Cambridge University Botanic Gardens Moonflower.

 Only heard about this when leafing through the Mail on Monday, but it seems that Cambridge University Botanic Gardens have quite a coup on their hands, managing to flower a rare species of Selenicereus.

For those with short memories, they are the people who managed to flower a mystery Agave back in 2018 or so and with this, it looks like they've managed to capture lightning in the bottle again with this epic Queen Of The Night bloom.

My own Selenicereus, the much more hardy, Selenicereus Spinulosus, flowered for me back in 1998, the same year my Nan passed on. Opened about 7pm for me, and was fully out by 10pm. I didn't have a picture then, pre digital, but can equate with Cambridge's epic achievement. 

For those who want to read a good account of their achievement, then its best to go to the source. The Mail is too short for much and I resent giving the Grauniad any sort of income. Besides its well written and explains a lot.

Selenicereus or Strophocactus Wittii* is one of those climbing cacti from the tropics, that require a shed load of room and quite a bit of winter heat. Can remember a painting in Garden Magazine (by Margaret Mee**) way back in a plants of the Amazon article.  

They are all night flowering species and are either bat or hawkmoth pollinated. The flowers will last for one night and are often dead by morning. All night flowerers seem to have a strong vanilla scent about them. I don't remember what my smelt of, but can vouch from similar night bloomers that its a common scent.

There is an absolutely massive livestream alluded to in the press release that is now unavailable but there is a much more accessible time lapse of the flowering, here for anyone who wants to have a look.

* There is some confusion whether this is still a Strophocactus or is now part of Selenicereus proper. Recent genetics reckon that Strophocactus is still valid but not monophyletic.

** Did a search for the picture itself and found there was a short film describing it, instead.

Terry Smale RIP

Sad to hear that Terry Smale passed away.

For those that didn't know who he was, he was a master grower of Conophytums and other mesembs. 

He came to talk to us about his plants, down at Bromley a few times, the last being a few years ago pre Sars 2 electric boogaloo, and was always a pleasure to have him talk. he always reminded me of an English Dave Allen, the old Irish Comedian, so its a big shock to hear he had passed on.

Diamond and dangers thereof

 Have another book for you to read. It is the last ever entry in the mainline Hardy Boys book series, published in the UK. 

Its hardly going out with a bang, either. As its a pretty lame tale about the boys uncovering sabotage at a baseball camp ran by some ex players.  The only notable thing about this, is turning Tony Prito into a joke playing prankster, where that should have gone to Chet Morton.

Apart from that, like I say, it's a dismal way to go out. Not even making it to 88, which means you don't get Tricky Business as the final book. 

You can download and read it here.

It's a round up again.

 The promised snow has come, I'm currently looking out onto a whitish landscape with only the paths clear at present. It's going to be cold until about Thursday, where it will be back to being warmish.

PSYCLE update.

I know this will precisely bother no one in particular but there is a new version of Psycle out. For those wondering, its a modular sound-tracker program you can think of it as the son of Renoise and Buzz. Although not as popular. 

At present, its a small upgrade and there is a concerted effort, if you look at the code on sourceforge, to port this to C and give it a sort of update. You'll need to compile it yourself at present and relies on some present Psycle libraries installed, so perhaps not ready yet, but if it gets more user friendlier, its one to watch.

Danger on the Diamond.

Currently working through this. It's notable for being the last ever UK mainline series Hardy boys book. It sees the lads thrown into a case when they sign up for a baseball course during summer holidays. 

This is one of those books we could have done without, baseball still isn't popular here in the UK, and it's more common to link it with a balaclava than pitcher's mitt. We got a few of the later casefiles series much later (have a couple of those) but for all intents and purposes this is the end of the line. Didn't even make it to 88. 

The only other thing notable is that it casts Tony Prito, son and heir to his dad's construction company and straight up solid guy, into a prankster, a slot usually taken by Chet Morton.

We're going great guns with this and will be done by next Sunday's post, so prepare.