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140 Cacti Flowers
About 2 years ago a neighbor living in the 2nd floor across from where we reside gave us a cactus leaf. It apparently had fallen while she was pruning the plant. My wife took the sapling and planted it after cutting them into 4 pieces. Cactus tends to be autogenic so it is not the most difficult thing to grow. Weekly watering, a month of giving fertilizer and filling up the dirt level as the cactus grew was it all took. The amazing thing was, it was growing so well that if you looked at the original plant, ours is about twice as much grown. The leaf’s colors were bright and are shiny as well. I think soon we might have to change to a bigger pot (three times the original size from the old one).
Last year, about 10 of the cacti flowers had bloomed. But this year starting early February, the flowers buds started to appear about everywhere like a pearl necklace!
It is fun watching the cactus flower growing stronger day by day. It is also curious as well. Around early March this year, I went outside the balcony and saw that besides the bedroom view, there were also other flower buds on the other side as well! Just out of curiosity, I wanted to see how many of these flowers had budded. Some of the bigger grown ones had about 14~15 buds per stem. After counting, there were little over 140 flower buds total! How did a 4 piece leaf turn into strongly growing, blossoming plant?
I was reminded of the parable of the grain of wheat and of the mustard seed. Apostle Paul said, the one who plants and waters is what we do but the growing is done by God. Watching the growing cactus I was reminded to continually grow and raise workers of God. It shows that dedication is a satisfying thing to do.
The blossoms started too budded into flowers and slowly. About a month and half ago, the flowers started to bloom fully from one to another. My wife jokingly said, “If our apartment had a cactus flower competition, we would surely get 1st place.” Truly, as I walk about the 4 buildings of the senior apartments, I could see that our balcony’s flowers are the most vibrant and colorful, and not many other places had as much sharp colors as ours.
What was the difference?
I think it was because I was interested and gave water weekly and took care of it so well.
I also think it is because of enough lighting. The opposite side apartment gets some flower in the morning, but the trees grown in the front blocks some of the light, so the cactus there can’t really grow as much. Also putting too much sunlight can also harm the cactus as well. But strangely, our apartment only gets sunlight from 1PM ~ 5PM in the afternoon.
I give thanks to God for the delicate flowers. Many people pass by and give many compliments about the cactus flowers and ask us for the plant sapling once the flowers fade. Once the flowers are done, I will share the saplings of the cactus so the apartment can be decorated with cactus flowers.
(May 10th, 2017) |
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Wonderous New Records 
140 Cacti Flowers