Wow, Is that a cactus flower? Beautiful Lars!

Sensational! (What the heck IS it?)

It's an epiphyllum, or orchid cactus. They're very easy to grow in this climate but require some watering during the summer. They are not as drought tolerant as regular cactus, and they do not tolerate frost (hardiness zone 10 or higher), but that's not a problem here, since I have not seen temps below 42°.

This one is called "clown", but I don't know the official name.

Lars

Lars, that is beautiful. What other colors do you have? And how big are those flowers? Grandma had something called a "Christmas Cactus" that had similar blooms, but the flowers were only about an inch long or less.

Annie

Lars that's a beautiful photo. We have many types of epiphyllum also here in this climate. We had a beautiful Queen of the Night cactus - Selenicereus Grandiflorus growing in our garden. The flowers would start to open at dusk and I would put a chair beside one and watch it slowly open until it was the size of a soccer ball - enormous. The perfume was subtle and exotic. The flowers would be dead by the next morning but they were so beautiful. If I remember correctly they bloomed here in July.

I think a gardener we had ripped the plant out as the snakelike stems were ugly, but I always mean to go and find another one to plant as they are so special.

SharonCb

I grow Christmas Cactus in the house and noticed a resemblance..albeit much smaller.
This one is a beauty Lars! And you captured it so well!

I have Christmas Cactus also, and some of them bloom at a different time of year. The Orchid Cactus bloom here in late April and throughout May. The flowers can be as big as 7" across, and so they are quite large. The one I photographed was 6" diameter.

I also have them with white, yellow, red, and orange flowers. One of them has petals that are orange at the edge and pink in the middle. Another one has combo white and fuschia petals. I used to have a night blooming one also, but I don't know what happened to it.

It's true that the stems are not that attractive, but the flowers more than make up for that. We keep them in pots so that they can be hidden most of the year and then moved forward when they bloom. Most have flat stems, but this one has triangular stems. One stem is about to break off, and so I am going to have to root it after it blooms.

Lars, that is beautiful. Hope you will post a picture of the orange one when it blossoms.

Lars, that is just incredible -- thanks for sharing.

That's just beautiful-- would love something like that in my garden-- hard to imagine a bloom that big . Thanks for sharing --

Diane

Here's a page of more pictures, taken earlier and with a 35mm camera - hence the photos are not quite a good. I have a bunch more, but it takes a while to scan them. I'll try to do another batch. The one that is orange and pink was hard to photograph because the petals are irridescent, and this is difficult to capture adequately. It is the most stunning one in person, however.

Lars

Wow! That is a stunning photo and a very showy flower, Lars. I feel as though I could reach out and touch it. How large is the bloom?

Lars, thanks for posting the collage. Those flowers are gorgeous.

Renée, the pink flower is about 6" diameter. In the other link I posted, some of the flowers are 7" diameter.

Marigene, the collage is of clickable thumbnails - click on the small photo for an enlarged view.

We used to have nightblooming ones that had fragrant white flowers.

Lars

ooah! Fantastic! So sensual and splendid!

Wow, Lars that is amazing.

Ann

Here's {{gwi:1446991}} from that plant. After it finishes blooming, I am going to have to root the stalk that this flower is on, as it is about to break off.

Lars

It's even more beautiful than the first one!