Night Blooming Cereus Blooms ... Again!

  I don't know what's with the Night Blooming Cereus because it is supposed to be a rare bloomer. And yet we just had a beautiful bloom on June 27. I won't go into the details of how often it used to bloom because I've written about it before.

[To read about previous blooms use the search tool at the top left. Note: you must be in desktop mode]

Tom I wrote ourselves a note to look at the bloom before bed last evening. We walked outside and looked into the porch through the glass window. What we saw (above) was breathtaking.

 But let me return to earlier days ...

On July 8 while I was watering the plants on the enclosed porch I saw that there was a new bud. That's just eleven days after the last. Probably this bloom is part of the same cycle, though.

 The bud was already somewhat developed by the time I found it. I was a little worried that we'd miss it because we were heading to Michigan on vacation (July 10 - 14) But it held off and opened the night of July 18.

 This is how it looked a bit earlier in the day (about 5 PM). Though it was still light out, the flower was already beginning to open. I've not seen that happen before.

 I've told friends that the blooming of our NBC is a bittersweet event. It was my mother's plant - and her mother's before that - so there's a lot of memories encapsulated in every bloom. I remember each time we'd head to the porch before Mom went to bed and marvel at our good fortune. And I always worried that it might be the last.

 Her mother,  too, had a similar experience. How many times through the years have we enjoyed these magnificent blooms? And yet they've always been rare ... until recently.

 This is the first year in many that I've not carried it outside for the summer. It's simply too big and ungainly at this point. So it's propped against a wall and a window on the south-facing enclosed porch. Apparently it's happy there. Every Thursday when I water it I'm encouraging it to bloom.

 And bloom is does, opening a wealth of memories with every unfurling petal.

 When it's finished (pix takes about 2:30 PM the next day), they look like a burst balloon. They just hang their heads and die.