OMG! I am so glad I stuck with the annoying, ridiculously hard to train (to move indoors for winter), tropical vining cactus: the dragon fruit! I have only seen one other flower that rivals a dragon fruit flower. It was also a type of night blooming cereus. My mother had it as a house plant when I was growing up . I only saw it bloom once. The fragrance was heady. I didn’t realize the cereus produced fruit. I had only seen the flower and it was indoors, so no pollination took place. I also didn’t remember the flower being this fantastic. It must have been a different variety.
Dragon fruit’s Latin name is: Hylocereus spp. There is also Peruvian apple cactus (cereus Peruvianeus) in the genus. Hylocereus Undatus is the most frequently grown Cereus, for fruit production.
There are many varieties of dragon fruit. I have a yellow one in this pot that is still small. It has many more thorns. The plant that is blooming is a self fertile red fleshed variety called “Edgar’s Baby” that I got as a live plant on Jere Gettle’s seed site rareseeds.
Wow! This flower! I am in love!
I got home yesterday from our college tour and realized that my dragon fruit had flowered. I had missed it! By a single day!
Then, I was outside yesterday and noticed a second flower. It looked like it might bloom tonight and it did! Such a magnificent flower! I don’t even care about the fruit anymore. I will continue to grow this for these delicious flowering wonders! The scent developed as the flower opened further.
However, being the meticulous gardener that I am, I got out a paint brush and made sure to pollinate it. I won’t be any less impressed if this doesn’t form fruit, I just can’t get over the flower!
We have the largest colony of Mexican freetail bats in America just down the road, but unfortunately for my plant: they are insectivores. Dragon fruit would be pollinated by beetles and moths in my area of the world. So, I made sure we’d at least get this fruit to set, with my paint brush pollinating technique.
Meet you out in the garden, to enjoy one of the most beautiful flowers I’ve ever seen!
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Interesting and beautiful
I absolutely love these!
Wonderfully done. Now I want one!
Well, be prepared to love the flower and hate the plant! Still waiting for the fruit. Thanks for the comment! I appreciate the visit.
These were a fad for a while, particularly in Southern California. For a while, they were becoming common in front yards, with their silly bulky trellises. (There are more tactful means with which to accommodate them.) They cling to palm trunks, but need to be strapped into place before producing fruit.
They freeze here. I’m building a greenhouse on one end of my back porch. I can’t keep bringing all of the tropical stuff I have inside for a few months! This thing is ridiculous to try and move and then avoid.
Yes, and it will get bigger and heavier.
Wonderfully done. Now I want one!