The queen of the night flower is one of the most beautiful and sought-after blossoms out there. No matter how skilled they are, every home gardener wants to plant this beauty in their garden because of its beauty and lasting fragrance.
Some people love to pluck these flowers and keep them on their nightstand to create a fragrant, surreal vibe in their room. In some cases, these flowers help people sleep better.
Queen of the Night Flower – What Sets It Apart?
The fragrance of the queen of the night flower is what sets them apart. Even though numerous flowers are known for their fragrance, this flower has a rare, distinctive scent. What makes them different from all the other flowers is that they are a species of cactus.
Another thing that sets them apart from other flowers is the rarity of how they bloom. As the name suggests, this flower blooms only at night, producing a delightful smell that indicates its growth. Because it is a succulent plant, it requires aid from fellow plants to grow.
Queen of the Night Flower – A Care Guide
The following are some tips that will help you grow queen of the night flower:
1. Place It in Nature
If you want to grow this plant indoors, you might have to give up on the thought. This is because this plant flourishes in nature. Being a part of a cactus family, the plant requires open air where it can grow freely. Therefore, the wise thing to do is plant them outside your house and give them the required help for healthy growth.
2. Place It in Shade
Whenever you decide to grow queen of the night flower in your home garden, make sure to place it in a shady place, where you can hide it from sunlight. Direct exposure to sunlight can be harmful to the plant.
Because this plant does have leaves, you need to take care of its foliage consisting of stems. Ensure that wherever you have placed the plant has some exposure to sunlight. Cold weather does not agree with this plant.
3. Prepare Well-Drained Soil
Whenever you plan on planting queen of the night flower in your home garden, you need to prepare your soil beforehand; otherwise, the plant will not flourish as well as you would have hoped for.
To get the desired growth, make sure to choose the right soil type – pine bark, peat moss, and sandy soil. You can also prepare well-drained soil on your own by mixing perlite and orchid bark with a sour mix. This combination works best for the queen of the night flower.
4. Look Out for Long Shoots
Queen of the night flowers flourishes in an open space. As the plant grows over time, it produces long shoots that grow to be quite dense. When you plant them in a forest, the thick shoots penetrate the wild and grab on the fellow trees for support.
These shoots grab onto the other plants tightly, not letting them go. This is how the plant moves along, making a trail as it moves forward.
While this phenomenon works in the wild, when you plant queen of the night flower in the home garden, you need to be careful of the long shoots. Make space for the plant to penetrate at its own pace while looking out for the dense nodes simultaneously.
Place it in close quarters or a tight planter so that the place has limited space to produce its shoots.
5. Use Banana Peels
Even though excellent fertilizers are available in the market, you can make your own fertilizer using banana peels to help speed up the process. Queen of the night flower blooms when you give the required amount of fertilizer mixed with banana peels.
This particular addition to the fertilizer can result in exotic blooms that you cannot produce otherwise. Use the dried form of banana peels to get the desired results. You can dry them by using a dehydrator.
6. Look Out for the Blooming
As mentioned in the previous section of this article, the queen of the night flower only blooms at night. If you want to see their glory, you need to look out for the blooming part of the plant. As soon as dusk arrives, the flowers start blooming and continue to do so till the crack of dawn.
This is the ideal time to keep a check on the blossoming flowers and experience their glorious episode of bloom.
7. Patience is the Key!
Queen of the night flower is breathtaking. Shaped like a cactus, it produces such a pleasant smell that you would want more and more of it. However, if you plan on growing them on your own, you need to be patient with their growth. These flowers take time to bloom, which requires a lot of patience on your part.
The most crucial factor that plays a pivotal role in the bloom is exposure to light. The ideal location where the plant blooms the best is in a room with indirect exposure to sunlight. While you can provide the required light, you can also give it the required shade.
Another factor that plays an important role is the proper dose of fertilizer. Give your plant the required fertilizer somewhere between October and January for rapid growth. Make sure the fertilizer you choose has all the nutrients that help boost the process.
Final Word
Queen of the night flower is famous for its glorious smell. You can experience the full blossom of this plant at night when it is at its personal best. While long shoots of the plant penetrates rapidly, you should try to get a tight planter to control their growth.
Looking to improve your gardening range? Check out this article on how to grow mushrooms using a Mushroom Grow Kit.
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