Friday, August 9, 2013

NIght Blooming Cereus-Pay Attention!







Time for our cactus to bloom!  It is a night blooming cereus and as the name implies, it only blooms at night!  Richard has been able to keep some offshoots alive so we are hoping for some new plants from this one.  We have had this one cactus since 1994 and it is over six feet in height!  Frogs love to be inside the folds of the cactus and we love that we provide that space for them!
 
Why did I say pay attention in my title?  It is because it is easy for us to sometimes miss a bloom on this plant, we wil go out after the sun is risen, and we will see the bloom almost closed up...we missed the bloom! It hasn't happened often, but it can happen.  It makes me think that there may be other things that we might miss, something spectacular, so we all need to pay closer attention!




Lesson for today: Pay attention, you never know what you might miss!
 
(These photos with the light are in the very early morning, the flowers close up very soon when the sun is on them!)
 
 

31 comments:

  1. It is very pretty, and worth staying up to see.

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  2. The ones I see in Hawaii are full of bees and other insects. Yours are just gorgeous! They look so pure.

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    1. I think that an insect is supposed to pollinate this cactus, but we don't have the insect to do so! I think that is what Richard said, I can't remember all this stuff, he is the gardener! xx

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  3. Thanks for staying up to share the shots with us - pretty!

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    1. Glad you like this spiky cactus with the blooms!

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  4. Kay- How very beautiful. Worth staying up late to see them. Gorgeous-xo Diana

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    1. Thanks, Diana! We are very excited every year when it blooms!

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  5. What gorgeous flowers! I get really excited waiting for buds to open so can't imagine what the anticipation for these beauties would have been like. x

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    1. You are so right. We are so glad to see the tiny buds start to form and they grow bigger and bigger and well, you see that last photo, they get so big that they look like they will fall off...and then, they bloom!

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  6. Oh they are simply beautiful! I've never seen one, in-real-life, so I thank you for sharing.

    Ahhhhh yes! Pay attention!

    Look! "Regardez!" Which I have read, was Collette's last word, before dying. :-)

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    1. "Look" is one the main things that I say when I am climbing one of the unique monadnocks that we have here in Georgia...but there is so much to look at!!

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  7. Oh, Kay, this is wonderful! How beautiful. I've read about them, but never seen one. Thank you.

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    1. Glad you like this, we have enjoyed this cactus for so many years, it was a gift from my Aunt Leona who died just two years after she gave this to us, I always think of her when it blooms.

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    1. It IS wonderful, we look forward to it every year.

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  9. Just last night! I read about this in my current Kindle book, The House Without a Key by Earl Derr Biggers. What a treat to come here and see the actual flower!!! Thank you. In Hawaii, in this 1920s book people flocked to where they were blooming.
    I think Mrs. Pollifax had one too. Do you read that series by Dorothy Gilman?

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    1. Oh, isn't that funny? I do that sometimes, I will read something and then see something I have just read pictured right in front of me!
      I very rarely read anything these days. In fact, I just hit a button and made this even smaller, how do I get it back? Oh well!
      Thanks for your comment, Nan!
      (My husband loved your Wicked Blueberry Cake, it was great!

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  10. Your cactus is beautiful. I agree we need to pay attention or else we do miss a lot.

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    1. Yes, and I need to take my own advice, I wonder how much I miss by just not paying attention!

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  11. Well, i'm in a position where my little attention seekers have claws and teeth, and no compunction about using them to get what they want! Plants just can't match that, so you are right, we have to be on the lookout.

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    1. Your comment made me chuckle because I tripped in the garage where we have the cactus in the winter, and believe me, this cactus has some very sharp quills and my hand was very sore where my hand crashed into the plant! Almost like tangling with a kitty!

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  12. This cactus and other such things made me look for this verse: "It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings." (It's Proverbs 25:2)I would extend the meaning of searching things out to include the children of the King.

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    1. What a lovely, lovely comment. I wonder if you might expand this into a sermon. U mean that sincerely, that sounds like I am being sarcastic! Sorry, I think I must be a preacher at heart!

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    2. Oh, that is supposed to say "I" mean that sincerely.
      It's not that I wasn't paying attention, I was on a different computer at 5:51AM, and could not see what I was typing! (Not that "U" don't mean it sincerely too,but you should know I can't see myself typing "U" for "you", just not going to happen!!)

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  13. What an awesome, gorgeous plant ~ I love the blooms!!!! And frogs? Seriously? How cool is that? I may need to get me one of those!!!

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    1. I know you would love this cactus with its big blooms!
      And those frogs! All tucked up into the folds of the cactus, you would love to see that, I just know it!

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    1. Ha! Next time, I am sure you will pay attention! :-)

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  15. This is so beautiful, Kay! Thank you for posting it, and yes, I am 100 % with you on that message: pay attention to detail! Open your eyes!

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  16. Night blooming cereus is a lovely flower. It grows here in Hawaii also.

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