Re: [gardeners] night blooming cereus
Ron Hay (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Sun, 08 Sep 2002 18:24:59 -0700
Hello, Matt,
If you plant really is a member of the cereus family, it absolutely
requires sunlight to produce blooms...it can't get the energy to do so
from any other source.
We have a couple of potted plants, one of which may be a cereus (the
blossom certainly looks like it: saucer shaped, white, about a foot
across), while the other is likely a pitahaya, a member of the
hylocereus family, the cactus which produces "dragon fruit" in Vietnam
and other portions of SE Asia.
I had the two plants in too much shade until about a month ago. When I
moved it out into full sun, lo and behold, a blossom bud appeared.
I am going to plant them in the ground so that they can climb on our
neighbor's chain link fence, and we hope, eventually produce edible
fruit.
Our neighbor across the street has a very large cereus, about 8 feet
tall, branching to about 6-7 feet. It has largely finished blooming and
is loaded with bright red fruit. It has survived our Valley heat and
frosts for over 40 years and its cutting have populated many homes on
our block.
But, without a question, it needs as much sun as you can give it.
Ron
Van Nuys, CA