Temporary Diversion

I thought I would share with you my mother's beautiful epiphyllums. This one is likely to be a cutting off the same plant as this, which would mean this is an Epiphyllum cooperi.
Just for Epiforums, I thought I'd put another photo of the entire plant. It's amazing that one small cactus can produce a flower quite so large, and for such a small amount of time. Seems like such a waste of energy, but a pretty one at that.
I know some of you really wonder whether the beer fertilizer works. Well, take a look at this. This orchid usually flowers for me in the dead of winter with one spike bearing maybe three flowers. Well, after feeding with very very weak beer fertilizer, I have TWO spikes, with at least five flowers on each. I'm enchanted.

Flowers In The Attic

My current bedroom is now at the top of my folk's house, in the attic. The attic's insulation is so bad that I can hear the pigeons scuffling outside on the roof. This means it's baking hot in the summer and freezing in the winter. However, my plants are loving the warmth, and the ones that have been sulking for a while (heuschkeliana, pentaphlebia to name the worst) are showing growth for the first time in a while. My publicalyx, right. is being extraordinarily generous, just as one umbel of flowers falls off its one peduncle, another one replaces it and lasts for another two weeks. The carnosa, middle, has roared through its 8 plus umbels which have lasted me over a month or two and, as the last ones fade gently, is promising more. The australis, right, supposedly not a summer bloomer, is also joining in the show. It smells lovely.