Last Cactus Flowers

These will be, sadly, the last cactus flowers I will see bloom until next April.

These bloom at the very top of a tall, thin columnar cactus. It's about 18" tall and about 5" in circumference. When I planted it four years ago, it was three inches tall. Now it has three babies of its own growing next to it.

I didn't think it was going to bloom at all. I thought that perhaps the extreme heat of June had dried out the bud nodules. But yesterday, after a nice rain, the buds appeared ready to pop and this morning these beautiful flowers appeared.

My last bit of color but it was worth the wait.