In the Yard for July 6, 2012

Night blooms

Photo provided by ANNE DAIGLEA fragrant cereus put on this display of flowers for gardener Anne Daigle one July night a few years ago.

You meet the nicest people when you walk outside to call, “Night blooming cereus! See how they run, now.”

After we ran a photo of a night blooming cereus last month, we heard from other members of the tribe of night bloomers, the growers, that is, including Anne Daigle, who sent us a photo of a fragrant cereus.

“This is another variety which opens a bit later at night and closes after about three hours of perfuming the night with the most wonderful fragrance,” Daigle wrote.

“I think this was the event (the blooming of this flower) for which people had parties in the New Orleans of my childhood. They braved the mosquitoes to see and smell a flower!”

That sounds about right for the New Orleanians I know, many of them gracing our nights, gardens and dinner tables since Hurricane Katrina.

Ed Cullen

Advocate staff writer