BCSS - Forum

My Selenicereus pteranthus flowered for the first time last summer. It produced two flowers. I show here the full episode for the first flower. The first picture (bud) was taken on June 25 in 2020. The second photo showining the bud was taken on July 4, third photo on July 8, and fourth photo on July 10 at 7:00 p.m. That day (July 10) the flower begun to open in the evening. The flower was fully opened at 10:30 p.m. (in Finlad, it is still sunny at that time in midsummer). The second to last picture (withered flower) was taken on July 11 at 9 in the morning, and the last photo same day at 3:30 p.m.
I apologize for the large amount of pictures, but I wanted to show the detailed process of the flower development. This was very unique to me! This plant has grown from a 10-cm-long cutting in only six years! The flower had a very mild scent reminding me of cocoa/shea butter.

Amazing flower, thanks for all the pictures detailing it!

Spectacular, Pia! A fantastic record of a great event.

A really beautiful flower Pia, and an interesting series of photos,thanks!

Don't apologise, every picture was necessary. Absolutely lovely and spectacular.

Thank you for your kind and friendly comments!

Unfortunately, the flower withering was not shown in detail because I was sleeping at that time.

When I bought this cutting on eBay, the seller assured that it was Selenicereus grandiflorus meaning that the flowers would be very fragrant. The mother-plant located in Greece. When the cutting arrived, I had some suspicions and asked even on this forum what it really was. Nobody knew for sure. The mystery was solved when it turned out that the flowers were practically odorless. Thus, it turned out to be S. pteranthus.

One month ago I received a genuine S. grandiflorus cutting from my friend, and I can clearly see the difference. S. pteranthus has less ribs than S. grandiflorus, and the ribs are also lower in most stems. In some stems of S. pteranthus, there are no ribs at all but the stems are round. Moreover, S. grandiflorus has much more spines, and the spines are longer, thicker and yellowish. S. pteranthus has white spines, which are short and thin.

Here is a photo showing my S. grandiflorus. It has managed to make roots because I noticed a beginning of a new shoot this week.

Here are two photos showing the difference between S. grandiflorus and S. pteranthus.

Hi Pia; nice to hear from you again and nice to see someone else growing Selenicereus .
I have had to move my plants because of building work we are having done so hope the buds don't drop and keep growing, at the moment I have only 5 buds on the S. grandiflorus this year and 2 on the S. pteranthus. with no sign of any on the others
Thank you for taking the time and effort to record the bud to flower sequence ( you begin to wonder if they will ever open )

Thanks, I'll keep my thumbs up for you!

Opuntia fragilis 'Füssen' is flowering in a rockery. I planted four opuntias in 2015, and they all produced a large number of flowers for many year. For example, in 2019 these four small plants produced about 100 flowers (see page 10).

They have grown oudoors is a rockery without any shelter, protection or care (see previous pages). They have survived very cold and harsh winters (between -20 and -30 degrees Celsius for many weeks) and also heavy rains for many weeks and months. However, in year before last, winter was extremely wet and warm and there was practically no snow to protect the plants over the winter. Consequently, in spring 2020, the plants were soft and looked so rottened that I decided to dig them up and throw away. However, I found one single pad growing next to the plants, and it looked healthy. This summer it produced three flowers. For some reason, the colour of the flowers is a little bit lighter and the flowers are also a little bit smaller than previously. Last winter was very cold in Finland, and there was a lot of snow.

Thus, heavy frost and snow is not bad at all for these plants. They can also tolerate wetness suprisingly well, but there is a limit to how much rain and wetness they are able to tolerate in winter.
Just for comparison, here are two pictures from year 2019:

Sorry to hear about the losses - I have sought this form out after seeing your photos and will make sure it is kept under cover for our wetter winters for a few years more.