Christmas cactus

[Ed_B]

I got a piece of this from my dad, put it on the front porch for the summer. Brought it in before the first frost, and it had two blooms.
Bloomed a tad early for Xmas though.

[maidofshade]

Pretty Ed
I Have never had luck with these. What's the secret of your success??????????????

[Ed_B]

I don't have a clue.

It went from a "morning to noon" sun, outside porch then before frost it went into the house by a sunny window.
We forgot about it until last week when I went to water it. The flower buds were well on the way by then.

Ed

[maidofshade]

Well your "clueless" blooming plant looks great. I have tried these several times years back. In a dark closet for so many hours. etc etc and all I ever got for all the messing around was a stressed out dead plant. Keep up the good work!!!!

[petal*pusher]

I have some huge ones that bloom nicely each year! The "secret" is to make them think the days are short....and the nights are long!

We grow 2,000 poinsettias at school in the greenhouses every year. On the eve of the Fall Equinox, we cover each row of plants with black cloths at the end of the school day (2:30) In the a.m., when the kids come in (9:00)...we uncover them. This procedure goes on for about 4 weeks....which causes the plants to set buds.

My Christmas cacti will do this same thing naturally....I leave them outside in my gardens until just before the first frost....bring them in, and they blossom beautifully!

I had to laugh about the "closet" plants! When I was still in the floral industry...customers would come in with the same sad tale of dead plants. Some thought they had to put their plants in the closet (dark) for the entire time period....never bring them out again for that needed short time of daylight each day!

Gramush....your plant has lovely blossoms!.....p

[toomanyanimals]

Ed, as you can see, I don't make it out of the daylily forum too much ... I'm wandering today ......

Nice Christmas Cacus! You instinctively knew what to do!

I chuckled when you said how you took care of it. I do almost the same thing. I put it out on the east facing front porch. It gets morning light and watered about 2 a week. Then as Petal says, just before the first frost I bring it in.
Mine always seems to bloom around Thanksgiving though. I have heard several other people say they should be called, 'Thanksgiving Cactus'. So I'm not alone in this.

I'm not going to tell you what I did with the Christmas Cactus last winter, you'd laugh! The plant did fine though.
But this year I've had it mostly under fluorescent lights since Christmas with most of my other house plants. The other plants are doing well, by the C. cactus is getting droopy and the leaves are turning a purple color.

I've just moved it to a window hoping it needs natural light.

I do have a question, should these plants get root bound? If not, then I do think I need to move up a pot size.

[kHT]

toomanyanimals, I have many that have been in their pots for years! When they get to root bound I just pop them out of the pots, take the scissors to the roots, then put them back into the pot with fresh dirt! I really think they do better root bound, what does everyone think?

[Ed_B]

My dad never re-potted his, but I do remember him starting new plants when his started to get to big. That's how I got mine.
He seemed to prefer a 5/6 inch pot size, anything that outgrew that was split-up.

He grew his in a west window, watered once a week, hardly ever fertilized, and had blooms galore. Thanksgiving time mostly.

I always thought his plants looked too dry, but he got far better results than me.

Ed

[maidofshade]

I have mine in a south facing window (actually the window of the drafty door in my living room) and would you believe its blooming now Maybe it thinks it's and easter cactus)

[eastwood2007]

I have about 10 Christmas cactus' and they love the west side of the house. All of them are in west windows. I don't do the shorter hours thing, but mine still start blooming late in the fall. I actually have blooms on them most of the year. One very large yellow blooming one blooms all year, but you can only see it from outside as it only blooms on the window side! Beautiful, huge buttery yellow blooms! I have had a few die for unknown reasons....they just shrivel up?

[kHT]

We have ours bloom a couple times a year, especially when we set them outside for the season and then when they all get pushed into the Brug house in the fall. I love the Easter Cactus!!

[notherdigger]

This is our christmas cactus and it too only blooms in the window side but it is nearly too heavy to move around. I inherited it from a former client who sold us our house.

[eastwood2007]

Now that's a big Christmas cactus! Huge!

Welcome aboard, notherdigger! Hope you have a good time here!

[notherdigger]

Thanks eastwood, it is a very interesting and informative site, now if I just had the time to explore everything there is to read but lots to learn here. Have a nice day.