gilligan the epiphy hybrider !! Good work.

nope, the dusty orange one is there, i did post it...

well see if they set seed

HN - grin - i needed to see if it worked, i tried setting the fruits with their own flowers, no go... cross poll seems to have worked...

i went back to the weekend market and got this hanging basket score:


"

theres two types, the pink is Disocactus/Nopalxochia phyllanthoides cv. 'German Empress' and the red is Epiphyllum/Disocactus/Nopalxochia ackermannii.


2 flowers open on the E.ackermannii out the front of my house.
looking into it this is interesting. apparently all of the plants with big coloured blooms referred to as 'Epiphyllum' in cultivation are hybrids between these two species (phyllantoides+ackermannii) and other diurnal coloured flowering species of Nopaxochia/Disocactus with members of the real genus Epiphyllum.. which have white noctural often scented flowers, many of which are very rare in cultivation in their pure botanical species form as a result of indiscriminate cross breeding over the decades. (only a few such as E.oxypetalum and anguliger remain common). and apparently all ackermanniis in cultivation are actually hybrids in themselves being confused with a seldom cultivated botanical species of the same name.

Cool - i can put a name to the pink one now, good stuff lewis! That is a wicked score...

Anyone who wants a small rooted cutting or two of the pink one Disocactus/Nopalxochia phyllanthoides cv. 'German Empress', let me know, i've got a few ready to go - can trade for something small (seeds, small pups, what have you...)

Although Epi's are an ugly plant, once they flower they really grow on you. I only have the red variety, and a white one which is a first time bloomer. Also i stolen little piece which ive had for like 4 years and its only grown one branch seeing it is in a tiny pot. I plan on getting a heap of different cuts then putting them in one pot so theyre all diff colours.

One problem though, no matter where i put them, they keep getting burnt and go very limp, where the stems should be sort of plump.

i think the 'ugliness' can be minimised if you keep them well fed and watered over the warmer months with as much shade as possible in our climate. they look much more natural this way (remembering they are 'jungle cacti' that grow epiphytically in the wild). then again plants grown hard in the sun (whilst 'uglier') do flower much more enthusiastically than those lush healthy looking ones grown shaded. so if you want blooms position in them in the sun, keep underpotted, underwatered, under fed etc. and hide the resultant near dead looking, severely burned specimen for 11 months of the year away from sight and bring it out and proudly display it for the -1 month when it is bloom.

the fruit from the pink x dusty orange... WOOT!

OK... well i finally got some ripe fruit... I ate two of them (really nice guava/pineapple taste to it) but have a fair few seeds from the other one. I've also still got 4 fruit ripening on the others...

SO! IF people are interested, i have some to give away... the dusky orange/white is ready, the dusky/pink is still ripening and the pink/white is still ripening...

PM me with your addy, let me know which one what you want and when i see the number of people wanting each, i'll see what i can send out... First in best dressed