Further cereus development 9-03-2005

Fourteen days ago, I posted some pictures of the many new buds that formed on our cereus plant. The buds continued to appear at a blistering pace; one day, we decided to stop after counting 80 of them. There are fewer now; the mortality rate for buds is pretty high, at least on my plant. The picture below shows the progress made by two of the buds I previously displayed; others on the same leaf failed to continue growing.




Based on my photographic record created from a single bud, the three larger developments are only a few days away from blooming. Still, numerous buds remain, in various stages of development. There are at least 17 incipient blooms shown in the picture below: