I don't know why I get so excited to see my dragon fruit cactus flower, but I do! Tonight's the night! I got home from work and went around to check the garden, harvest any ripe tomatoes and check on the progress of the bud.
It was opening up, so I grabbed my camera! They only bloom one night, and then by morning, they are gone! Shriveling down to nothing, and just hanging there limply. It is hard to imagine when looking at it the next morning that just a few hours before it was so pretty and full.
While I was out there trying to snap some pics (you should see all the ones that came out very, very blurry!) my neighbor dropped by to give me a slice of Watergate Cake that she had baked. I made asked her to come around to see this wondrous sight!
(I tried to google Watergate Cake to try to find a picture similar to her cake, but none of them compared! Her's was a double layer and very prettily decorated. So, if you are not familiar with that cake, I will have to leave you to google it yourself. You'll get the idea! Pistachios, coconut, green, yummy.)
I was just wishing I had some help in getting some pics to share! I wanted to show the size of this thing in comparison to something so you could get an idea of how huge they are! I was just looking around for something when she called out! Yayyy! That's her hand and key in the photo.
When you put your finger down into the anthers and filaments, you would expect to feel something, but they are soooooooo soft, you can barely feel them at all! When you shake the flower a bit, they jiggle all over the place. For a flower that big, you would expect an equally big scent, but they do not have a floral smell at all! There is definitely a scent when you get your nose in there, but it is more herbal. It is not unpleasant, but I don't expect to see it at the fragrance counters any time soon!
Now we wait for the fruit to form! :-) Thanks again for the cactus, Trang!
By the way, the cake was de-licious! Yummm! It was a very big piece! I thought I would eat half now and save the other half for tomorrow . . . but . . . . we-e-ell . . . it all adds up to the same amount of calories anyway, whether I split them up or not . . . right? ? ? ;-) Oh . . . whooops, I should have gotten a pic of it to share with you! My bad! It was as pretty as it was tasty! . . . Actually, maybe it's a good thing I didn't think to snap a quick pic . . . that way you can't see just how big a little piggy I just was! Thank you, J!
Well, that's it for now, I was so excited to see the bloom, I just wanted to share! I need to go into my sugar coma now. ;-) See you later!