I had more blooms open on my epi. This is the sequence of photos:
The morning of it opening later that night:
Later in the day before sunset (you can see the tip of the petals starting to open):
Notice that it is still curving upwards:
10:45 pm that night:
Later at 1:15 am (you can see that it doesn't open any further):
The next morning around 8 am (notice that it is hanging downward now):
A day later (it is shriveling up):
So .... if you have a bud on this particular epi, be aware that it actually opens up very late at night. I missed the first few blooms years ago because I had no idea it bloomed so late at night. Other epis bloom during the night as well and many hybrids bloom during the day! The timing is pretty critical because it only blooms for a few hours before it starts wilting.
