The other night, after attending some appropriately jovial birthday festivities with friends, we were beginning to settle in when we received a mysterious knock on our front door. It was our next door neighbor, Larry (AKA “Blue”), and he told us to follow him—we need to see something right away.
Prevailing over our inordinately cautious nature, we followed Blue and, I’m happy to report, we didn’t wind up waking in Mexico minus a couple kidneys.
Instead, we witnessed a once a year nighttime event—the blooming of these epiphyllum oxypetalum flowers.
The epiphyllum oxypetalum—also known as the Dutchman’s Pipe, the Beauty Under the Moon, and the Queen of the Night in various sundry cultures—is a cactus plant with night blooming flowers that only come out one night a year. As it happened, last Friday night was that night for most of the plant’s flowers. And they really are some of the most beautiful, gigantic, uniquely + alluringly fragrant flowers we have ever experienced.
These photos really don’t do the flowers justice, but we wanted to share them nonetheless. Bow down to the Queen of the Night!
