Cereus-ly in bloom

The night blooming cereus (epiphyllum oxypetalum) has just finished three glorious nights of bloom, with eight flowers opening on the first night, two the second, and one on the third. A final flower failed in its efforts to fully open the last night. The flowers have a 30-centimeter throat, matching exactly the tongue length of the hawk moth which pollinates the flower in its native climate. We measured the largest flower across its face, from sepal to sepal: eleven inches. The heavenly clove and baby-powder scent emerges from the fat buds just as the petals begin to pull apart, revealing a quarter inch opening pumping out the sweetness. This year, the plant has bloomed a month later than usual, and the process has been slower, with blooms starting to open slightly later in the evening. The last two nights, blooms opened after 9 and were still open at daybreak. Usually they have closed and withered by sunrise.
Last night we observed the plant from the third floor deck of my neighbor, overlooking the linen-draped table where the plant has been displayed. Some neighbors dropped by the yard to admire the plant--something that has been happening all week. Two have given me beautiful photos of the blossoms, one mounted onto a greeting card.

The harvest continues with behind-the-scenes activity

The annual good gardening awards have been distributed at the North Street Community Garden by Portland Parks and Recreation staff, and Henry (rear) and Andrew (front), shown here with their ribbons, are recipients of two awards. As in the past, tidy gardens with unusual growing systems drew ribbons, along with those which used a diagonal path or planting layout. Critters, too, follow the progress of the gardens with interest, and squirrels, skunks, woodchucks and opossums spend their days or nights stalking grapes, peaches and pears. This cage was bought a couple of days ago to assist with the removal of a pair of fruit loving squirrels, now relocated to East Deering. Today I came home from work to find no chewed fruit on the patio, for the first time--maybe the peaches will make it to harvest.

Weeds on the roof?

Anyone who has ever fought moss on a wet, shady old roof might wonder why the school department is letting green stuff grow on the roof over the entrance to the new East End Community School. The green stuff is a collection of sedums, native grasses, and flowering plants installed in a specially designed bed on the roof over the entrance. It is designed to combat global warming by reducing the amount of heat the flat roof reflects back into the atmosphere, and also by soaking up carbon dioxide (used by plants to make food). Plant geeks will be interested to know that the sedums include: sedum album, sedum acre, sedum reflexum, sedum seramentosum, and sedum linare.

Night blooming cereus draws near

The night blooming cereus in the yard has 11 huge buds on it, and should open soon. The flower buds open at sunset one evening and close forever at sunrise the following morning. Not likely the appropriate pollinator will be in the neighborhood when this subtropical cactus finally blooms.
The cactus shares yard space with two other subtropical exotics--a passionflower vine and a brugmannsia--as well as with my summer camp for orchids, which takes place on a lattice fence under the dappled shade of the pear tree.

Photos from the community garden on North Street

The Red Sox may have feng shui, but the North Street garden has red tomatoes. This specimen is an Early Cascade, an excellent tomato for coastal gardens. It produces medium, very tasty fruit that never split and are just the right size for one sandwich or salad serving.

The North Street garden is lush in early August with green beans, cucumbers, zucchini and yellow squash, herbs, scallions, garlic, eggplant, potatoes, carrots, green peppers, beets and even corn. And of course, salad ingredients of all kinds as well as chard, kale, and other healthy greens.

Some of the gardens have beautiful flowers growing among the vegetables, such as this wildflower selection featuring annual poppies.