I only keep new shoots comming from the lowest areoles near the soil. If you allow all the leaves comming from the areoles to develop into mature leaves, your plant will soon be a mess with leaves in all directions. The plant will furthermore grow in height, so you will not be able to keep it nice and handy. So I cut all leaves that are comming along the upper areoles away. Further, I bind the leaves to stacks of bamboo to keep the plants slim. All the older leaves, which have been flowering or have produces shoots from all the areoles, will not be able to flower anymore. Therefore I cut them away, also to keep the plant young and fit for the new blooming season. EpiPoul Here is a link that might be useful: http://orchid-cactus.com

You have a very nice Epi. Oxypetalum going. In your area,watch the temp. Give it as much light as soon as it gets cool. If it is outside, bring it inside the minute it gets cool/cold...anything below 40-35 degrees at the very lowest. IF you have it inside already, give it as much light as possible till spring, and put it outside as soon as you can. You will get blooms as soon as you get HOT weather and dont repot it! Put that pot in a hanging basket if you must hang it,but dont pot it into a bigger hanging basket! It loves being root bound, you can make more plants by simply twisting off a side leaf if you like,stick it in some good fast draining soil an inch or so, and it will root in as little as a week or two! Since it will be inside for a long time,till you get warm weather next spring, keep it dry, not wet! You can almost let it go limp and wrinkly looking, THEN water it. If you overwater it, it will rot overnight. Here in south Fla. mine roots if and part of a leaf touches any soil!. I let them go bone dry,and then I flood them and they pop right back. But I have strong sun and heat 90% of the year. You dont. I can almost bet, you will have the HUGE blooms next summer,give it some bloom booster in the spring, a weak solution, and you will be shocked at the amount of flowers. They bloom to the point the leaves will be wrinkled up and you'll think it is dried up and needs water and is dying! It isn't, it exhausts itself blooming. But they come right back. I wish mine all looked that nice. I have some new plants that look like that, and some so old they have nearly no leaves and left on them, the next thing I know,I have new leaves AND I missed a bloom!! It comes out of nowhere and then it is gone! I missed 2 last night! I didnt even see a bud...then I saw the dead flower today. I could shoot myself. But on that plant, you will see them,they come out from the sides like those little leaves, and it goes from a bud to a bloom in as little as a week! IF you see a bud,watch it EVERY night once it starts looking big. Or you might miss it..and you will shoot yourself. The smell is so intoxicating. I am so sad I have missed my blooms this year...on my oldest plant that I thought was dead..but it pops up buds and leaves from old stems and I take the stems off and start new ones. Enjoy it!!! I tend to babble about this plant...sorry:)

Hello! from Merlo, San Luis, Argentina! after moving from the us back to my favorite place, gardenweb! just got my Epi oxi, blooming for the first time in 3 years! and Iôm happy. Question: if I make a new plant from a cutting, how long would it take to bloom? I bought this already large plant and it took 3 years to bloom, maybe not good conditions? https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=221075604745874&set=a.119145588272210.1073741840.100005303071030&type=1&theater the old leaves are a bit damaged because I had it outside under a large tree, but winds & hale did the damage, now in a winter garden! happy 2014 to all these nice bunch of gardeners! This post was edited by paloma_2009 on Wed, Jan 29, 14 at 7:47

I see that this swap is over, but I have yet to find any fellow epiphyllum lovers on this site. So I thought this would be a good place to possible get in contact with someone who wants to trade. I have night blooming cereus, epiphyllum "disocactus akermanii", Easter cactus with red blooms, ad an epiphyllum with unknown color blooms (it's either orange or fuschia) I also have curly spider plant babies, curly lipstick plant, jade, and a couple different aloes.