The blooming cycle of Night-Blooming Cereus is one of those feats of nature that has me scratching my head in wonder: how does this leggy, ungainly-looking plant produce perfect little buds that develop from a half inch to large, complex and extraordinarily beautiful blooms in just a little more than one week?  And that’s not all there is to this story.  The Cereus flowers bloom once each year opening at night for one spectacular show, then close and are gone by sunrise.

This is how it began:

                                                                July 16, 2014

July 19, 2014

And here is what happened as Nature staged a brilliant opening night show

                                                                       July 25   6:48PM

                                                                       July 25   7:01PM                

                                                                     July 25   8:32 PM                  

                                                                    July 25   9:07 PM     

                                                                     July 25   9:24 PM    

                                                                      July 25   10:12PM     

 Use the highlighted link to see more photographs of the Night-Blooming Cereus and use this link Desert Beauty to see a short video of last year's opening night.