On Saturday morning I noticed something very exciting. My night blooming cereus had 2 buds. I've had this plant for 5 plus years and it has never blossomed. Some cuttings were given to me from a friend. Honestly, it's about the ugliest, ungainly plant I've ever owned. It was on the list of "time to get rid of" plants. It must have known this.
As you can see, the blossom looks a bit scary.
This is the small blossom. Take a close look and you'll see that the blossoms just pop out from a leaf. As soon as it got dark outside, the first blossom started to bloom.
It was amazing watching it unfurl its petals and finally open as a flower.
You can see how big the bloom was. It had a wonderful flowery-sweet scent...and lasted the evening and night until the first light of day came through the window.
And then it was gone. There is still one blossom left, but I'm not sure when it will bloom. Maybe tonight or in the next 3 days. If you'd like to see a short time-lapse video of one blooming, I found this one on YouTube.
Now I understand why the people of the Victorian Age had parties that lasted far into the night celebrating the blossoming of the night-blooming cereus. They sure knew how to have a good time!