this HB on. Then I noticed the buds!!!! YIPPIE! I now know what is coming! How long does one flower last?

I also just read on the Cctus/Succulents Forum that Epis like to be out of the sun. Is that true??? Pete????
Mine hangs in full sun. Right alongside of my Hoya carnosa, which also has a lot of bloom clusters. It bloomed a lot last year--also for the first time.

Anyway--here's the buds I noticed. At least these are MY first ones, so I am excited....

Gita

Here's another shot.

I will have a new batch of fat cuttings of this rooting. They are already rooted and just now showing signs of new growth. I just separated them all from the "shared quarters" and put each one in a 4" pot. They will be available end of Summer--or now, if you want them in their "infancy"...

Gita

Gita, congrats! Those buds are too cool! Can't wait to see them open:-)

I am jealous!!! :-)
My plant is large, hangs in full sun and doesn't say a peep. I almost flipped the other day, I saw something reddish, bristly, but no - it was new growth.
Good job, Gita!

Gita, Way to Go!!!
The buds look like they will be ready to open soon. Isn't it fun??
Mine hangs in a big pine tree with some of my Hoyas. It gets lots of afternoon sun. Whatever you are doing it seems to be the right thing. Each flower last about 24 hours. Mine is VERY root bound. I am going to repot this year as soon as it finishes blooming. I will be watching for pictures.

Betty

One other thing, mine started to bloom the end of April. The last flower should open this weekend. It has had several flowers a week for two months. Once they get started they make the wait worthwhile.

I hope that yours will do the same for you. Maybe not this year but next year it should.

So Sorry RUK :~(( I hope it will next spring.

Betty

Hi Gita,

You sent me a rooted ric rac last year.....I cant wait to see your blooms...Picabo's are beautiful...such a tease.....the cuttings you sent are doing great!...Please post a pic when your ric rac is blooming..

Sandy

Thanks Betty. I am hoping too.
In the meanwhile I simply enjoy Gita's and yours right here.

Sandy,

Thanks for the feedback! I REALLY appreciate hearing back from people I have sent cuttings to. They're--sort of--my "babies", if you know what I mean.....

Mine is at least 6-7 years old. It is VERY top heavy, in a lopsoded kind of a way. Seems all the heavy growth is on one side, and I mean HEAVY! I am just hoping that the hangers on the pot hold out.
Also, the "fronds" are so long and coarse. When I bring this in for the winter, it takes up the space of 2 HB's. Last year, i cut off a couple of the biggest, longest pieces and cut them up in 4" sections. Stuck them (4 to a pot) in a 5" shallow pot. They all rooted (succulents root so well!) and I separated them this Spring.

Please post a picture of how big yours have grown!
I am sure you have seen all the pictures I have posted, but here's one from last year.

Picabo--I know what you mean by "once they start....". That happened to my Hoya. Two years ago, it had one bloom cluster. Last year, there were many, many. This year, all the same little bloom-stubs are budding out. I can't stand the plant! It is in an 8" HB and all entwined around itself and unruly, but I am NOT touching it!

Gita

Just a quick question. How come only ONE frond has the buds????? How about all the others? What determines WHERE the buds will grow from???

One of life's mysteries.........Gita

So funny, I have the same Hoya hanging beside my Ric Rac It is all tangled like yours. It isn't blooming though. Big and pretty but No blooms....Betty

Hi Gita,

here's a pic of your 'baby'....it obviously has a long way to go but an easy plant to grow...i am sure it will be many years before i see a bloom, if i do....i think i have to read more of the experts growing techniques in this forum first!.....and your hoya carnosa is gorgeous! your so lucky to have blooms.....i have a couple of those too but no blooms but they aren't outside either...great growing, they both look GREAT Gita!.......

Sandy

Sandy,

Thanks for the picture! It looks GREAT! Once they grow, they grow. Did you plant them sticking out to the sides or did they jusy grow that way? It is their nature to sprawl out sideways.

Yes, it will be years. They have to be pot-bound to bloom. I am now convinced of that. Same holds true for many plants. It just seems that all the energies are put into growing roots. When there is no more space to grow roots, the energy is directed at forming bloom.

One reason people should not be all that eager to transplant newly purchased plants. The will be "lost" in the bigger pot. Never go more than one size up from the existing pot when you transplant.

I will post a picture when mine opens up, unless I miss it. I am sure it will be red, like Picabo's.

Gita

I think Betty must have a Selenicereus anthonyanus as opposed to Epiphyllum anguliger. E. anguliger doesn't have the red in it. I found this picture of E. anguliger below. I have two different Ric Rac plants, and I think one is S. anthonyanus and the other is E. anguliger.

Here's another picture of S. anthonyanus:

Hi Gita,

Yes they kinda have sprawled out like that and i am sure they will more so as they grow....i will leave it in that pot so it gets rootbound and see how it does....I bet your looking forward to yours blooming...

Clare, how do you know which ric rac is which unless they have slightly different foliage?......I am thinking that the blooms with red in them are my favourite...

Sandy

Hi Sandy, they do have slightly different foliage. The S. anthonyanus is much more "fishbone" like. E. anguliger is more rounded and even. Here is my E. anguliger:

Here is my S. anthonyanus on the left. The one on the right is E. chrysocardium.

Thanks Clare, I think that you are right. Gita and I both probably have the same one. S. anthonyanus: I have never known what mine was.

The buds on Gitas look just like mine at that stage.

Now I want the Epiphyllum anguliger. LOL
Betty

Hi Betty! I agree with you that both you and Gita have the S. anthonyanus. I love the red! Believe it or not, I found my E. anguliger at Home Depot! It actually has been quite fussy and is no where near the good grower that S. anthonyanus is. I've had whole leaf stems yellow and die, and it seems to get rust easily as well. I am finally getting some good growth this month. I was worried there for a bit that mine wouldn't make it.

Here's another picture that I found of E. anguliger. It belongs to Dave's Member Kachinagirl:

Clare,

The picture you posted from Kachinagirl (she and I have corresponded a lot) is the kind of a bloom I was expecting on mine, since that was the only one I had seen posted. I still think the "fronds" on her Ric-Rac look just like mine, but I KNOW that mine is an
S. Anthonyanus! It was so diagnosed a couple of years ago when i first posted my plea for identification. There you can also read the "history" of how I got the original cutting from an old lady. It was about 4" long and of the skinny variety that this plant grows if it does not get enough light. That was about 10 or 12 years ago.

I am happy that my blooms will be red, as I think the ones in Karen's picture are so-so color-wise.

Karen (Kachinagirl) sent me 2 red Epis and a white night-blooming Cereus a couple of years ago. I am awaiting some blooms from them, whenever that will be. They are growing nicely. Probably have to wait until THEY get root-bound. I am patient..........

One thing I would suggest to anyone who has been sent any of these type of plants is to plant them, right off, in a heavy, sturdy pot as their fronds are very heavy and once they sprawl East, West, South and North, they will be VERY difficult to transplant. This comes under the "live and learn" category.

I would LOVE to have my Ric-Rac in a heavy clay pot that I could just hang from sturdy ropes, but--alas!--I have it in a plastic HB pot and I live in fear of the weight breaking the plastic hangers. I just wish it hung even and upright, NOT all tilted to one side because all the fronds are on that side.
I have a second pot (of offspring) doing the same thing! I turn it around now and then hoping the growth will rotate to the light, but-------------NAH!

As we all know, gardening is letting Nature take it's course. Sometimes you can help it along--other times you cannot.

Sigh.............Gita

Please ignore that picture! It is NOT what I wanted to post!!!!

I love the arial roots on that last pic......I was wondering Gita, where do you put your monster in the winter?

Sandy

Sandy

I have a large picture window in my living room. Outside it is my patio roof which has 4 skylights. This window does not get full sun, but it is the best I have. Pretty much everything I have to bring in either hangs there or sits on a long bench by the windows. I have TV tables by any window available in all the other rooms also.

Every Summer, I fuss and fume about having too much plants and nowhere to put them, but--I always take cuttings and propagate things creating more and more. That is the "sickness" of us plant addicts!!!

Anyway--I have ceiling hooks all along the ceiling in my LR/DR. for my HB's. For the Ric-Rac, I hang a chain from TWO of the hooks and then hang the "Monster" in the middle on the chain. So, it takes up the space of 2 HB's. Of course, it gets bigger and bigger every year. Sigh.....

Have to run outside, camera in hand, and see if the bud has popped. BRB! .....................Nope! Still tight!

The skinny, root-filled frond in the picture I did NOT mean to post is from my first post a couple of years back. I HATE those skinny "fronds" and the dried aereal roots they make in the winter! But, you know, you can cut them up too and root them and they will grow mormal fronds. That's how this plant I have started--from a 5", skinny, dried up cutting an old lady gave me.

You may be able to see that post if you click on my name and see if it is under "Posts Gitagal has started". I would see myself, but sometimes I lose everything I am typing now if I go to somewhere else. Don't know why???

OK! Gotta run! Gita

hi Gita,

Well you are obviously doing something right with that ric rac.....it must love the big windows through the winter....maybe you have an opened bloom by now.....

yeah i noticed those skinnier fronds during the winter, although not as skinny as the pic you posted in the past......Not enough light in my neck of the woods up here either but now they were getting thicker again with more arial roots.....

I agree with the sickness of plant addicts...we never can get enough!....lol

Sandy

CLARE ..AFTER LOOKING AT YOUR TWO PICTURES I HAVE ;E.chrysocardum a big one ,but it hasnt bloomed yet has your's ever bloomed.. and do you have a picture of it .would love to see a picture of your bloom ..Gingerose

Hi Gingerose, I'm afraid mine hasn't bloomed for me yet. I've only had it about a year. I do have a picture of the flower saved in my photo gallery, but I don't know who it belongs to for proper credit:

This message was edited Jun 13, 2006 8:08 PM

Hi Clare,

do you know if they are night bloomers?....i just got a cutting of one a little while ago...it was easy to start........

Sandy

Hi Sandy, yes, I think all species are night-bloomers.

Hi Gita,

Have you got blooms yet?? They can be so slow.

Betty

Betty,

Yes! One of the buds opened. It wasn't big and flat-open, but kind of vase-shaped. Maybe I missed day #1 of the bloom and this was already on it's way to closing. I don't know.

I have 3 other buds ready to pop. I will try to pay more attention to htem.

Here's some pictures. Gita