15 April 2008
Heliocereus flower buds
Posted by Stuart under: Cacti .
These, and two others, aren’t far off popping now.
The buds are comparable in size to those that my Selenicereus grandiflorus has produced reliably for the last few years.
Some warmth to help them develop fully would be nice!
As I think I’ve mentioned previously, this plant was due to go to the great compost heap in the sky had it not flowered this year, as it takes up an enormous amount of space that I was starting to begrudge giving to it. Quite what caused it to flower this year, I’m not sure.
My theory is that it’s one of the following:
- It finally reached a large enough biomass to trigger flowering
- It enjoyed being neglected and not being fed at all last year
- It felt threatened by being cut back considerably in the autumn and as a result produced flowers as a self-preservation instinct
- It’s somehow psychic and found out telepathically about my intentions to dispose of it
In reality it’s probably a combination of the first and third options. It hasn’t been repotted for several years and is growing in a 10" pot of very tired-looking peat - I tend to use peat for some of the more epiphytic/forest type cacti that are kept moist, including Rhipsalis. They seem to like it well enough. The Heliocereus is surely due for a repot though; whether it will respond by focusing its efforts on producing more vegetative growth or another crop of flowers next year is anyone’s guess. This season, my Selenicereus grandiflorus has been repotted for the first time in years, as it hasn’t produced any new growth since it started flowering about three years ago, and is running out of areoles to do it with!