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ATOMNight queen flowers all bloom within a few days of each other. This tropical variety on Ali’i Drive in Kailua-Kona decided it would be October 20th. The flowers open at night and fade away after sunrise, collapsing by mid day. The plant is a cactus vine that grows as a hedge, and the spectacular flowers are four or five inches across and quite showy. There is a different variety in the Arizona desert that blooms in June. The Arizona variety has a bare stick-like stem, so the challenge is to show the characteristics of the plant and the flower all in one photo. I gave up.
The plant was growing by a busy street, so I started with a photo of the locale. That establishes that we are definitely not dealing with a desert plant.
I want to show the cactus vine “foliage” and the way the blossoms quickly fade.
Of course the showy flowers are the center of attraction. I tried a number of combination of blossoms and various angles. Backlighting of a single flower worked the best.
Now the job is to put it all together, perhaps with a spliced panorama that shows the flower, the hedge vine, faded blossoms, and the street. Not a chance; that’s too much to juggle. The flower wins over the textbook lesson on night queens.
Perhaps I can work out a plan for capturing the whole scene and go back next October 20th.
I live in Orlando and somehow came across one of these about 10 years ago. Today, One large set has a happy home on an oak tree where it is in excess of 30’ in height. Blooms are rare, but spectacular! Yesterday was July 13th and the first one bloomed. The flower starts out as a green pine cone looking thing that make take a week to mature, it then splits the green and will open in several hours, lasting the night. Last year there were 5 bloom periods, never more than 1 or 2 at a time.
Another batch grows up the fence and several neighbors have also taken cuttings and planted next to their trees. Simply cut at a stem point and stick in the ground after scoring the skin a little.
I have never seen any others in Orlando and they have never been affected by the cold.
— george · Jul 17, 03:39 PM · #
Interesting! We have a small night queen plant in our back yard here in California. It bloomed on July 14th, and the flower has lingered for a few days. We only get one period of blooming each year.
I wonder if there are different species of night queen that have different patterns, or whether there is just one kind that adapts to local conditions. I dunno.
It’s a spectacular sight!
— Roy Latham · Jul 17, 08:00 PM · #