Cactus Flower

February 8, 2020 

The night-blooming cereus is one of the few landmarks that hadn't changed. I passed by the rock wall and hedge a couple of times a week for nine years during the Sixties. The cereus is never in bloom during the carnival, but one can't have everything.

June through October is when it puts on its show, with the flowers beginning to open in the late afternoon, and wilting as day breaks.

(stevendn.smugmug.com image)

They truly are splendid - twenty-five or so centimeters of fragrant, creamy white petals with a yellow center....The story is that it was brought to Honolulu by Charles Brewer, the first mate on the Ivanhoe, who had picked it from Mexico en route to Hawaii. He gave a cutting of it to Sybil Bingham, who planted it around the Punahou campus in the 1830's. Today the hedge on the lava rock wall of the campus is over three hundred meters long, and brings many admirers when it blossoms.

I came to see the carnival, but a few minutes alone in the shadows with my memories were the best part of the evening.