Flowers for one day only isn't just a Valentine's phenomenon – it affects some plants, too.

Claridge Place resident Donnella Woodiwiss has cactus plants that only bloom for a single day before the flowers wither and die.

Believed to be a night-blooming cereus, she woke last week to find her cacti dotted with gorgeous white flowers.

'They were absolutely amazing. This would be my third lot of flowers,” she says.

Her theory for why they're sprouting comes down to the recent hot weather we've been having.

'Normally I only get one lot a year. But I went out and had a look this morning, and I can see a couple of buds. So I might get two or three more flowers yet.”

The cactus is able to flower more than once a year, but when it does, it's only for one day, starting at night and drooping by midday. By the following evening, the burst of petals is gone.

'When I get up in the morning just on dawn, there's thousands of bees around the flowers, and it's in full bloom. But by lunchtime it's half-closed.”

There's something tragically beautiful about the spectacle, as if it's somehow a metaphor for the brief loves we meet in our lives – alive and full in the night, but by noon the harsh sunlight causes it to wither.

Donnella says many people come to admire the cacti when they do flower, including tourists.

'I had an American say he's never seen anything like it in his life. He took heaps of photos.”