It's Been Months!
It's been so long since I've last seen one of these Queen Of The Night cacti blooming!
We have this cacti on the farm, we only have one of them that spread into two pieces (We shall get to the two pieces later on) But okay we only have one, there are plenty in the area. They are actually abundant especially on the outskirts of the town and we happen to live on the outskirts of town.
As always everything is plentiful just not always on your side of the fence eyyy. On the entire 75 hectar farm that we have we only have one of these plants where as some bloaks have a two hectar farm and they've got around 40 of them.
Okay that's besides the point.
"Queen Of The Night Cacti"
Let's rewind a few months back.
I came home one day to see the cacti broken in half, and well it didn't really bother me that much but I did think of the flowers the fact that the plant was broken, perhaps it would take longer than usual to throw a blooming out there again.
Well I wasn't entirely wrong it did take a long time for the plant to regain it's strength and bloom again. What we did was we took the broken off part and just stuck it in the ground and let it be.
Turns out that was by far the best thing to do! Actually I noticed there are three parts now. 🤣
Break It Down To Build It Up.
"Break it down to build it up" is a big thing I live by and well it has been proven to be so by mother nature herself!
Normally we only got two perhaps three of these flower heads when they bloomed. Now there are close to 20! They were more because the doggers tore some flower heads off actually. All in all I am very glad that the doggers broke the plant in the first place, or perhaps it might have been the horses! Either or doesn't matter it was for the better!
One night when returning from work I noticed that they were pulling open, and the cool part about these flower heads are that they only open once and they do so during the night! So it's fair to say but.
"You snooze, You lose"
The Baby Praying Mantis
"I feel lucky today"
What are the odds? I mean seriously? I don't know what's more amazing. The fact that he was standing still and only moved after the photo was taken or the fact that I actually saw him there and didn't give him a fright!
I suppose I'm not the only one dying to see the "Queen of the night" cacti blooming!
A Fruity Blooming
"Before we get to the good ones"
Let me show you how the insects just adore these especially the Beesies (I don't know exactly what they are called in English, lets just call them Beesies) and well I bet the praying mantis also wanted a bite, oh and the doggers by the looks of it! Now I don't exactly know but people tell me that it has a fruit inside. I can't make out what the fruit is but perhaps that's the reason the doggers are plucking the flower heads from the plant.
The Beesies seem to be liking the white leaves of the flower a lot! The Betty would have smacked them all of or even murdered them! Now me, I can let nature take it's own course. The reason the Betty will do that is because the has a lot of small plants in pots and well the Beesies eat them up.
(Beesies is what we call them in my mother tongue Afrikaans.)
Let's Get To The Good One's Now
This is by far one of the most beautiful plants I have ever seen in my life, the leaves looks like feathers don't they? Almost like a silky feather!
I'm not entirely sure if the plant is indeed called Queen of the night but it is more than befitting to be gifted to a queen no doubt!!
But beware when trying to pluck one of these! They do have thorns! I mean it's always the most beautifull of flowers that carry the thorns with them! There's a saying "Every rose has it's thorns" now these ain't no rose but I do believe they are far more superior than a rose. More of an empress status (Not the one that's married to an Emporer, more the one ruling a great empire that has great power and rank, if that makes sense.)
Well folks enjoy the few beautifull photos I took of these! They only bloom once a season, or once every two seasons. (Correct me if I am wrong nature geeks😊)
They Were Still Fresh The Next Morning
Although these looked pretty fresh the morning after as well, it was still very early when the photos were taken.
However notice that they did start to sag a little, by night fall they would be almost 80% closed so I decided to take a last photo before heading off to work!
Well folks until next time! Have a great rest of the week, stay safe and stay blessed!
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