Bloomday and a reminder about The Other Plant Sale...

It's September 15th, in other words...Garden Blogger's Bloomday! I've been staring at these floral sprays on my Mahonia gracilipes willing the flowers to open—they're tiny, and yellow—but no luck, yet.

Thankfully the Passiflora cooperated...

I lost my formerly hardy Passiflora 'Amethyst Jewel' last winter, and the P. 'Snow Queen' was knocked back to the ground (it's rebounding, but still no blooms), I am so glad I picked up this 'Aphrodite's Purple Nightie' hybrid. Even though it's not hardy it's earned it's keep with lots of blooms all summer long.

There are still tomato blooms too. I know it's said that you shouldn't let your tomatoes bloom so late in the season and should snip the vines so they put all their energy into the fruit, but with the little sungolds I'm just letting them go until the vines loose their vigor.

Schefflera delavayi

Metapanax delavayi—very unassuming blooms yet swarmed by pollinators. Looking at this image up close it looks like the flowers may have passed over to the fruit stage?

Ipomoea × multifida, aka cardinal climber has been blooming all summer long, and also producing seed capsules. I've been crushing them and letting the seeds fall. I look forward to seeing what comes up next spring.

Chasmanthium latifolium

NoID crocosmia, which might be ‘Star of the East’?

I love how flat it is when fully open.

Tricyrtis formosana ‘Samurai’

I couldn't remember if I'd ever shared this blooming NoID tillandsia (lower right hand side) in a Bloomday post. Now I have.

Here's another one that's sent up a bloom spike, Tillandsia 'Spirit'.

The crazy coloring up of Fascicularia pitcairniifolia needs more than one photo.

This is the second year in a row I've hand one (or two) bloom in my garden. 

They're so cool.

Eventually all those buds will open to blue petals with yellow anthers.

Clematis repens ‘Bells of Emei Shan’ rebloom.

Billbergia nutans is blooming again too (no complaints!).

And finally, my Nepenthes x Miranda is gonna bloom!

It sounds silly to say, but I'd always kind of thought nepenthes pitchers were the point...

I mean they're so decorative, who needs blooms?!

But bloom it does, here's when I first photographed it, on Aug 25th...

...and just a couple of days ago. I guess it's a stinker, so I'm glad it's doing this outside, before I bring the plant in for the winter.

Last minute photo add, when I went to check last evening to see if the flowers had opened I discovered this, a stink bug on the reportedly stinking bloom. It looks like it climbed up there to see the sunset.

Cryptanthus is another plant that doesn't really look like it needs to bloom, but it does. 

This one is in a can planting I've done for tomorrow's "The Other Plant Sale" where I'll be ofering Upcylce and Plant containers—read all about it here.

These plants have needs that don't make them successful longterm companions, but it will be fun while it lasts.

End your drought, come buy some plants!

To receive alerts of new danger garden posts by email, subscribe here. Please note; these are sent from a third party, you’ll want to click thru to read the post here on the blog to avoid their annoying ads. 

All material © 2009-2023 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

My Epiphyllum oxypetalum bloomed!

Tomorrow, August 15th, is Garden Blogger's Bloomday. Hosted by May Dreams Gardens, this a day for garden bloggers everywhere to share photos of the plants blooming in their gardens. I posted faithfully for Bloomday for over 13 years, but last autumn I decided that since my garden isn't planted for the flowers, it was silly for me to dedicate one of my blog posts each month to the flowers. Since then I've been a sporadic Bloomday poster. 

This month I decided to post to mark the blooming of my Epiphyllum oxypetalum (aka Dutchman's Pipe Cactus, Night-blooming Caereus, Orchid Cactus, Queen of the Night). I first noticed there were buds back on July 26th...

Early last week I noticed they were starting to swell. Was it time?

When the end started to separate and I could see the individual petals I figured that was a sign.

Sure enough, later that night (9:10 pm) I went out to check on it and was rewarded with this...

In case you've never heard of this plant, it only blooms at night, and each flower only lasts that night. 

They're pollinated by bats and large moths. Some say the fragrance is strong, but I only detected a light scent.

One flower opened that first night, and two additional buds held the promise of future flowers.

My hand for scale, in case you were wondering about the size of the flowers.

The back-side...

I have plants of 3 different origins stuffed into that hanging metal container. A piece I bought in California back in 2019, a piece sent to me by fellow-blogger Janet (The Queen of Seaford), and a plant I bought at Bauman Farms last summer. It's that last one that's blooming.

Here's what the flower looked like the next morning, photos taken at 7:49 am.

And 2:00 pm.

Fast forward to just before 9pm later that second night and the next two had started to open.

They are remarkably beautiful flowers, and I feel lucky to have been able to see them bloom in my garden.

Here it is about an hour later and further along in it's development. That's the first flower to have opened in the background.

The plant itself is extremely easy to care for. It's outside in the summertime in very little direct sun (only early morning), but lots of indirect bright light. I water when the soil feels dry. In the winter months it's in our basement, which stays cooler than the upstairs (mid 60's I'm guessing) and in a low light corner. I might have given it a little water last winter, but not much. Of course if you live in a climate warmer than my Zone 8 then you could get away with treating it like the epiphyte it is and grow it outdoors, in a tree, year round. Either way, you really should grow this plant!

To receive alerts of new danger garden posts by email, subscribe here. Please note; these are sent from a third party, you’ll want to click thru to read the post here on the blog to avoid their annoying ads. 

All material © 2009-2023 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.