Gail Perry's Night Blooming Cereus Puts On A Show

I have one of the most amazing plants. It really is an heirloom - it came from my Aunt Jane's house in Birmingham and she got it from her mother. It is called a night blooming cereus. They are tropical, I have seen a few in the wild in Florida. The plant usually blooms once a year and the flowers open for one night only - opening after it gets totally dark and when you look at it the next morning it has already collapsed. I guess as soon as light hits it wilts. 

I have had it about five years, and each summer it has had a single bloom. A long time ago when I lived in Birmingham, Aunt Jane would call the day she thought it would open and people would go to her house to see it that night. I remember one unusual time, it had seven flowers at once. 

For some reason, it has been very happy this year and has bloomed three times so far, once with one flower and then three weeks ago, it had five open in one night. There are five more buds now.

 

Of course, each time I know it is going to bloom, I call people and everybody stands around in the dark and looks and takes pictures.