Bill, nice to hear from you again. I hadn't seen you posting or at the swap and was wondering where you were. Yep, I gave away pumilum cuttings. Your's looks great. Mine got accidentally left out during a frost/freeze and died totally back. It's returning and is about half the size it was. Now I'm hoping all this rain won't do it in and that it will bloom this fall. It's a gorgeous plant when it does. I traded for cuttings of all kinds of colors and even bought some as I love them so much, but the rain is turning many to mush.
Lori

I also have some from the Swaps, and can see I have 2 different kinds... I was told it was a 'Night blooming Cereus', but neither has bloomed yet..... I've searched on Google all different sites and they show pics of the flowers but the foliage is not shown, and mine have different foliage on each plant... wish I could put a name on them.... sally

Lori, I have my various orchid cactus growing on a shade cloth covered deck and they are growing like weeds. They don't seem to be bothered by the rain. I have a zigzag cactus I got from someone at your Swap and it is growing well but has never bloomed. It has filled a nice hanging basket. I also got a climbing orchid from that same Swap and it has grown nearly seven feet tall and been in bloom since early June. Here is a photo:

Hi Bill, good to see you posting again. Mine isn't white like that. That must be one from Lori, mine look more like the NBC blooms but they bloomed in the daytime I think, I say that because I don't know if blooms that open at night will last for days in the shade as mine did...so I'm not sure which they are but I did get them at the 2010 swap.

Tom

Bill thats really nice. I didnt get any at that swap. I thought the plants got larger and pictured them less attractive when not blooming but that is lovely. :( now I need one. Glad to hear the banana is doing well, I think you got an ice cream which takes 2 years to fruit.

Lori do they come in pink? Do you have any to trade or do you know where I can buy one?

Hi Robin, I think you and Bill are in the same geographic area so you may be able to hook up with him. If not, and even though mine is a NOID, I can send you some leaves off of it if you'd like, the blooms do look more like Bill's NBC above though.

Tom

Keiki - I'll be glad to give you some leaves if you want. We can meet up somewhere between or I can mail them to you.

Tom - Great to hear from you. We just got back from spending two months in Europe on a house exchange vacation, our first. We stayed in Northern France in a small village and traveled around. Saw some fantastic gardens and all of the villages have beautiful plantings especially window boxes, even on public buildings. I plan to post some photos as I get into sorting the over 2000 photos we took. I got some seeds to a great tomato called Beef Heart that I hope will grow here; the flavor is like I ate as a kid. I am going to be up in your area on Sept 7 and would like to get some leaves of different epis you have if we could meet up. I can give you some of what I have if you want.

Robin-yes, epies come in all colors and sizes (up to dinner plate size). Most of the manmade hybrids bloom in the day, while the true species bloom at night.

I acquired half of mine via GW swaps from the plant trade forum. The rest I bought as either cuttings or plants from Smoleys Gardenworld or Amazon. Be wary of Smoleys...80% of the plants I got from him have been mislabeled.

There are some epie online stores.. Pat's Epies and Matt's Landscaping seem to have huge collections, but for the most part, they only sell cuttings. I've not done buisiness with them. There's a seller on Amazon now who sells rooted plants for $15, I've bought two of these, one now in bloom, but their selection is limited.

Every time a leaf falls off one of my plants, I pot it up for the swap. Problem is, because all my plants are so close to each other, if I find a leaf on the ground, I have no clue which plant it came from. Also, on the way home from that shopping trip at Smoleys, a lot of broken off leaves remained in the back seat. I potted them up, again, not knowing what plant they came from. I'm pretty sure that's were Tom's came from.

I do have pink and can share but would like to wait a month or two ...half are setting buds and I don't want to cut them before they bloom, and the other half are dying from too much rain. I moved them all out to the back of the house the other day in an attempt to save them. The north side of the house where I had all the tropicals isn't getting enough sun to dry out, it's a swamp back there.

Lori

Bill - sounds like you had a good time, as I approach retirement you must tell me more about the house exchange program you're using. My sister is in Friendship International and loves it but I don't think that's a house swap as much as a hosting program.

Lori, I really though these epis came from someone else, funny that I thought it might be Robin but from her inquiry obviously not. Here's a few pictures I snapped last week when I was going to post, but instead I posted pictures from a few months back. These are still in the original clay pots I started them in over a year ago.

Tom

Bill I believe you got that orchid from me as well. It is a vanda an will bloom about a foot after the top of the structure it is holding onto. I have two, vanda teres and vanda ms joaquin. You can look it up online or show me a picture of the leaves and I can help you id it. How woderful of you to offer, I would love a cutting or two. I live in Cape Coral but work off Daniels close to the airport. How far away is that from you?

Lori again I am sorry to hear about your plant loses. Just let me know when your ready and we can trade or whatever.

Keiki, I am about twenty minutes from the airport; just off 82. We are retired and would love to have you come by for lunch one day. Let's set something up.

Tom the way your epi climbs and doesn't look so uniform is more the way I pictured their growth. Is it the same plant as Bills?

Bill do you trim yours? I would love to get together and see your garden. Lets talk, my email is ladygardener at embarqmail dot com

Hi R, I don't think so. As I stated, I thought maybe it was you who had brought these leaves to Lori's swap last year but I'm sure it wasn't Bill or his wife...whoever it was hasn't chimed in yet. I don't know the first thing about epis, lots to learn here so is it possible mine are spindly because they are in such a small pot? They were nice and bushy when small and I have not fed them at all.

Tom