Finally it blooms!

Cactus Bloom

So, let me tell you a little bit about this plant.  It has a history.  Not really a sordid history, but a long one anyway.

I am not sure where to begin, since I don't really know how the beginning actually starts....  

Sometime, about 1940,  in the Dinsmore Saskatchewan Hotel .. see here  the anscestor (if plants have anscestors) of this plant sat minding her own business in the lobby. Probably, even in the window.   My great Grandma Shaw was waiting in the lobby while her husband was in the beer parlour.  Women were not allowed in the pub in those days! 

I can imagine Great Grandpa Shaw was just getting caught up on the news,  and Great Grandma and her friends were knitting and getting caught up on the news as well - in the lobby!   They homesteaded a farm about  20 miles south west of Dinsmore and to know the  news at that time, you had to go out and  find it, or talk to someone  who had heard the news.  

Anyway, back to the lobby. Great Grandma Shaw snitched a piece of the the cactus (maybe it was given to her,I don't know,  but snitched sounds like more fun) and took it home and planted it.   She must have been wonderful with plants because it lived, and lived well!   I never met her,  however,  I do have a little slip of her plant, and today, for the first time ever,  it bloomed. (on my birthday!)

Several years ago,  maybe  10 years ...  my Dad gave me this slip, in a little pot.  He got three of them from his Aunt Rose, who has a HUGE,  HUGE cactus in her living room.  I think it is about 3 feet across!  Rose's cactus is either the original or a slip off the original plant that my great grandmother had.    My mom and sister have the other two of the three, and theirs have been blooming like crazy for years.  

I wonder how many people have slips from that Dinsmore Hotel Cactus?  In our family alone there will be an incredible amount!  Something to think about.

In the meantime,  I am going to just be pleased that its beautiful pink bloom finally arrived.

An invitation to my family to add to or correct my account of the Cactus Story.  :)

Blessings,

Feather

Edited to add:  A huge thank you to my dad for providing the pictures and info that follows.  

Eleanor Roslind Coxon Shaw 

Birth 23 Jun 1875 in Elma, Ontario, Canada

Death 23 Sep 1953 in Wiseton, Saskatchewan, Canada

Eleanor Shaw, David Shaw(my grandfather), and Jay Gould Shaw(my great grandfather)  circa  1928 Saskatchewan

Jay Shaw, Mabel Shaw (my grandmother) Ken Shaw on her knee (my uncle) Arnold Shaw (my father) David Shaw, Eleanor Shaw  1943 Saskatchewan

Jay and Eleanor Shaw   circa 1948
Saskatchewan