Night Blooming Cereus

It's been a HOT summer. Worried that one of my precious plant might burn from the sun, I moved it to a shady spot. It's not close to a water faucet, so I have to water the plant from afar - with a hose. One day, I decided to put some plant food in a watering can and carried it over to water the plant. Lo and behold - it had 2 dead blooms on it! I was so sad - I missed the blooms.
My family loves plants. We have all kind of strange plants. Most of them are too exotic for the climate that I live in. I usually put these tropical plants in containers and move them into my sunroom in the winter time. About 3 years ago, I was over at my cousin, she had some kind of cuttings in water. I asked her what it was, she didn't know but said she got it from her mom. Asked me if I wanted it. Of course, it's a plant, I want it. Took it home, plant it. Didn't know what it was (name or anything) or how to care for it. A year later, a friend of mine, a master gardener, was over for lunch - I asked her about the plant. She told me it was called a 'Passalong' plant, because so many people take cuttings from it. She gave me the technical name for it too. I looked it up on the Internet and was so excited to read about the flower. Cool! Flowers the size of a dinner plate.
Three years later, it bloomed and I missed it.
Well, the gods were kind to me. 3 weeks ago, I went outside to visit my Night Blooming Cereus and saw buds! This week, it awarded me with 4 flowers. The fragrance was unbelievable.

I stayed up late to watch it bloomed. My mother told me that my great grandmother use to have a big ol' tree at her house in Hanoi. They would have about 80 blooms on it. It's a rare occasions for farmers to stay up late, but they did for these 80 blooms.
I think the Vietnamese name for this flower is Hoa Thanh Long. There are certain species with fruits - Dragonfruit. I don't think the one I have will fruit. My cactus leaves are flat.
Stay tune... next month... Plumeria blooms!

Oh what a hazy, crazy, lazy days of summer....

Well, my children have been out of school since late May, right before Memorial Day and they will be going back to school in less than 2 weeks. I am so sad. I will miss hearing their laughters while they are laying in their beds in the morning.
We had a wonderful summer this year, not too busy, but busy enough so they won't be bored. I am lucky enough to be a stay-at-home mom. So my children are enjoying the summer going swimming at our neighborhood pool, seeing free movies every week, hanging out with friends, going on vacation and staying up late.
Of course my children does not have the same freedom that I did when I was child. The smell of honeysuckles would mark the beginning of the summer. I can just see it - getting off the school bus and going to the neighborhood convenience store to get candies. Not a 7-11 (seven-eleven) convenience store, but an old store with concrete floor and the wood door that pops right back with you let it go. They sell Sunbeam bread and some basic necessities, but best of all, they sold candies. Not the .89 cents chewing gum that you're paying nowaday, but candies that you can buy with your pennies and nickels.
We would watch Captain Kangaroo while having breakfast and then we would leave the house and roamed the neighborhood all day long. Sometime we would come back from lunch and sometime we would stay out all day long. My favorite thing to do is to play kickball in the street and we would use speed bumps for 1st and 3rd base.
Oh, how I missed those days of summer!