Los Altos, CA, 8/29/2014
More than a decade before this photograph was made, a friendly coworker gave me a large flat fleshy green leaf, a cutting from a plant she said was called Queen of the Night. I was told to put it in water for it to root, and from time to time the plant would produce beautiful fragrant white blossoms opening only at night and finishing by morning! A year later my plant was potted in soil and doing well, but I gave it to a friend as we moved to Virginia. The following year we returned to California and my friend gave me a new cutting from the same plant. Years later, the fabled event finally occurred, and here is the gorgeous single blossom as it appeared at midnight. It was about five inches across and smelled heavenly. By sunrise it had completely wilted. The plant's technical name is Epiphyllum oxypetalum. I wish the photo could convey the blossom's amazing fragrance; you'll just have to imagine.
