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Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Selenicereus testudo

Selenicereus testudo is a good plant for hanging basket. It grows quickly, reaching the flowering size in 3-4 years from seed. The plant need to have stems of about 2-3ft/0.6-1m long to be ready to flower. It is hard to call Selenicerei pretty plants, but they special flowers making up for it.
The flowers of Selenicereus testudo are of 'true' Selenicereus shape, though smaller than infamous blooms S. pterantus or S. grandiflorus. The main central 'cup' of the flower is less than 4 inches/10sm across.Also they are much easier produced, and usually in large numbers. Flowers open couple hours after sunset, in full darkness, and stay open for 2-3 hours in the morning, still allowing to photograph them in natural light.
Selenicerei are generally easy in culture, and often used as a grafting stick for other more'difficult' plants. The only special requirement for these tropical plants is to keep the winter temperatures high, never below 10C/50F, and better not below 15C/60F. Plants will not die if temperature stays above freezing, but they suffer from fungal infections if kept too cold. Also they should not be exposed to direct sunlight for extended part of the day, and will grow gust fine at bright location with no direct sun at all.

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