Friends gave me a pot with cuttings from their Night-Blooming Cereus plant. If you were to walk past the plant you might not even notice it.  It can be leggy & droopy at the same time.  Its leaves are generally dull-looking and their color rather flat.  But come mid-summer, buds may emerge along the edges of the leaves. 

 If you check them each day you’ll find the buds nearly doubling in size, their stems growing by inches, so fast…like puppies and children. 

                         Then, all at once, it's opening night. 

The flower unfolds from bud to full bloom within an hour -- its beauty and complexity are astonishing.

This flower lives for just one night and is gone by sun-up.    But what a spectacular show it presents. 

   For more images of this remarkable flower

click here: Night-Blooming Cereus