Bloom Watch #3 – Waiting Patiently
June 27, 2019This week has been interesting, if not unusual. Although most of the buds are still in stall status, the Queen has pulled a few surprises. First of all, as of the morning of June 19 she has allowed five flowers to move to 120mm and nine to move 80mm. Which means there were fourteen flowers that bloomed before Monday, June 24. As usual, she finds a way to aggravate me and also make me scratch my head. I have one plant that tried to make five flowers, but just gave up and aborted them. She is growing, but not blooming this year. I have two plants that haven’t bloomed for several years (one hadn’t bloomed for four years and the other for thirteen years) that went from no buds to stall status in a week! It seems a little late for her to start and very fast to catch up with the rest. Just another way for the Queen to insure I know she is in charge of this event, not me.
Update: There was one flower on the June 20, one on the June 21, nine on the June 22, and three on the June 23.
In the Queen’s Courtn Peniocereus serpentinus continues to bloom. She had four flowers this week! The P. oaxacensis had three flowers on three plants and is still producing more buds. My P. cuixmalensis has two buds. This will be her first year and I’m excited to see what her blooms will look like. My P. fosterianus has twenty buds, slightly down from last year, but it will still be beautiful.
Until Next Time – Lee Mason, Director of General Services, Tohono Chul
