Seven or eight months of the year, the plants called night-blooming cereus hold little or no interest.
They are clambering or rangy, sometimes spiny, even unsightly. Then, a miracle. The bud that will become a flower begins to grow until it may be nearly 12″ inches long, with tan sepals covering the egg-shaped bud.
Finally, about dusk, the evening it will open, the petals begin to unfurl, and by ten o’clock, the bud will have been transformed into a flower of unmatched beauty.
It is sad to relate, but by the next morning, this Cinderella will close, never to open again.
Night Blooming Cereus
There are many summer-flowering cacti called night-blooming cereus. All cereus are cacti, but not all cacti are cereus.
For example, Selenicereus urbanianus, a popular night-blooming cereus, is first a member of the cactus family, but more specifically, it belongs to the cereus tribe.
However, Epiphyllum oxypetalum, another common kind of night-blooming “cereus,” is also a member of the cactus family but a member of the epiphyllum (orchid cactus) tribe instead of the cereus.
In general, whether or not they are cereus, plants called night-blooming cereus have breathtaking white flowers with tan to reddish or maroon petal-like sepals.
Individual flowers may reach a diameter of 12″ inches or more, most are delightfully fragrant, and the center of each displays a bundle of up to eight hundred delicate, pollen-tipped stamens.
Recently some growers have found that fully opened night-blooming cereus flowers, cut at about ten o’clock in the evening and placed in a polyethylene bag with a few drops of water, then in the refrigerator, will keep there for several days.
Night Blooming Cereus Culture
Culture for all night-blooming cereus is fairly simple. The main complaint is that they do not bloom, either at all or not enough.
Understandably, when such a marvelous flower lasts only 12 hours, every grower wishes that there would be more blooms to enjoy and share with friends.
This is such a natural feeling among the growers of night-blooming cereus that it is customary to invite neighbors and other friends to watch the opening of the remarkable blooms.
Usually, the grower arranges such a party after the bud is beginning to swell rapidly toward maturity. The guests are thus put on the alert to keep their evenings free until the exciting time when the bud begins to open.
Need Sun To Bloom
Failure to bloom may result simply from the poor culture in general, but a frequent specific cause is that the plants do not receive sufficient sun in summer, fall, and winter to ripen the new growth.
Another cause could be pruning an old plant heavily in spring, cutting off all of the flowering wood and leaving only fresh young growth, which will not bloom until the following year.
Culture for night-blooming cereus may be outlined like this:
- LIGHT — semisunny to partial shade. In the summer, they will take full sun except at midday.
- TEMPERATURE — average house during cold months, preferably not over 75° degrees Fahrenheit, while artificial heat is used. Provide at least 30% percent relative humidity, especially in the spring and summer. Mist foliage with tepid water occasionally.
- SOIL—use a humusy mixture of equal parts loam, sand, and leaf mold. Keep this evenly moist in the spring and summer but only damp enough to prevent leaf or stem shrinkage in winter. Feed biweekly in spring and summer.
- PROPAGATION—root cuttings in spring or summer. The best time to prune back excessively large plants is after they have flowered. Inspect each branch before cutting to ensure it does not support a flower bud nearing maturity.
All kinds of cacti called night-blooming cereus tend to grow quite large, and after a few years, they require sizable containers. A nice specimen for the house can be kept in a 14- to 18-inch redwood tub.
Staking will be required to keep the plant in good form, or a trellis may be used for the clambering kinds.
Epiphyllum Oxypetalum
American growers presently list about 40 different kinds of night-blooming cereus. The one most commonly cultivated by this common name, Epiphyllum oxypetalum, is also known as “queen of the night.”
It has flat, thin branches with wavy edges, is waxy bright green, and deeply scalloped. The large, fragrant flowers are white inside and reddish outside.
In the tropics, Hylocereus undatus, or “Honolulu queen,” climbs trees using its aerial rootlets to heights of 50′ feet or more, but it can be kept as a reasonably small container plant. It has stems that are three-sided and spiny, with scalloped edges.
The large white flowers are backed by a ring of yellow-green sepals. They appear off and on from July to October. When this plant blooms in certain remote sectors of Guatemala, the natives open a round of festivities.
Princess Of The Night
Selenicereus pteranthus, called “princess of the night,” has slender stems up to two inches in diameter, nearly round but four- to six-angled, with aerial roots. The large white flowers are fragrant.
Selenicereus macdonaldiae, recommended by several collectors, grows fast and easily and bears flowers up to 12″ inches across, white inside with golden sepals.
Several mail-order cacti and succulent specialists list night-blooming cereus. Although this is a plant that most people obtain as a cutting from a relative or neighbor, you may want to buy yours from a reputable grower who will label it with the botanical name.
44659 by Elvin Mcdonald