Indoor Flowers

While I have been slaving away outdoors, trying to liberate the flowerbeds and keep the grass at bay, the inside flowers have been doing their own thing, unaided by me. I didn't even notice that the plant climbing all over the ceiling of the jungle room (one of the plants climbing all over the ceiling of the jungle room) had four buds on it until they were almost ready to bloom. I call this plant rick rack cactus although I guess it isn't really. I'm not sure what it is. Like the night-blooming cereus, it blooms at night and is open only one night. Unlike the cereus, the flowers are not strongly scented. Whatever it is, it blooms seldom, although it buds often. The buds usually turn black, likely because it's too cold in our unheated jungle room greenhouse. But we have had some unseasonably warm weather this spring and four buds survived.

I waited up for the first bloom to open, which it did at 11:30 p.m. It was worth the wait. I did not put a ruler up to it but it was at least a foot across... the biggest flower I have ever seen.

Two opened a few nights later but I didn't wait for them to get all the way open. Nor did I wait for number four. None were as huge as the first one. 

 May is the month for orchid cactus to bloom, which they faithfully do every year. And they stay open for days, thank goodness. This psychedelic pink one was, and still is, covered in flowers.

I did not get photos of all that have bloomed so far. More open daily. May is a colorful month in our greenhouse. For some reason, the camera refuses to get all the colors actually present in this pink/purple/red combination.

My original cactus was plain ol' red. It hardly gets any notice anymore.

Also blooming this time of year are the Amaryllis, some from gifts to me in past Christmases (from my wonderful daughters-in-law) and some bloomed-out plants that friends have given me. I lose track of who has given me what so they mostly just stay here and bloom in the spring, when they're really supposed to.

 The plants upstairs in my office (it's a bit of a jungle up here, too) are also blooming. The hibiscus only managed one flower this year.

But the hoya is outdoing itself, both in numbers of blooms and fragrance.

And it seems to be reaching across the room now, trying to reach the computer area, where it will drop its sticky sweetness all over my papers. It will have to be retrained a different direction.

The rains have returned outdoors, to my great relief, relieving me from the constant watering and mowing duties and allowing me to enjoy the indoor flowers who ask for so little care and give so much beauty.