August 20, 2022

When I left Austin at the end of 1999, one of the things I regretted having to leave behind was my night-blooming cereus, a big gangly cactus (picture a Christmas cactus on acid) that does in fact bloom at night, and produces amazing, and amazingly fragrant, 4-6" long blossoms that last just that night. Blooming was an event, then, and I used to invite friends over to enjoy it with me.  (There is of course a Wikipedia page on them that you can check out if you're interested to know more.)

I met friends for dinner tonight at a Thai restaurant in a nearby neighborhood, and while we were sitting on a bench near the door waiting for a table for six to become available, I noticed that the plant next to the door was a NBC, and that it had recently bloomed (there was a wilted blossom hanging from one of its fronds). That set me to thinking: should I ask them if I could take a segment home to sprout and plant? I mostly put it out of my mind during dinner, but as we were leaving, the thought returned, and as I approached the door, I surveyed the plant and noticed a small segment at the end of one of the higher branches. "Oh eff it," I decided, and snapped it off on my way by. Since the little guy is contraband, I decided a glass for liquor was the right one to sprout it in. I'm not sure if I'll be able to coax it to bloom, but, well, a cactus on acid is welcome in mi casa any day.