“Cereus-ly” Worth the Wait for the Large Extraordinarily Fragrant Blossoms
The Night Blooming Cereus is a wonderful, mysteriously elegant perennial tropical succulent. Lady Cereus, also goes by numerous common names, including Queen of the Night, Christ in Manger, Dance of Night and Orchid Cactus.
Many cacti and desert plants have evolved to be night blooming plants in order to attract nocturnal pollinators such and bats. Nights are also cooler and thereby sparing the tender flower petals from the worse of the desert or tropical heat.
But this Cereus cactus, botanically known as Epiphyllum oxypetalum, has some unique properties that set it apart which we’ll get into in this article.
We haven’t grown this lovely lady-in-waiting ourselves yet, but several in our community are growing Night Blooming Cereus. They have shared their photos and experience with us and this article is written by a delighted Cereus owner, and also includes further well researched content from GardensAll editors.
Night Blooming Cereus
- SCIENTIFIC NAME: Epiphyllum oxypetalum
- Phonetic Spelling – Ep-ih-FE-lum Ox-see-PET-al-um
- Previous Scientific Names –
- Cereus greggii
- Cereus pottsii
- Family: Cactaceae, cactus
- COMMON NAMES:
- Christ in Manger
- Dance of Night
- Dutchman’s Pipe Cactus
- Lady of the Night
- Night-blooming Cereus
- Orchid Cactus
- Queen of the Night
- EDIBLE: Fruit
- FLOWERS:
- Size – Large flowers, 6 inches minimum that bloom from the cladode leaves
- Blooms – just one night per blossom after 4th year
- Color – White with yellow centers
- Fragrance – exceptional strong fragrance with hints of vanilla
- Pollinators – bats
- LEAVES: Secondary stems called Cladodes
- GROWING:
- Indoors with full indirect light or direct morning light
- Outdoors in dappled light or full morning thus
- Can grow indoors in pots in winter
- Thrives outdoors in tropical climates
- Can get leggy indoors in pots without enough light
- SIZE: 3 feet tall by 3 fee wide’ on average. Can grow up to 8 feet in ideal tropical environment in the ground.
- HARDINESS ZONES: 8-9
- ORIGIN – Native to the deserts, tropics and subtropics of the Americas
- Greater Antilles
- Central America
- Mexico
- South America
- Southwestern US
- SOIL: Sandy; cactus potting soil
- WATER: Once weekly, depending on area conditions
- SUN: All day filtered, or direct morning sunlight
- TEMPERATURE RANGE: 50°F / 10°C – 100°F / 38°C – handles high heat in shade
- TYPE:
- Perennial
- Succulent
The Gift of a Night Blooming Cereus
Article by contributing writer, Sharon Hughes
After four years, this amazing night-blooming cereus plant my sister gave me finally bloomed. Once. Well, the first flower, that is. Now there’s a second bud beginning to blossom. It too, will give its all in one glorious night, until dawn.
The night blooming cereus is worth the wait.
The botanical name is epiphyllum oxypetalum or hylocereus undatus, and Night-blooming cereus is the most popular common name for this unusual flowering cactus. The large, tropical looking flower blooms at night and is wilted by the morning.
The exquisite blossom filled my home with an incredible fragrance reminiscent of vanilla.
Queen of the Night
Sometimes called Moon Flower or Queen of the Night, my sister got up in the night, so as not to miss hers blooming. She took pictures to show me, as I’m now doing for you.
I was enthralled with this plant and frequently asked her if it had bloomed again. She continued to periodically send me pictures when she was blessed with blooms.
Cereus Cactus Propagation from a Leaf
On a visit with my sister about four years ago, she gave me a leaf from the “mother plant”. I wrapped it in a damp paper towel, placed it in a plastic bag and padded it between clothing in my suitcase. Thankfully, it made the flight home to Colorado without damage.
You can propagate the cereus cactus from a leaf of the plant. The Queen of the Night cactus leaf is actually a a photosynthetic stem.
~GardensAll.com
I “stuck” the end of the fleshy stem into some potting soil, placed the pot near a window, and watered it once a week.
My sister told me it was easy to grow and to have patience waiting for it to produce a flower. One day it began to grow a stem. I continued to water it weekly and wait. Slowly, the stem grew taller and a new leaf sprouted.
Later, a stalk with soft “needles” began to grow very long and tall. As it grew longer it began to sprout a leaf here and there. I checked it often hoping for sight of a bud. However, not much else happened for a long time.
Growing Cereus requires patience.
Growing in the Skylight
We moved to a town home which had skylights. I placed the plant on a ledge under a skylight and continued to water it.
One day, I noticed another branch beginning to grow. I tried not to pay much attention to the plant other than watering it. It was hard to keep patient waiting for a bloom.
The branch, which resembled a thick vine with soft spikes, grew quite long. In fact, the branch was so long, it required a support. It reached toward the skylight and kept growing. As it was under a Caribou head mount, it began to bend to grow around the neck and reach toward the light. A couple leaves finally emerged. Yet, there was still no sign of a flower. At this point, the plant was two years old and I was beginning to wonder if it would ever flower.
A year later we moved to Albuquerque, NM. The moon flower, along with all of my other household plants, made their own, special trip in a U-Haul van. This first trip was strictly to bring my plants to the new house. The plants made the trip with no issues. However, my precious moon flower’s long branch had broken. I stuck it in the soil and didn’t worry.
A week later, we moved the entire household and took up residence in our new home. I placed my plants around the house, giving the moon flower its place in the breakfast nook on a bench in the center of a north-facing bay window. The plant was thriving well and producing more long branches and leaves, but still no flower. After approximately 3-1/2 years of growing and waiting, I decided that it didn’t matter if it ever flowered. I would be satisfied with the fact that it was a very interesting plant.
About six months ago I decided to repot a few of my plants. The moon flower was one of the chosen plants to receive a larger pot. Apparently, this made it quite happy as it continued to grow more of the interesting branches. The branches were beginning to resemble thick vines as they are 5-6 feet in length. These long branches required taller dowels to give them support. The leaves, which are large, flat, and thick/fleshy, sprout at varying places on the branches.
The Queen of the Night Flower
Then it happened. Two days ago I noticed a huge flower bud. I chided myself for not paying better attention to the plant as the beginning flower bud had likely begun a couple days before. I was surprised to discover how the flower grew.
The flower didn’t grow from a branch, but from the edge of a leaf.
Of course, I sent my sister a picture of what I had just found! She told me the flower would likely open completely by 10:00 that night. I kept vigil on my bud throughout the day. About 6:00 in the evening it began the process of opening. As the bloom opened, it began to fill the lower level of our house with its sweet fragrance.
The bud began to open at 6pm…
and was in full bloom by 10:00pm.
