What Happened To My Flower ?!?!? :(

[harrycroft23]

Hi,

You may have seen my other post about my cactus, thanks if you replied and helped with that. But now there's a new problem........

Anyway, I re-potted my cactus and have been letting it get all the sun possible. I have been waiting a few days for my cactus to flower and was looking forward to seeing it.
Last night at 3am, I went downstairs to get a drink and saw that my cactus had opened up and the flower looked AMAZING. I was so happy and it exceeded my expectations.
( BTW the cactus is put on the windowsill downstairs overnight as it may get too cold and wet overnight)

I was super happy with it and took a few photos upstairs. I then left it in my room until the morning ( Which was only a few hours as it was already 3am! )
When I woke up I found the flower to still be fine. Maybe a little less open. I thought nothing of it and put it back outside all day in the sun. I have been checking the cactus regulary throughout the day and have witnessed it gradually getting worse. Right now it looks terrible.
I am so upset as I thought it bloomed beautifully, but I feel that all my excitement and time was wasted.


I will post three photos. Two from 3am last night, and one from today at 7:30pm.

Looking forward to your replies. Any info is appreciated. ! Thanks

[teo]

These big white Echinopsis flowers are mainly night-blooming: they will often open in the evening and then start to wilt the next day in the sun.

[harrycroft23]

These big white Echinopsis flowers are mainly night-blooming: they will often open in the evening and then start to wilt the next day in the sun.

So will it repeat the process? Or is that it now? Does it just die?

[majcka]

These big white Echinopsis flowers are mainly night-blooming: they will often open in the evening and then start to wilt the next day in the sun.

So will it repeat the process? Or is that it now? Does it just die?

You can wait for another two comming soon as I can see. This one is gone.

[greenknight]

Yep, the flowers don't last long. I found I could extend the life of the flowers on the one in my avatar picture by bringing it inside when about to bloom and keeping it indoors as long as the flower lasted, they'd last in good condition for a couple days then gradually fade. Outdoors they last one day.

I did that the first couple years it bloomed, when it produced only one or two flowers a year. It has a lot more flowers now (it's 25+ years old).

[tomo]

The flower is gorgeous, 3PO looks very impressed.