Night blooming cereus frostbite
This is my beloved night-blooming cereus. It's currently in a bad shape because I left it in the cold too long. I think I moved it indoors at the end of October and the sudden drop in temperature caused most of the leaves to turn brown. Also the rainy weather in spring didn't help much and it didn't have a good start. It didn't have the perfect conditions to bloom like last year. Last year I had 7 beautiful blooms in one night and every time it booms it's an event. The blooms usually last for one night and the the flowers give off this heavenly scent that fills the whole deck. Check out the time elapsed video here, it really does open before your eyes, it's an amazing plant, don't let its look fool you!
After some serious deadheading, it doesn't look too bad! Please don't die on me!
Some cuttings for my colleague who happens to love gardening.
Century Plant (Agave americana)
Gardeners from the west coast are used to seeing the Century plant, I've heard of this interesting plant but never seen it in real life. In my recent trip to Arizona, I saw many of them in bloom and it's one of the most interesting plant I've seen. Here are some interesting facts about this plant.
Century plant only blooms once in its lifetime, which is about 30 years. When it blooms, the stalk grows 5-6 inches a day. You can literally stand in front of the plant and watch it grow! Its flower stalk can reach 40 feet up in the air. The century plant uses all its energy to produce this once-in-its-lifetime bloom, and after it finishes blooming it dies. Another interesting fact about this plant is it provides native Americans a source of food, soap, fiber, medicine and weapons.
Close-up of the flowers:
Here's a century plant in Sedona, AZ:
Phoenix Desert Botanical Garden
Just came back from a fabulous trip to Arizona visiting Phoenix, Scottsdale, and Sedona. I read many good reviews about the Desert Botanical Garden and was looking forward to it. It totally exceeded my expectation because it's not the normal botanical garden I'm used to in East Coast. It was eye opening and I learnt a lot of things about succulents.
The daytime temperature was in the nineties but I didn't think it was unbearable probably because it's desert heat, it's different from NY summers. I'll be posting pictures here on my blog and in my flickr in the next few weeks. So stay tune!
Look at all the cactus for sale!
Beautiful Chihuly glass display in the background.
