Remember the night-blooming cereus? The houseplant I inherited from my dad?
The houseplant he got as a cutting from a WWII war bride from Czechoslovakia who played bridge with my mom and dad back in the 1960s and 70s?
The houseplant my youngest sister thought of first when I offered to give my nephew a few houseplants for his new house when she immediately responded to my offer with, “Not the night-blooming cereus!”
Yes, that houseplant. That big, gangly, odd-looking houseplant that quietly sits in the corner of the sunroom and occasionally blooms in the summertime. If plants had memories…
Anyway…
It just got included in an article about long-lived houseplants in The Washington Post.
(If you don’t subscribe to The Washington Post, you can click “free article”, enter your email address and then you’ll get access to read it.)
I’m thinking of you, Dad, who loved gardening and accepted that cutting of the night-blooming cereus from Louisa V. so long ago. Who knew it would someday end up in an article in the newspaper?
Yes, the same one that the garden fairies misspelled in the previous post.
I started one as a project for Homecoming at my college, SUNY Environmental Science and Forestry. It has added a little growth, is still green and seems fairly happy after 2 years. I’m inspired now to let it go longer, maybe I will get a bloom one day.
“Not the night blooming cereus” comment made me laugh. I love the history of yours.
I was given a cutting more than 30 years ago. It grew so much I had to cut it back. Essentially started new cuttings and they are doing well. Old plant only bloomed once that I know of, but the plant is so interesting I don’t mind if it never blooms!