Wookieboy,

Queen of the Night (Peniocereus greggii) is native to the Southwestern US and Mexico and has stems that are less than one inch thick and typically two or three feet long. The large white flowers (8" x 3") bloom on summer nights and are heavily perfumed.

Cactus such as these are easily propagated from cuttings, so there is no need to dig up the roots. Make a clean cut with a sharp knife, be sure to wear gloves. Using tongs makes handling the pieces easier. Let the wound air dry by standing the cutting up in a paper or plastic cup for two weeks. Then the piece can be placed in a rooting mix and watered periodically until new roots begin to form. Transfer to a container with potting soil or plant directly in the soil.

Here is a good reference for cactus propagation.

Good luck.

Here is a link that might be useful: Propagating Cacti & Succulents

Cool plant - just bought one myself at the Tohono Chul greenhouse down in Tucson.... wasn't cheap, but had to have it. Just an FYI, the cheif plant guy down there told me that it could take up to 4 years for it to bloom - the larger the specimen, the better.

Good luck, hope it doesn't take 4 years!

Hello, I've used cuttings from a Peniocereus greggii that are growing fine. Do what the previous poster said and let the cuttings dry out for a couple weeks first. I have found about 7 full grown Peniocereus greggii on my property and they are beautiful (at least to me)plants. At first I thought they were some sort of freak cacti that got mixed up with a bush. Now I have a question. Will my cuttings grow the large turnup type fruits on the bottom as they grow? I don't eat the fruit because its not worth me destroying the Peniocereus greggii. Just wanted to know if the large root only grows from seed. Thanks! Stormy

The tuber of the Gregii never gets very big, and I don't know if it's edible since I am not willing to sacrifice the excitement of the flowers. But I have not heard of the native Americans in this area (Tucson) using it, and I know they use most of what grows here. I dug one up to exchange for a S. American Cereus, and it had no problem wiht the transplant. Mine grow in the sand/clay mixture we have here. Just bought a young plant today to replace the one I traded, but it'll be a few years until it blooms. My "adult" plant should bloom this June and it has 4 branches on it this year.

my mother's next door neighbor has a huge one, the birds get the fruit and they pop up all over the place.

The fruit is very mild, the flesh resembles dragon fruit, the seeds are like poppy seeds, light and crunchy.

Our landscape supervisor installed what he told me was Peniocereus Greggii but it's not a thin spindly thing among bushes. It's a thick cactus, each stem is about 3' in diameter without big thorns. But it flowers and fruits. No big tuberous root.

The javalinas bit off (and ate) pieces of it, so I have put some of the broken off pieces in a pot, hoping it will root. Anyone have good advice on how to root from stems?

Here is a link that might be useful:

Peniocereus gregii grown from cutting will take quite some time to develop a caudex/tuber. I have heard it said that growing from seed will result in a bigger caudex sooner, shorter time to first flowing and an overall more robust plant. Cacti often contain alkaloids that may result in you "tripping balls." Don't know about this group, but I wouldn't eat the caudex.

-Ming