Plant Find: Dragonfruit

The Dragonfruit plant (Hylocereus, also called Pitaya) is a climbing cactus which produces tasty horned fruits after it blooms.  The plant is closely related to Epiphyllums, the orchid cacti, and the blooms look nearly identical.  One of my blogging friends recently took a trip to Thailand and got to see dragonfruit growing in an orchard.  These gangly plants are growing in a tangled mess on top of poles in a big field.  It's crazy to see.

After I saw Derek's pictures, I decided I need to try out this plant myself.  I'm not a big cactus guy, but I do like my Stapelias and I'm excited about the possibility of my Epiphyllums blooming for me one day.  So I got on eBay and found an inexpensive cutting of a dragonfruit hybrid, which has red fruits - Hylocereus polyrhizus x. H. undatus.  The cutting was not really rooted, but I was assured that it would be easy to root.  So I stuck it in some potting soil when it arrived in the mail just two weeks ago.

Hylocereus sending up a new growth

I don't know what's going on underneath the soil, but up here it's doing really well, producing new growth!   It must enjoy 100+ temperatures.  Now I just need to decide whether I want it to climb a totem or let it dangle from the pot like most Epiphyllums are grown.  It seems most people grow them climbing up a totem and then let them go crazy Medusa-like once they get to the top.  I'm not sure if there is a reason for that or not.  It might be close to their natural habitat, where they are most often tree-climbers.  I'll have to do some more research.  Interestingly enough (according to wikipedia), the native region for this plant has never been resolved.