These stunning flowering plants, called epiphyllums, orchid cacti, or just simply epis, are mostly hybrids from the Disocactus genus, not true Epiphyllum Cactaceae species. Their beautiful blooms are a result of extensive crossbreeding, though they’ve kept the popular Epiphyllum name as they were once included in that genus.

For most of the year they look like simple green succulent leaves or spiny strings. Then, for around six to eight glorious weeks in spring (and sometimes randomly thereafter), they explode with the most beautiful, short-lived and brightly coloured flowers – many with a magenta iridescence my camera cannot reproduce.

They are relatively easy to propagate from cuttings and enjoy dappled, filtered sunlight. Some, like many cactus flowers, bloom only at night and for one night only, filling the air with a sweet, exotic aroma.

Once they’re done flowering, and the pollen-packed bees have done their bit, they produce seed pods of miniature dragon fruits filled with tiny black seeds embedded in a succulent and sweet white-, or magenta-coloured flesh.

Epiphyllum Oxypetalum, often called Queen of the Night or night-blooming Cereus, is the one true Epiphyllum in my collection. It flowers at multiple times during the year but only at night and its huge, fragrant white blooms last only until dawn. The flowers of the coloured hybrids generally last for around three days, allowing the enthusiastic bees some time to pollenate.