Oh my gosh!

I let out the biggest gasp when I saw this. I have waited almost 3 years to see this. Any idea on how long it will be until it blooms? The bud is about the size of a nickle, maybe a bit bigger. I can not believe I didnt see it when I gave them a shower a couple days ago. I was told by the wonderful sender, that it is fragrant. I have 3 different kinds, tho they all look the same to me LOL. Heck I dont even know if it's an Epi, or a night blooming cirrus, or are they the same?
It's in our bedroom, so Im sure not to miss the smell. I was just contemplating putting them outside, as they have taken up almost 4 feet of our counter, and a new branch/leaf(?) has popped straight up at about 4 feet also. I think I will keep them right where they are.

Wow! Great Growing Shelly221! If that were mine, I wouldn't move it either! It obviously loves the location it's in or I don't think you'd be seeing a bloom! Please post another photo when it opens fully. I had no idea that any Epi was fragrant! How wonderful!

Good Growing Girl. I am going to guess NBC and that you have a while before you see the bloom. I would leave it where it's at. Easy on the water, but not to dry either.

The fragrance is knockdown wonderful. If it is the NBC the bud will probably get maybe 5 inches long before it starts to open. Then it will open one night just after dark. During the week before it opens the bud will slowly begin to point up. The afternoon that it is going to bloom the petals will slowly begin to open. Woo Hoo

Here is a link to pictures I posted last fall when mine started to open.
Betty

Well I forgot the link. http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/661212/

Thank you both for the posts! I will surely post a pic when it blooms.
Ummm Betty... 9 feet tall? Oh my word! LOL I have a spike shooting up, no kidding its growing probably 2-3 inches a day. Im hoping it will flop over LOL. Its on a counter, and 4 inches from the ceiling, and im sure not moving that plant, so it will either flop, or be crooked. Your pictures were great! They remind me of how brugs open, you can literally see them open. How neat!
Thank you both again!

Oh Shelly: I think I would just put some little tacks of some time in the ceiling and tie the shoots up and just let it ramble around the room. Since it's doing so well in that location it must love it! I would love to see a pic of it growing around the ceiling!

I have one large Queen of the Night: http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/2443/
that an elderly friend gave me back in the mid 1970's. It stays outside in a pot under a tree in the backyard and blooms every year. I have never thought to smell it to see if it's fragrant. I have a few cuttings of other Epi's (some with no ID) that I've gotten in trade from other DG'ers and I can't wait for them to get larger and bloom. I hope some of them are fragrant! I am thinking I might bring one or two inside to see how they do! I have so many house plants that a lot of times I forget what all I've got ... the Epi cuttings are hiding out on a shelf on my back deck! Do you have yours located in a window, and if so ... what direction is it facing?

Picabo: Thanks so much for posting that link of your flower opening! Awesome photo's!

LOL I dont know that DH would go with it "rambling around the room" LOL He is really good, but come winter time, many plants are in there, and one time he screamed while I was right next to him "Shelly.... SHELLY!!!! Are you in here?!? Im lost in the forrest!"
Point taken LOL I try to put the plants in the 2 spare bedrooms. I do like that idea tho, of it rambling.
It is in a South East window. A LOT of sun in winter, and only 1-2 hours in summer.
I guess I didnt know how big these plants got.. looking at the PlantFiles, Im a little worried! I know I can always cut it back, but dont the buds form on new growth? Have mercy!
I think you should bring one inside! I will have to see if its all that its cracked up to be with the smell, to see if they stay in our room or not.

:) hee hee ... I have tons of plants in the house as well as out in my Florida Room, on the covered deck and on the screened pool deck. I think my hubby of almost 38 years is so used to lots of plants that he just thinks we've lived in a forest for years! I think I will bring one or two Epi's inside to see how they will do! I would love it if they are fragrant ones! Although I have a Hoya Lacunosa that was hanging in the study last fall and winter and it began blooming like crazy ... beautiful fragrance, but it became so overwhelming that I had to move it to the Florida Room! Hubby didn't even notice the fragrance much, but with my allergies it got to me pretty quickly! It's now out on the back deck and has been blooming for a few weeks again ... smells wonderful but it's very open out there so the fragrance isn't over powering!

Your Florida room sounds wonderful!
I hear ya about the hoya. I have a Carnosa that blooms often. I havent ever minded the scent, and always thought it was a little weak. Now there are 9 bunches of blooms open, and its too much! I have to close the door.

You may be sorry with the NBC in your bedroom. It smells great but it really smells a lot. It might be overpowering if DH is not a plant fan. Mine stays in the basement overwinter and outside over the summer. It only starts to smell when it opens I can smell it upstairs when it opens. The bloom stays open all night then closes and dies before the sun comes up the next morning.

I love the hoyas too and have the Carnosas and the Lacunosas blooming now.
Betty

He really is a great DH, he will go along with anything that makes me happy, and I try to do the same. If its too strong, they are in 6 inch pots, so I will be able to easily remove it LOL.
Its starting to point up a bit, and its growing so long, I cant believe it. They sure grow fast. I check on it every morning, and every night LOL.

Shelly, I found this little collage that shows an NBC from bud to bloom. The close up in the lower left corner was made the day before it opened. The one in the upper right shows the buds beginning to turn up to the Moon.

Can't wait to see your flower pictures when it opens.

Betty

What a great collage! I see I have a bit to go, but in 5 days, I can not believe how it has grown. I really am hoping that it is NBC, I was just telling some friends I dont have the room to grow something that only looks pretty when it blooms LOL. Now if it smells, and looks pretty when it blooms, it can stay LOL. Tough love?

She bloomed for me lastnight. I noticed this at about 9pm. Great subtle scent I was so excited! Thank you for walking me through this! I think she can probably stay LOL.

And here she is this morning at about 6.

Woo Hoo! Too pretty.

shelly - think of it another way - everytime that beauty blooms you get a mini tropical vacation! Don't you just love these!?

This picture is my e.hookeri - pretty much the same as yours with small differences. I have *way* too many of only this one type. I hope to branch out, but I have to get rid of some of the ones I have before I get any more! My greenhouse is so crowded in the winter!

Arent they gogeous Shelly?
Mine bloomed the other night
every time it bloomed I was never home
I always got to see the dying bloom when I'd get home from work

This time I tricked it
I was on vacation and got to see it
thank goodness no one lives around me to see
me running out side every 1/2 hour in my jammies

Thank you Picabo!
The E Hookeri is very pretty tgif!!!
Hi Karyn! How have you been? LOL I can see you running out there! Great bloom! I was so excited to see my bud, and actually kinda shocked how fast it grew. Nothing like the 3-5 weeks of a brug LOL, of course I saw this bud at a later stage than one 1st forming. I was a little disappointed at the scent, but did enjoy it. I kept imagining people up at late hours of the night back in the "old days" waiting for a bud to open.

Seems like yesterday but in 1959 our neighbor would come over and tell Mother to come see the Moses in a cradle blooming.