The 'Madonna" cactus, so named by us because at a certain stage of its growth it looked like a praying Madonna, bloomed last night.

Seeing the huge complex blooms at night is pure magic. This photo was taken by flashlight ...

This morning ...

In context to show the size of the bloom ...

On another subject I am in love with the shoestring acacia. I've been removing the flowers so more energy would be directed to the growth, but these alluded me ...

I noticed what seemed to be two types of of shoestring acacia. The one with a Monrovia tag had more sparse narrow leaves. I chose this one with larger leaves. It may be borderline hardy here, but I am encouraged to see on blogs that it has survived and grown to large sizes in Austin.

Is anyone else in San Antonio growing it?

Here is a link that might be useful: Scroll down a bit on Central Texas Gardener to see photos of Shoestring acacia (Acacia stenophylla) ....