Magical night-blooming cereus time-lapse 2024

Almost every year, I seek to capture the enchanting unfolding of night-blooming cereus flowers. Each giant blossom of these cactus vines blooms for just one night. The blooming season lasts a few weeks in the spring, though it seemed a bit longer this year – in fact, I just saw a bloom a couple of nights ago (in July!).

June 1 was a big night for the blossoms, so I set up a time-lapse with my GoPro to capture the blooming of three of these flowers. For the past couple of years, I’ve coaxed these vines to take hold on our oak tree after seeing an incredible picture of a tree in Orlando just dripping with the flowers. That’s a while off for our tree, but even a few of these blooms are gorgeous.

In the video, in addition to the time-lapse video, I show you some of the flowers growing on a palm tree in our yard, as well as a palm trunk in the neighborhood that is simply covered with blooms. Enjoy the magic!