Angel Trumpet Blooms

I never tire of enjoying these blooms. These five blooms were on full display this morning. They are on the one plant that was acquired many years ago. I refer to this plant as "The Mother Plant." This plant is in a pot that I winter over in the garage, just in case we have a very cold Winter and the Angel Trumpet Plants in the ground are killed because of a freeze. Of course there are other plants and blooms that give great pleasure, but the beauty and delicate flower of the Angel Trumpet are tops on my list of plants that I must continue to cultivate. As always, I will have an abundance of cuttings this November.

Angel Trumpet Blooms

These plants have been in the garden for at least five years. Every Fall, before the first frost I cut them back to nothing and apply a heavy layer of pine needles/leaves about six inches deep.

When all danger of frost is past I uncover them. Thus the growth you see here is all from 2009.

This is an array of blooms on one plant. I took this shot using natural light in the early morning.

A Close up taken with flash which creates more vivid color. The shot was taken just moments from the first one above but I zoomed in on this blossom to show the detail of these lovely flowers.

On more flash photo with several blooms to show you the arrangement of blooms near the top of this plant.

Again, a flash photo. All of these pictures were taken before the morning sun was too bright. Using the flash at this time allows the distractions of the background to be somewhat muted. It was 8:00 A.M. when I took these photos.

You can be sure that I will also have cuttings of these plants this November to share with fellow garden club members.

Night Blooming Cereus

(The Morning After)

As you can tell this is an image of the Night Blooming Cereus the morning after the lovely display on the evening of 1 August 2009. Please scroll down to the next post to view the cycle of bloom of this lovely "Pass Along Plant" that we have enjoyed the past two evenings here in Middle Georgia.

Night Blooming Cereus

About five years ago one of the members of a local Garden Club here in Macon, of which my Bride is also a member, told us about a beautiful flower that blooms for only one night and is a lovely flower. We were told it was a Night Blooming Cereus. We were able to attend a late night garden party after she called us to tell us that the flower was in full bloom. Of course she shared several cuttings with us.

Our two plants have been growing and we bring them into the garage every Winter. The plants are potted and thrive in the shade. On July 21, 2009 I noted small buds forming on the edge of the leaves of our plants. The pictures below give you an idea of how this flower develops. Note the date and time of the image at the bottom of the picture.

Not only are these flowers lovely to look at, they also have a lovely fragrance. We had one flower on the night of 31 July 2009 and had friends and neighbors over to enjoy it. Then on the evening of 1 August 2009 we had eight flowers bloom. We started watching the flowers open at about 9:20 P.M. and the flower watching party did not end until Midnight.

If you desire more information about the care of this easy to grow plant may I suggest that you perform a search on the World Wide Web and look for organizations that are Land Grant Colleges. They appear to have the most reliable information. You can be sure that I will be sharing cuttings after the potential of a late September 2009 flush of blooms is past.

In summary a delightful flower and one that you will never forget. Now to show the complete the full cycle of this bloom please be aware that I will make an additional post to show what the bloom looks like on the morning after it's full beauty.