Selenicereus (Epiphyllum) chrysocardium

[Ali Baba]

I was pleasantly amazed to see some young plants of this wonderful species in my local garden centre.
Has anyone experience of growing it, particularly in reference to minimum winter temperatures?
It would be quite nice to know before I shell out £25…

[chris68]

I also think this is a cracking plant to grow. I currently have a cutting I am rooting but have never grown this sp. before, however, it seems that a 'general' epiphytic compost mix and min. winter temp. of 12 deg. C seems to suffice ( that's what I am aiming for anyway!). As regard watering I am planning on my usual regime for epiphyllum of watering weekly in spring/summer and monthly in winter just to keep the roots going. As I said, no experience of this plant but am hopefull!!

[Ali Baba]

Thanks Chris, I found a Hungarian article about it which suggests a winter minimum of 10C is possible but 13C is better. It’s a huge growing plant but the flowers are indeed cracking! I think it’s otherwise typical in requiring an open acidic compost with plenty of water in growth and less when cool. Probably needs regular feeding to support the large stems. If you want a copy of the article send me a PM, ( it’s in Hungarian but Google translate seems to work reasonably well) Let us know how you get on!

[chris68]

I'll send you a PM - thanks.

Out of interest whats your preferred mix for epiphyllum? I'm currently using a mix of multipurpose compost, propagation bark and vermiculite - seems ok but looking for improvements.

[Ali Baba]

I tend to use a mixture of peat or ericaceous compost, perlite and orchid bark, probably about 4:1:2 ratio. Smaller epiphytes get peat (I'm eking out a large bale I bought about 10 years ago...) whereas I tend to use ericaceous compost for the larger growers. I feed with an orchid fertilizer so they get plenty of nutrients. Its a mix that needs frequent watering but that's not an issue for me as I grow orchids also so the humidity is quite high compared to the average cactus greenhouse!

[MatDz]

ericaceous compost

What's your favourite brand at the moment?

[Ali Baba]

ericaceous compost

What's your favourite brand at the moment?

I’m using Levington peat free, which looks pretty rubbish, but the plants seem to grow in it ok. I’ve used miracle-gro previously but had trouble getting it this year

[StevenT]

At the recent Cactus Explorers meeting at Leicester, Nigel Taylor gave a talk about growing cacti at his home in Brazil. He showed pics of his chrysocardium with a flower and said he believed that this species produces flowers from stems that hang down as the hormonal balance in them is different to erect stems.

My plant has winter minimum temp of about 7C with no ill effects.

[Andyh]

Mine grew very well for 2 seasons from a small cutting. I bought it inside after the cold snap killed many nearby greenhouse aloes..and the thin leaved epiphyllums and this looked very poorly. Would of dropped at least to 0 in the greenhouse it was in. In doors I ignored it and new growth became prone to rsm and meally bug. Pruned it and been outside all summer and perked. Next winter ill put it in heated section of greenhouse (8 degrees min).

[Ali Baba]

Thanks Steven, Andy, that’s very useful. Real world temperature tests are always better than the internet !