Friday, July 18, 2008

Need For Speed

If you look at my July 15 post, you'll see what these Argentine Giant (Echinopsis candicans) buds looked like on Monday evening. The photo below was taken on Wednesday at dusk. The buds grow so fast you can almost hear them--as they say about corn stalks!


Later Wednesday night, two buds opened. The middle one finally opened a couple of hours after the other two. By morning, the flowers were spent. This speedy cycle occurs several times during the year, but if the cactus produces buds in quick succession, the second round of flowers will be a bit smaller, as these are. They are still spectacular at seven inches in diameter.





9 comments:

Claude said...

Great flowers. It always seems strange to me for the plant to put in so much effort for a bloom that only lasts a matter of hours... but I guess it's one of those quality vs. quantity things...

kesslerdee said...

I love these flowers! They are worth staying up late for and I am so not a night owl!

The Diva said...

Cacti flowers are just beautiful and amazingly fast. We all look like we're in slow mo.~~Dee

WiseAcre said...

That short bloom time left me with 2 thoughts

A one night stand can lead to a life long passion.

Ha Ha missed me
Ha Ha missed me again

Anonymous said...

It can take weeks, even over a month, for a lot of our buds to open in our less-than-desert-like-climate. But then we get to enjoy them for a few days - even as much as 4 days!

I think some of our ferocactus buds actually take at least a year to open, but I could be mistaken.
Peter

kate smudges said...

Flowers of seven inches are pretty impressive. They are also beautiful!

I often say the same thing about weeds in the garden ... I can almost hear them growing.

Rose said...

These blooms are beautiful! I haven't stopped by in a while, and it's so interesting to see the cacti blooming. They're so different from all that's growing in my Midwestern garden and yet so lovely.

Gin said...

Such a pure beautiful white!!!

Barbara said...

So you found just the right moment to take the picture of the opening bloom. Beautiful. Here too, the weed is growing so fast that one could hear it....