Rickrack Cactus and Comb Fern

Forest has been watering the deck plants now, and I've missed some developments.  The Epiphyllum anguliger, rickrack cactus or queen of the night,  has quickly budded in response to the longer nights and cooler weather.  It's burst into bloom to welcome autumn.  The fragrance is wonderful, and there will be many flowers this year.  I've loved this plant.  The cladodes (stems modified to function like leaves) do indeed look like rickrack, and they remind me of Grandma Aker's aprons, which were always adorned with rickrack. 

I did notice something amazing weeks ago.  The rickrack cactus has a pot mate.  Several years ago, I purchased a Schizaea dichotoma,comb fern, from Meehan's Miniatures at the Bonsai Festival.  It grew in a pot with another fern and promptly died when exposed to low humidity indoors.  Now it has inexplicably appeared in the very rootbound pot of the rickrack cactus.  It's an interesting fern.  The genus Schizaea is thought to represent a link between the whisk ferns and other ferns.  At any rate, it must be a very covert fern, since I never noted spores on the fern that died, and both a male and female gametophyte must have been growing with the cactus and united to form the new fern.  I've thought about putting it in another pot or terrarium, but I think I'll leave well enough alone.





Evening Primrose Boardwalk

I like plants that are beautiful even in difficult circumstances.  It's been a tough year for many plants, but for some reason, Oenothera biennis, common evening primrose, has done well.  I took this picture a few paces from my temporary office in the trailer near the greenhouse.  The plant was growing up through a crack in the boardwalk that leads from the back door to the paved loop drive around the greenhouse.  I remember this plant as a child.  It grew tall, even in the semiarid conditions of Western South Dakota.  I often collected the abundant seeds and pretended they were coffee grounds.  Although it can be weedy, it is native, and it's a fun plant to watch in the evening since the flowers open very quickly at dusk. 

Something Enjoyed the Summer Heat

My Colocasia gigantea, giant elephant ear, certainly has enjoyed the heat of this torrid summer.  It's bounced between this spot between two decks and a corner of the basement for several years.  Last year, I waited to dig it until after Thanksgiving.  I felt it would die for sure, since ice had invaded its tissues.  Needless to say, it was fine.  The leaves are a yard wide and longer.  This plant was acquired in a trip to the Memphis Botanic Garden, where a plant had managed to set viable seed and they were able to germinate many small plants.  When I got it, it had a single leaf about five inches long.  It benefits from daily watering when the deck plants get watered.  Now it fills this ten by ten foot space very nicely. 

It has also bloomed reliably.  Although the flowers are large as one might expect them to be, they are curiously delicate, reminding me of a pale royal maiden that is careful to avoid any exposure to sun.  So far, the fruits have not managed to mature here in Maryland.