The Mysterious Night Blooming Cereus, Epiphyllum Oxypetalum

I have two plants propagated from cuttings my neighbor gave me. They have bloomed a few times before, but I was never able to see them actually bloomed, just the very attractive large egg shaped buds. The reason being this plant only blooms at night, thus the name "Night Blooming Cereus". For some reason or other, somehow the opportunity to see the buds bloomed to the much touted beauty eluded me ! I believe this is the Epiphyllum Oxypetalum but there are so many of these epiphyllum varieties around, it can be a bit confusing.  

Imagine my positive delight when for the first time I managed to take photos of this beautiful elusive bloom! Now I  understand why once having seen it bloomed, there is this burning desire to see more of these beauties! A camera somehow is not able to capture its full glory nor the haunting sweet fragrance from this special mysterious flower!  So as I read more on this fascinating plant, the more caught I am ! As they say, when hooked on a subject, it just grows on one, ahhhh.... Well, let me share with you some photos that I snapped of this "Queen of the Night" recently ! 

Now the motivation is to take better care of these special plants and  thus  more midnight magical delights to look forward to .... lol! 

Ah yes, one point to take note, although the bloom starts to 'open' around 9 that night, there was no fragrance at all.  I was rather disappointed. As the night progressed and even as the flower was almost full bloom I hardly detect any scent at all. In contrast, my potted gardenia nearby was happy filling the air with its beautiful perfume ! Then  almost giving up,  I  moved near  it for one more time (at almost midnight) ..... bingo .... the elusive beautiful haunting fragrance much touted about fills my nostril ..... wow ! From that point onwards the fragrance  just gets stronger !  Strange plant ! A "Flash in the Pan" as they described this bloom.... so apt.  So it did not last, by morning, the bloom has returned to its egg shaped bud,  a rather dejected wasted looking thing (see the last photo). Ahh the glory when it lasted ! But not all is lost .... according to what I read, some people boiled the flower in soup to drink !  This plant from what I gathered has its medicinal value much untapped.