Flowers

The night-blooming cactus, cereus, grows in our front yard. I don't see the blooms very often, as it's just way too early for me to get up when they are in bloom! In this case the saying "The early bird gets the worm" is very true! After blooming, they wilt by full sun-up (around 7 a.m. here). The beautiful white 6" blooms occur mainly during the months of June and July. I made myself get up between 5:00 and 6:00 a.m. a few mornings to capture some of these gorgeous blooms with the camera. Even though I groaned and grumbled, it was well worth the effort!!

Cereas bloom backlit by the early morning sun just 

coming up over the horizon. This bloom is starting to 

close already. I didn't get up quite early enough to see

the bloom completely open.  Edited in Pixlr Express.

Another early morning I was able to get a bloom with the sun 

shining on it, creating yellow-looking petals instead of the 

usual white ones. Edited in Pixlr Express.

Cereus bloom with sunlight coming through the 

transparent white petals. The sepals appear 

highlighted with more red than normal due to 

the sunlight. Edited in Pixlr Express.

Cereas bloom closeup. 

One of these days, I'd like to use these photographs (as well as others I've taken or my husband has taken) as a reference to create a painting of these blooms. I'll have to think about what technique would be most effective - watercolor, acrylics, pastels, or some combination of these. I use to paint oils frequently, but the smells bother me now, so I rarely paint in oils anymore, unless I use the water-soluble oils. I've not worked with these, so I don't really know how they compare with regular oils paints.