first epipyllums of the season
There are gardens zones that I consider to be mainly my spaces, and there are others that I consider John’s. The pond/shaded patio area is largely his garden playground, and he has a number of potted plants, including several different kinds of epiphyllums, the orchid cactus.
For a couple months now, we’ve been watching buds develop on one of the epis. The plants aren’t labeled, and there are enough of them that you forget which one is which. As we watched the little buds we had no idea what color the flowers would be. Judging by the sepals on the outside–red, maybe?
Oops. It’s actually a pure white inner flower when it opens. Here you can see the white petals are ringed with red-tinged, yellowish/greenish sepals.
When a plant gets several on them at a time, it would be a traffic-stopper if we had traffic in the back yard… For a cactus, epipyllums are on the wimpy side. Like, you have to squirt water at them every now and then. And they don’t cope well with freezing temperatures. And they like mostly-shaded conditions. Other than that, they’re pretty easy–and spectacular starting about now..
April 23 2009 05:21 am | Categories: gardening • my garden | Tags: cactus • epiphyllums • orchid cactus
Nell Jean -- seedscatterer on 23 Apr 2009 at 5:07 pm #
Is it fragrant?
tina on 23 Apr 2009 at 5:38 pm #
Traffic stopper indeed! They are quite beautiful. You must have such a diverse garden.
lostlandscape on 23 Apr 2009 at 6:46 pm #
Nell Jean, Absolutely! I wish the shaded patio was closer to the house so that we could enjoy the scents easier…
Tina, many thanks. I think it helps with a garden’s diversity when you have more than one person interested in plants.
Steve on 23 Apr 2009 at 7:21 pm #
James, head-on, that white bloom looks exactly like a Lotus. What Nature can do with white is pretty stunning, isn’t it? I mean we get the creamiest look ever right there.
Greg on 25 Apr 2009 at 1:25 pm #
That really IS a luscious looking flower! How would you describe the scent? Really like the way that creamy blossom is set off by the colored sepals — these should be wedding cake flowers!!
lostlandscape on 25 Apr 2009 at 3:30 pm #
Greg, it would require a pretty large wedding cake–these guys are about 8 inches across. The scent? Oh that’s always tough for me–something more subtle than gardenias but still in that ballpark. I’m sure the Central American moths go crazy over it.