Florida: Night Blooming Cactus!
June 9, 2018 29 Comments
Cactus Blooms Ready to Open
Cactus Flower Extravaganza at Night
Blooms on Snake Vine Climbing up Palm Tree
Night Blooming Cactus Pair of Flowers
Our night blooming cactus was in its full glory this week – 30 HUGE flowers opened at once! It was spectacular! In the old days of Florida people would have parties in the evening centered around the blooms. Our snake vine cactus (Selenicereus pteranthus – Princess of the Night) was grown from a cutting planted only 6 years ago!
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Wow that is amazing! We don’t have anything like that here in Illinois. Thank you for sharing!
Yes we are lucky to have it here. Never thought it would grow so big so fast!
Absolutely fascinating! I have never seen or heard of this cactus.
It is a wonderful one! They often climb on trees naturally along the river.
wow that is a very interesting plant… thank you for sharing .. I’ve not seen one before!!
Thank you! It just keeps getting bigger every year!
Thanks for sharing this beauty! 🙂
Thank you for stopping by! Flowers are so pretty! 🙂
That’s amazing Pam! Stunning pictures.
It’s so pretty! And last night for the first time I noticed the flowers are fragrant too!
Have you ever thought of putting a motion camera on it to see what night visitors are attracted to it?
The main thing I’ve noticed coming are hummingbird sphinx moths. I wish bats visited, but no such luck! Maybe I’ll put a cam on it one night this week and see what happens. Great idea!
That would be cool.
How beautiful!
It is an amazing sight! And light fragrance too.
OMG! That’s gorgeous! This far I managed to kill all my cactuses. I’m hoping for a new one to survive though 😉 Bought it in bud and only just found out (by experiencing it myself) that the flowers only last 1 day/night 🙈
Oh I hope you have better luck this next time! The flowers are brief but spectacular. That’s another reason I like orchids too – they sometimes bloom for months. 🙂
Yeah, my little one has pink flowers and it’s just gorgeous to see. I keep taking pics whenever it opens or even call my parents to show them while the little bloom is open 😉
Mine’s usually last a few months, but I had one which didn’t flower for 2 years, but once it bloomed it didn’t stop for 1 year and 4 months!
Wow! That must have been amazing!!!
Also very satisfying ☺️ Ever since this happened I started buying more orchids. They’re amazing plants ☺️
🙂
This is absolutely gorgeous! I never knew these types of cacti grew in Florida. Do you know of they native? Thank you for sharing!
Thank you! It is one of our favorite plants ever! It is native to Central America, but has essentially naturalized in central/southern Florida. Our cutting came from a “wild” one growing along the Indian River. Imagine – hundreds of blooms all open at the same time since it had grown there for so long! Really good info is here: https://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/83705/#b
If you want a cutting, e-mail me and I’ll send it to you. pgwinegar@aol.com
I would love to visit again this winter.
Florida is great in winter! Lots to see and do!
I have this snake vine here in FLorida that I received 2 summers ago. It has not bloomed this past June.. and I did not see any blooms on the vine. Just wondering if it takes a long time for them to have blooms.. do they go in a sort of hibernation after cutting?
I bet it blooms next year! It takes a little while to get going, but after that the blooms about double every year. I started mine from a little piece too about 7 years ago and you can see the size now. It has covered the bottom of the palm. Most of the year you forget about it, but when it blooms WOW! Lucky you!
Spectacular!
My favorite this time of year!